Managing the nation's food resources

The nice weather (no rain and much sunshine!) over the weekend was a welcome change from the rainy and damp conditions experienced during most of October. With some promising forecasts for the week, perhaps some progress can be made in harvesting the good crops awaiting attention in area fields!

Production of our nation's food supply (including finally getting the combines into motion) is an interesting and uniquely challenging process as is the development and administration of USDA food/farm policies -- because, no matter how you "slice" it, food is different.

First, it touches the lives of every person in the world in a way that no other product does. We need to eat on a regular basis to maintain life itself. Each of us could probably live for month without gasoline; or any new clothes; or a new car; or without building on to the house -- but how would we fare for a month without food?

Owning a television set, an automobile, or a pair of shoes may not be a moral imperative, but having access to food is. As a result, people react to food issues differently than other products. As former President Clinton recently said referring to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and his administration, "We blew it! We were wrong to believe that food was like some other product in international trade."

Second, agriculture faces long-term price and income problems in ways that set it apart from other products. With typical goods that people want, when prices are low they consume more and when prices are high, demand is rationed and people consume less.

By way of comparison, because food is a necessity, people will pay as much as is required (or as much as they can) when it is scarce, but when food is plentiful, they will pay no more for it than they have to. Total consumption remains relatively stable over a wide range of prices.

Likewise, in the short-to-medium-run, the production of crops remains relatively stable over a wide range of prices. In times of high prices farmers strive to produce bumper crops in hopes of making a good profit. When prices are low, they continue to produce, both because it may cost more to idle the land than it does to produce at a loss, and because other farmers may experience a crop failure and prices will go back up.

The normal market mechanisms of low prices that result in consumers consuming more and farmers producing less don't work very well in the production of grains, oilseeds, and other storable agricultural products. In the absence of government intervention, farmers experience long periods of low prices, punctuated by occasional high price peaks due to a weather-related crop failure somewhere or a sudden spurt in demand.

Third, most countries treat food in the same way that the US treats the military-it is a matter of national security. Given a choice, few countries want to be dependent upon imports, when it comes to feeding their population. It is too risky. Food production problems elsewhere may leave them competing with others for a limited supply of food available for import. In addition, countries-the US included-have used food as a weapon withholding it for political considerations as with Cuba, Iran, and Libya.

Fourth, some economists suggest that agriculture has entered into a "new era." They suggest that numbers two and three listed above are no longer applicable, and that unregulated markets will work this time, bringing farmers into a new "golden age."

When it comes to technology, agriculture is constantly entering into a new era that is unlike anything we have seen before. We have seen the introduction of drudgery-lessening machinery, the replacement real horsepower with power from fossil fuels, the increasingly diverse use of farm chemicals (fertilizer, herbicides, and pesticides), the development of hybrids that sent corn production on an upward climb, and now the use of genetics technology to breed crops in ways our ancestors never dreamed of.

However, when it comes to price and income problems on the one hand and concerns about food security on the other, these will likely remain considerations no matter what happens with prices or yields down the road.

Ideally, the markets for the variety of farm products in our area will supply the return needed to cover the high costs of producing a crop these days, as well as permitting our farm families to make a living enabling them to stay on the farm. USDA farm programs, too, are intended to also contribute to the health of our agricultural economy!

The next step for this year -- get that crop in the bin! Good luck and be safe this week! USDA is an equal opportunity employer, provider, and lender.

Editor's Note: Doug Niemeir is the County Executive Director for the USDA/Farm Service Agency. He can be reached by emailing him at Douglas.Niemeir@ks.usda.gov