USA Today USDA Special Edition

SPECIAL EDITION
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURE
FREE
2016 EDITION
Farmings New
Environment
INSIDE
HEALTHY
LUNCHES
Students grow
their own
meals
SCALING
UP
Can sustainable
farming feed
a nation?
CLIMATE
CHANGE
USDA prepares
for new
weather trends
10
CROPS
Flowers,
dairy, soy
and more
ENTRY
LEVEL
Bringing new
farmers into
the fold
USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION
FACTS ON
LIVESTOCK
Infographics
on poultry,
cattle, pork
and dairy
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURE
SPECIAL EDITION
27
CLIMATE CHANGE
Farmers, USDA prepare
to work under changing
weather conditions
34
VANISHING
GROUNDWATER
Agriculture contributes
to the draining of aquifers
CONTENTS
DAVID MCNEW/GETTY IMAGES
FEATURES
38
50
64
FACTS ON FIELD CROPS

Infographics provide
updates on soy, wheat,
corn, rice and produce
SCALING UP
Adapting sustainable
farming methods to
feed a nation
FULL FLOWER
The latest census on
horticulture counts
whats in your yard
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DIRECTOR
Jeanette Barrett-Stokes
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CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Jerald Council
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MANAGING EDITOR
Michelle Washington
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EDITORS
Chris Garsson
Elizabeth Neus
Hannah Prince
Sara Schwartz
DESIGNERS
Ashleigh Carter
Miranda Pellicano
Gina Toole Saunders
Lisa M. Zilka
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Matt Alderton, Karen Asp, Brian Barth,
Adam Hadhazy, Nelson Harvey,
Diana Lambdin Meyer, Erik Schechter,
Stephanie Anderson Witmer
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
Dan MacMedan, Tim Parker, Shawn Spence
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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: LANCE CHEUNG/USDA; JENNIFER KATHRYN PHOTOGRAPHY; LANCE CHEUNG/USDA; IAN JAMES/THE (PALM SPRINGS, CALIF.) DESERT SUN; TED S. WARREN/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Patrick Burke | (703) 854-5914

pburke@usatoday.com
ACCOUNT DIRECTOR
POLICY
EXIT INTERVIEW
USDA Secretary Vilsack reflects on
seven-plus years in office
22
HEALTHY EATING
Schools comply with USDA rules
on lunches by growing their own
86
ON THE FARM
90
69
94
GROWING NEW FARMERS
14
DEMOGRAPHIC OUTLOOK
Americas farms, by the numbers
16
RENEWABLE FUELS
Even with a new quota,
ethanol battles continue
74
BRANCHING OUT
USDA works to bring more women,
blacks, vets to farming
20
MERGER MANIA
How the blending of big companies
will affect agriculture
78
GROWTH MARKETS
Unusual farming methods attract
more attention
Youth organizations add new faces

to the workforce pipeline
RETAIL MATTERS
Sellers respond to growing demand
for niche products
HIGH TECH
New ways to farm more efficiently
CROP INVADERS
Border Patrol, USDA keep these
critters out of the fields
Justine Goodwin | (703) 854-5444

jgoodwin@usatoday.com
ISSN#0734-7456
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ON THE COVER
Farming techniques may change as the
climate evolves. Photo by Thinkstock.
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POLICY
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus,
right, shows Agriculture
Secretary Tom Vilsack a sample
of alternative fuel aboard a
guided-missile destroyer now
powered by a mix of biofuels
and marine diesel.
MASS COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST 2ND CLASS ARMANDO GONZALES/U.S. NAVY
LAST MAN STANDING
USDAs regular guy Vilsack persists 7 years in job

By Christopher Doering
ROM HIS SECOND-FLOOR OFFICE overlooking the

National Mall in Washington, D.C., Agriculture
Secretary Tom Vilsack speaks of his departments
accomplishments during the past year like a
parent glowing over the success of his child.
As the former Iowa governor enters what is expected
to be his last year leading the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 65-year old Vilsack the last original member
of President Obamas Cabinet is planning to focus
his attention on issues that include trade, water, school

lunches and food labeling.
For now, there is no evidence that Vilsack plans to leave
before the end of the Obama administration, either to take
another job or to campaign for Obamas former secretary
of state, Hillary Clinton, whom Vilsack has endorsed for
president. He serves at the pleasure of one guy, he said.
But as Vilsack nears the end of his USDA stint, the man
who seemingly has an answer to everything agricultureCON T I N U E D
Its typically
the last few
years that
help define
the legacy
because thats
what people
remember
the last thing
you did.
Chad Hart,
Iowa State University
10
POLICY
Agriculture
Secretary Tom
Vilsack, left, listens
to USDA Midwest
Climate Hub director Jerry Hatfield
explain equipment
that gathers information on climate
change. For more
on the Climate
Hubs, see page 27.
DARIN LEACH/USDA
related paused a long time before answering

