Looking Back at Farming Over the Past 10 Years

Chris Torres
Staff Writer

Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series that takes a broad look at major farming trends and events over the past decade.

EPHRATA, Pa. — From Farm Bills to disease outbreaks; from an escalating debate on how food should be produced to roller coaster milk prices and record high corn production, farmers have been witness to quite a decade.

A lot has transpired throughout the last 10 years and trying to summarize it is difficult. So we have tried to boil it down to some of the most important trends Lancaster Farming has reported on over the decade.

Where Ag Stands
According to the 2007 USDA Census of Agriculture, which was just recently updated in December, there are 2.2 million farms in the U.S., up from the previous census done in 2002.

The average farm size is 418 acres, according to the survey, compared to 441 acres in the 2002 census.

Farms are getting both bigger and smaller, with the biggest increase in numbers of farms comprising those with sales of less than $2,500 and sales of more than $500,000.

Farmers are getting older. The average age of a farmer is now 57, compared to 55 in 2002.

There are also many different faces in the farming community. The number of Asian, black, and Hispanic farmers is on the rise.

The 2003-2004 National FFA President, Javier Moreno, came from Puerto Rico, a tribute to increased diversity.

Ann Veneman of California was nominated as the first and only female USDA secretary of agriculture in 2000. She was sworn into office in January 2001.

There are now more women than ever in charge of their own farms. The number of women farm operators went up 19 percent from the 2002 survey.

The market value of agricultural products sold increased 48 percent compared to the 2002 survey.

Crops have come into use as a vital source for alternative fuels. Corn and soybeans for ethanol and biodiesel, respectively, have been leading the charge, though they have bumped into significant challenges within the past couple of years. Fuels made from cellulosic sources (biomass) are being touted as the renewable fuels of the future.

But make no mistake, farming is not without its challenges.

While total net cash income increased 84 percent and the average net farm income per farm increased 78 percent, input costs have also gone way up.

The price to fuel tractors and other farm implements (93 percent increase), apply fertilizer (86 percent increase), seed crops (over 50 percent increase), and feed animals (over 50 percent increase) has skyrocketed. Farm labor (20 percent increase) is not cheap either.

More farmers, according to the ag census, reported a net income loss rather than a net income gain and that gap increased compared to the 2002 survey.

The number of dairy farmers in the U.S. continues to decline — 91,989 in 2002 to 69,890 in 2007. Most of the decline came from smaller operations, with the only gains coming from farms having 500 or more head.

The latest drop in milk prices, upwards of 50 percent in 2009, has led to investigations prompted by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I). Pennsylvania Sens. Arlen Specter (D) and Bob Casey (D) have presented legislation that would overhaul the way milk is priced.

But progress has been slow on legislation, with Specter stating recently the only way reform would pass would be through the next Farm Bill in 2012.

It’s not just dairy. Beef, hog, and poultry farmers have also seen their share of challenges.

Talking Food
While the economics of farming have become more challenging, farmers, and for that matter, the food system, were increasingly under a microscope the last decade.

The last 10 years saw a surge in the way people think about how their food is produced and where it comes from.

Many voices not typically heard in the ag community shared their thoughts on the issue. Michael Pollan, author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “In Defense of Food,” took time to talk with Lancaster Farming in 2008 to share his ideas about the state of the nation’s food system and the way farming impacts it. It generated a lot of reaction from our readers.

Demand for “locally grown” food led to programs such as “Pennsylvania Preferred,” designed to promote Pennsylvania-grown products.

The issues of raw milk and hormone use in milk led to protests, packed committee meetings, and a milk labeling compromise in Pennsylvania.

Correlating with the surging interest in locally grown foods, the number of farmers markets, according to the USDA’s National Farmers Market Survey, increased 13 percent to 5,274 from 2008 to 2009. There were only 1,755 farmer’s markets in 1994.

There was also an increased interest in organic farming and food production.

