By Julia A. Wickard

Indiana Dept. of Environmental Management

By 2050, the world population is expected to explode to 9.5 billion people – according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs – which is an additional 2 billion, or a 35 percent increase, in the number of people who inhabit the Earth today.

To feed that many, crop production will need to double. Agriculture and the environment must work together to accomplish this task. Farmers have always been the driving force with the desire and natural incentive to conserve, while feeding an ever-increasing population.

Agriculture has come a long way over the past 150 years. In 1869, 90 percent of Americans lived in the countryside and produced food for a nation of only 38 million people. Today, only 16 percent of us live in rural areas, less than 1 percent are farmers, and only 1/10 of farmers are growing 80 percent of the food that feeds 308 million Americans.

President Abraham Lincoln once said the best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time. Similarly, each day the advanced farming techniques employed by modern American farmers combine with the scientific and technical achievements of past generations to make American agriculture one of the strengths of this nation.

This progress is rooted in a spirit of cooperation that originated in the ethics of our immigrant ancestors, the earliest pioneers whose teamwork was the very essence of survival in the vast stretches of the American landscape. Agriculture has evolved, but still depends on cooperation and consensus.

In Indiana, that spirit of cooperation extends to the environment. Indiana ranks among the top states in the production of commodities, livestock, and poultry. In recent years, Indiana farmers have led the nation in cover crops, which now are the third-most planted crop in the state next to corn and soybeans.

As a result, more than 2.9 million pounds of nitrogen, 1.4 million pounds of phosphorus, and 1.2 million pounds of sediment were prevented from entering Indiana’s waterways.

Additionally, a study published in the Journal of Animal Science/Journal of Dairy Science showed that since the 1970s, hog farmers have decreased their carbon footprint by 35 percent, and achieved a 41 percent reduction in water usage and a 78 percent decrease in land needed to produce a pound of pork.

Indiana farmers meet regulations that go beyond U.S. EPA’s standards for regulated farms, which make them good stewards of the environment. As the world’s population continues to grow, farmers will work every day to both feed people and take care of the Earth. They know that America’s future depends on it.

Julia A. Wickard is the Assistant Commissioner for the Office of Program Support and Agricultural Liaison at the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.