Feeding the World

February 16, 2022

Hello, everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by the National Corn Growers Association, CropLife America, and Renewable Fuels Association. They are all friends, supporters, and allies of a healthy farm economy and prosperous rural America. Thank you.

And now today’s commentary-

A UK farmer named Paul Temple has put on the table some issues that I’m not sure the public even thinks about. Here is the question. Are the food producers in the world prepared to continue more food production to feed a hungry world?

We are doing great right now growing more food than ever before. “Since 2000, we have boosted
the harvest of the planet’s four primary crops - sugar cane, corn, wheat and rice – by 50%.” Meat
production is also up 50%. How did this happen? In a free-market economy producers respond to
demand. We have new technology today that I never imagined when I was a boy. With genetically
engineered crops, our yields have exploded. The weeds that we couldn’t control and the pests that
damaged our corn and soybeans have been killed with today’s crop protection tools.

With precision application, we feed our crop the appropriate amount of fertilizer – nitrogen, phosphate, pot ash. As good as we are today at feeding the world, the future is not as certain. We can’t continue to satisfy demand if we move to organic farming and fail to use genetic engineering of plants. Production could be cut by 30%. How many people would starve? If you think that food is expensive now, think again. We hear all of these uninformed, ignorant voices screaming that everything must be natural. They tell us that we don’t need anhydrous and all this new technology. The public needs to realize that if we want abundance in the future, we need to adopt and accept new technology. If we don’t, everyone will suffer – especially the poor.

Whole new subject – Eric Adams – “New Yorks City’s new mayor is endorsing a bill to let 800,000
non-citizens vote in local elections.” I thought that only U.S. citizens should be allowed to vote. I
don’t think we know where this idea came from. I guess I should not be surprised. It comes out of
New York City. It’s about the most Un-American idea I have ever heard.

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