"The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts."
-- C. S. Lewis

Feeding the world in 2050...a very real problem for our children and yours...

*Nearly one in seven people in the world go to bed hungry each night.


*While the vast majority of the hungry are in developing countries, one in four U. S. kids do not have the food they need each day.


*The world will need 70% more food in 2050.


*Production agriculture is increasingly under attack, fueled by ignorance and misinformation.


*The widening gap between those who grow food and those who eat it needs to be bridged to increase the understanding of who farmers are and how they underpin the security and wealth in our society. That understanding will also reduce the likelihood of extremists and anti-agiculture behavior.


*Each one of us in agriculture has the abliity to make a difference.

U.S. Farming Facts!

 

Did you know...

To keep up with population growth more food will have to be produced in the next 50 years as the past 10,000 years combined.

 

  • Today, the average U.S. farmer feeds 155 people. In 1960, a farmer fed just 26 people.
  • Today's farmer grows twice as much food as his parents did using less land, energy, water and fewer emissions.
  • American farmers ship more than $100 billion of their crops and products to many nations.
  • U.S. farmers produce about 40 percent of the world's corn, using only 20 percent of the total area harvested in the world.
  • Farmers are a direct lifeline to more than 24 million U.S. jobs in all kinds of industries.
  • In the past five years, U.S. farm operators have become more demographically diverse. The 2007 census counted nearly 30 percent more women as principal farm operators. The count of Hispanic operators grew by 10 percent, and the counts of American Indian, Asian and African-American farm operators increased as well.

Sources of Information: USDA ERS, FAO, EPA, USDA Census of Ag, USDA FAS and NCGA

At Spirit Family Farms, we are committed to making a difference...there is no other option.