Critics of modern agriculture are always coming up with new issues to complain about and new problems that have to be solved. When you cut through the hype and hysteria, they fall into three key categories: treatment of animals, treatment of the environment, and treatment of our natural resources.

Each of these areas can be subdivided into specific issues; but, for the sake of this discussion, let’s look at the big three. These are serious issues that agriculture must address and has addressed. In fact, just in the past few weeks, evidence has surfaced that indicates there are promising solutions to aspects of the big three problem areas facing agriculture.

The issue of how we house our animals is at the heart of some of the fieriest animal care debates. Radical animal activists have convinced voters that raising animals in confinement is bad for them. Now there is scientific evidence that confinement is actually beneficial.

“In the United States, the individual gestation stall is being banned based on perception, not science,” said Janeen Salak-Johnson, associate professor in animal sciences at the University of Illinois.
The pork industry is being pressured to move to group housing or a “free range” approach. But in the University of Illinois study, sows were observed in both standard gestation stalls and in adjustable, flex stalls for behavior and productive performance. The results showed that using flexible stalls positively influenced behavior, performance, and productivity of sows in gestation.

“Making minor changes in existing systems may truly improve the well-being of the sow and ultimately the welfare,” Salak-Johnson said. Using a flexible stall, sows were more comfortable, healthier, farrowed easier and produced more pigs per litter.

The funding for this study came from pork producers themselves via the pork checkoff. With more research, the pork industry will make adjustments to production methods and provide verifiable evidence that production is taking place with the highest of animal care standards.

With the emergence of renewable energy, the issue of food versus fuel made headlines.

People started asking the question: How should we best use our natural resources - to produce food or fuel? Agriculture answered: We can do both and provide increased food and fuel production.
Critics persisted by claiming the production of biofuels took more energy than it produced and used vast amounts of water that could and should be used for other needs. In the past few years, the ethanol industry has dreamily improved the efficiency of its production processes.

Last week in fact, POET, one of the nation’s largest ethanol producers, announced its goal of decreasing water use in the production of ethanol by 22 percent over the next five years. POET CEO Jeff Broin said the company is committed to producing ethanol as sustainably as possible and minimizing its impact on natural resources, “Fresh water is a precious natural resource that we do our utmost to conserve.”

As has been repeated time after time in agriculture, innovation, technology and market incentive can resolve some of our most challenging problems.

Environmental issues are among the most complicated and controversial for agriculture. Climate change, soil erosion, air quality, water quality, land use and more are issues over which farmers and environmentalists often clash. Yet, tremendous progress has been made in many of these areas, mostly by those involved in agriculture.

A review of the facts shows that soil erosion has been reduced significantly by changes in tillage practices by farmers. Adoption of biotech crops and precision GPS technology has lessened farming’s environmental impact.

In short, farmers - the original environmentalists - are busy addressing some our most serious ecological issues often in spite of onerous governmental regulations.

So when you hear some pompous pundit blaming modern agriculture for animal cruelty, resource depletion, or environmental damage, remember that solutions to some of our biggest problems are being devised and implemented by the men and women who produce our food, fuel and fiber.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Gary Truitt may write to him in care of this publication.