how his accomplishments at the USDA will
transcend into his legacy.
The true answer to that is I havent given
that any thought. ... Thats terrible, he said
in an interview, surrounded by agriculturethemed posters and paintings interspersed
with memorabilia from his beloved
hometown Pittsburgh sports teams.
One thing that Ive heard people say back
to me recently is that they really appreciate
the fact that Ive been a spokesperson for
rural America and for agriculture, a strong
spokesman, and reminding the rest of the
country about the importance of this place.
Vilsack, whose seven-year tenure makes
him the fifth-longest serving agriculture
secretary in U.S. history, has said he
never thought about a future at USDA until
November 2008, when he received a call
from someone who considered him a top
candidate for the position.
Born in Pittsburgh, he lived most of
his life in Iowa the countrys top corn,
ethanol, egg and pork producer and
moved up the political ranks from mayor of
Mount Pleasant to two-term governor.
Farm groups and lawmakers, even those

from the other side of the aisle, describe
Vilsack as knowledgeable about agriculture,
approachable and willing to be a champion
of farmers and ranchers in an administration
that at times has been viewed as unfriendly
toward them when it comes to topics such
as ethanol and land rights.
While those who work with Vilsack have
not always agreed with everything he has
done, they find him likable and someone
they can work with.
When you look at these past seven
years, everybody has been mad at him
at least once, everybody has been happy
with him at least once. Hes sort of been,
if you will, a guy in the middle, said Chad
Hart, an Iowa State University agricultural
economist.
You want somebody whos going to go
out there and promote agriculture, but at
the same time you want to be out there
trying to challenge agriculture to address
issues where we can do things a little bit
better. Hes supposed to ruffle feathers.
Hart said traditional row-crop and livestock farmers, long viewed as the symbol of
One thing that Ive heard people say back to me recently is

that they really appreciate the fact that Ive been a spokesperson for rural America and for agriculture, a strong
spokesman, and reminding the rest of the country about the
importance of this place.
Tom Vilsack, agriculture secretary
agriculture, see Vilsack as having spent too

much time on issues such as organic foods
and specialty crops.
At the same time, environmentalists
have wished that Vilsack would have gone
further to force agricultural producers to be
better stewards of the land they use,
he said.
Wally Taylor, chairman of the Sierra Clubs
Iowa chapter, criticized Vilsack for being
too friendly to industrial agriculture and big
agribusiness companies such as Pioneer and
Monsanto.
Instead, he said Vilsack should have done
more to help protect the environment and
encourage agriculture to play a bigger role
in reducing nutrient runoff and soil erosion

from farms something Taylor believes
producers are unwilling to do on a meaningful scale by themselves.
He tends to support the industrial
agriculture model instead of sustainable
agriculture, and I think he sides too often
with the big ag interests like the Farm
Bureau and the big commodity and livestock
organizations, Taylor said. Thats the thing
with the industrial agricultural model, the
environment is there to be ignored at best
and taken advantage of at worst.
During his time in office, Vilsack has
CO N T I N U E D
11
12
POLICY
DESMOND BOYLAN/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, center in blue shirt, visits the Guira De Melenas cooperative organic farm in Guira De Melenas near Havana in November. The trade mission was the first official USDA trip to Cuba since 1961.
benefited until recently from a favorable
economic environment where high prices
for corn, soybeans and other commodities
have helped the nations agricultural
producers.
While the farm economy has pulled back
significantly from three years ago, when
the industry posted record income topping
$123 billion, agriculture for the most part
remains on solid ground, although the
prolonged downturn has started to squeeze
some producers.
Hart and others said the strong farm
economy has allowed Vilsack and the USDA
to expand their reach into other areas such
as promoting the purchase of locally grown
goods that would be harder to do when the
industry is struggling a time when the
focus would otherwise be placed on using
the departments considerable resources to
help struggling farmers and ranchers.
If things are going well, its hard to
complain, Hart said.
House Agriculture Committee chairman
Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, has talked
regularly with Vilsack about agricultural
policy, and sometimes to iron out disagreements that he says so far have been easy
to fix.
Conaway said Vilsack invited him, his wife
and other top lawmakers involved in agriculture in Congress to his home one night.
Work talk quickly shifted to discussions
about their backgrounds and careers. On
another occasion, Vilsack hosted a reception
for members of the House Agriculture
Committee at his office and shared stories
LONGEST-SERVING AGRICULTURE SECRETARIES