Technology
The new millennium has not left farmers behind. The use of new technologies on the farm has been dramatic as agriculture tries to figure out how to produce more food on less acreage and be more efficient.

Some dairy farmers have begun using robots as a labor saving measure to milk their cows.

Crop farmers are increasingly relying on global positioning system (GPS) technology to more accurately plant crops and apply fertilizer and chemicals.

The increased use of genetically modified (GMO) crops in the last decade has been pronounced. Between 2000 and 2009, the use of GMO corn, for example, has increased from 25 percent to 85 percent of the country’s total corn crop.

About 91 percent of the country’s soybeans are genetically modified, compared to 2000 when roughly half of the soybeans planted were genetically modified.

The use of these crops has led to record corn and soybean crops and yields.

The 2009/2010 corn crop, according to the USDA, saw a record harvest of 13.1 billion bushels and a record average yield of 165.2 bushels per acre.

But it’s all come with a backlash.

Monsanto, the company that developed most of the genetic traits seen in corn and soybeans, has come under fire.

Neil Harl, an ag economist who was interviewed for a December Associated Press article on Monsanto’s role in the seed industry, said the company now controls 90 percent of seed genetics in the country.

Numerous lawsuits have been filed by competitors and the federal government has announced plans to investigate the company for antitrust violations.

Recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST) which was developed by Monsanto in the 1990s and was widely used by dairy farmers as a way to increase milk production in cows, faced significant opposition in the latter part of the decade with many consumers questioning its use and many processors refusing to take milk produced by cows treated with rbST.

Animal Welfare and Right to Farm
Animal welfare became a big issue as people started paying more attention to how animals were raised on farms and animal rights groups targeted the industry.

In 2008, California voters approved Proposition 2, a measure designed to prohibit the confinement of certain farm animals. Groups such as the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) have also targeted other states to tighten their animal welfare standards.

The agricultural industry gained a victory in Ohio in 2009 when voters approved the establishment of a livestock care board to establish animal welfare standards, rather than ban certain practices altogether.

Farmers’ rights came to a head in Pennsylvania in 2006 when the Agriculture, Communities, and Rural Environment (ACRE) act became law. The law gives farmers the right to bring cases to the attorney general’s office as a response to tough local ordinances on farming.

Nutrient Management
Nutrient management came under increased scrutiny, most recently with President Barack Obama stepping in and directing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to use its power to clean-up the troubled Chesapeake Bay.

The agency is now working on establishing a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for the bay which would limit the amount of nutrient loads going into the bay’s tributaries.

New programs, such as nutrient credit trading, were introduced to promote best management practices on farms and reduce the cost of making brick and mortar improvements at wastewater treatment plants.

Animal Identification
The threat of disease outbreaks has led the government to propose a new animal identification system, which became highly controversial in the farm community and has yet to be implemented nationwide.

A USDA meeting held early in 2009 in Harrisburg drew a raucous crowd of farmers, mostly against the proposal.

Changes to the ‘Farmer’
The decade also saw big changes to Lancaster Farming.

In 2005, the paper celebrated its 50th birthday, with a huge special section complete with stories and pictures from years past.

Bob Campbell, founder of Lancaster Farming, also died in 2005.

In an age that is seeing more and more newspapers decreasing their amount of coverage, Lancaster Farming has been able to increase it, thanks to new subscribers and a loyal base of readers and advertisers.

Two zones, specifically tailored towards readers in New York and New England, and readers south of Pennsylvania, were launched in the latter part of the decade.

The monthly publication Mid-Atlantic Horse debuted in the middle part of the decade and has since gone on to win numerous awards.

Special sections have changed, with dairy farmers getting a special section, Eastern Dairy Reporter, each month.

Lancaster Farming has fully entered the digital age, with a Web site, a Facebook page and Twitter account.

With the new decade just beginning, the newspaper is poised to celebrate its 55th year in publication.

Next week, we will take a year-by-year look at stories that helped define the decade in farming.

Kathy Zimmerman contributed research to this story.