Soil management, rising input costs, water scarcity still challenge the ag industry
Today, on National Ag Day, we celebrate our farmers, ag workers, and the essential role agriculture plays in maintaining a strong economy.
The theme of National Ag Week, “Food Brings Everyone to the Table,” is a fitting one, as it has been a full year since the COVID-19 pandemic completely changed our nation’s food-supply system and how we all interact with one another.
And as we pick ourselves up from a forgettable 2020, it is time to start thinking about the long-term health of our industry again.
For those of us in agriculture, we understand sustainable farming never takes a back seat … even during a pandemic.
We are also not blind to the fact that most everyone was affected by cutbacks last year, whether market driven or just due to being budget conscious during these uncertain times.
We have all heard stories about operations having to make the hard decisions to cast aside precision ag tools or crop-required inputs in favor of safety supplies or other COVID-19-related issues. Labor became even tougher to come by in 2020, and regulations made day-to-day operations even more challenging for our farmers.
But California agriculture kept pushing ahead – despite losses estimated between $5.9 and $8.6 billion, according to the California Farm Bureau Federation.
Yes, it is true that “Food Brings Everyone to the Table,” but if we don’t get back to focusing on the other long-term challenges our industry is faced with, putting that food on the table is going to be tougher than ever.
While ag resource issues have not made many headlines over the past year, land degradation, poor soil management, rising input costs, water scarcity and other drought-related issues continue to plague our industry.
If we have proven anything over this past year, it’s that our industry is a resilient one, and we never turn our back to our biggest challenges.
By 2050, our agriculture systems will need to support another 2 billion people, yet, the Soil Heath Institute estimates our agricultural soils have lost about half their organic matter, with the environmental costs estimated to be as high as $85 billion every year.
But what is often overlooked in articles covering the environmental impact of poor soil management is the cost to our farmers. According to a report by the University of Colorado, “one-third of the fertilizer applied to grow corn in the U.S. each year simply compensates for the ongoing loss of soil fertility, leading to more than a half-billion dollars in extra costs to U.S. farmers every year.”
Agriculture is constantly under the spotlight when it comes to soil and water management, but we can combat these storylines and rising input costs with improved soil and water management techniques.
It’s a lot of work to feed our growing planet, pandemic or not. But if we have proven anything over this past year, it’s that our industry is a resilient one, and we never turn our back to our biggest challenges.
Thanks to everyone in the ag industry for their contributions over the past year. Food brings everyone to the table, and no one in the agriculture industry takes that work for granted.
Brian Maxted is CEO of Holloway Agriculture, a provider of soil-first solutions and services out of Bakersfield, Calif. Learn more at hollowayag.com.