James Wilson
March 6, 1897, to March 5, 1913
16 YEARS
Ezra Taft Benson

Jan. 21, 1953, to Jan. 20, 1961
8 YEARS
Orville Freeman
Jan. 21, 1961, to Jan. 20, 1969
8 YEARS
Henry A. Wallace
March 4, 1933, to Sept. 4, 1940
7 YEARS, 6 MONTHS
Tom Vilsack
Jan. 21, 2009, to present*
7 YEARS, 2 MONTHS
*As of March 2016.
about mementos in his office.

You get a real sense that hes just
a regular guy with an important job,
Conaway said.
As agriculture has become increasingly
intertwined with work by other departments and agencies in Washington, those
in farming, ranching and ethanol production
have increasingly looked to Vilsack to speak
on their behalf both on Capitol Hill and
in closed-door Cabinet meetings in the
White House.
Monte Shaw, executive director of the
Iowa Renewable Fuel Association, said Vilsacks experience at USDA and willingness
to forge close working relationships with his
counterparts at the Energy Department and
the Environmental Protection Agency have
helped.
Renewable fuel groups grew concerned
during the Obama administration about the
EPAs decision to require less ethanol to be
mixed into the countrys motor fuel

supply than what Congress mandated in
a 2007 law.
While the EPA announced last November
a level for 2016 well below what Congress
mandated, it was higher than what the
agency had proposed earlier in the year.
There is no doubt it would have
been worse (for ethanol producers) if
USDA wasnt in the room and very, very
actively engaging in that debate, Shaw said.
Vilsack was that kind of factual rock in
the middle of this swirling chaos. Secretary
Vilsacks credibility on those issues and his
willingness to speak up often and bluntly, I
think did wonders.
Craig Hill, president of the Iowa Farm
Bureau Federation and a corn and soybean
farmer in Milo, said Vilsacks influence has
extended to other areas such as the labeling
debate surrounding foods containing genetically modified ingredients (GMOs) and the
need for the United States to pursue trade
deals to expand the global marketplace for
producers.
One trade pact that would lift barriers
for exporting U.S. meat, poultry, dairy and
other goods to 11 Pacific Rim countries
faces opposition from labor groups and
some lawmakers who say it will cost U.S.
workers jobs. Congress has not scheduled a
vote on the agreement.
He has somewhat defied some of his
partys positions in order to find a place
where farmers and ranchers do better, Hill
said at a recent agricultural conference in
Orlando. To be effective and do the job hes
done, hes had to take some risk, and that
risk is not limiting him in his role.
ISUs Hart said one of the challenges for
Vilsack in how his legacy will be defined
will depend largely on whether the agricultural economy shows signs of rebounding
before he leaves office.
If hes at the helm when we slide down
the hole and it takes us quite a while to get
out of that, then that could damage the
legacy, Hart said. Its typically the last few
years that help define the legacy because
thats what people remember the last
thing you did.
Vilsack said hes especially proud of his
efforts to help reduce unemployment in
rural areas and improve the departments
position in civil rights an area where
the USDA had drawn criticism before he
came to Washington. The department has
reached settlements with farmers who had
historically faced discrimination, improved
services for minority farmers and started
programs to make sure both customers and
employees are treated fairly.
I would hope that people would see this
time that I was a hardworking, successful
secretary, Vilsack said. But thats for
everyone else to decide.
Doering writes about farm policy and politics
for the Gannett Washington Bureau.
13
14
POLICY
LAND USE
USDA statistics paint a picture of todays American farm
438 acres
2,084,000
Average farm
58.3
Farms in the U.S.
Average age
of principal
farmer
Main occupation of principal

operator on family farms
Not in
workforce
(e.g.,
retired)
(322,412)
Farm or
ranch work
$43,750
(890,518)
Net cash
farm income of OPERATIONS,
average per farm
16%
$37,241
43%
Net cash
farm income of OPERATORS,
average per farm
41%
$191,500
Other than
farming/
ranching
FARMERS EXPENSES
average per operation
(840,078)
HOW FARMERS USE THEIR LAND
913
million
acres in
farmland
353.8
million
acres were
rented
314.9
million
acres were
planted in
field crops
415.3
million
acres were
used for
range/pasture
77
million
acres were used

as woodland
61.7
million
acres of cropland
either failed or
was deliberately
left fallow
27.5
million
acres are enrolled

in conservation
programs
3.7
million
acres are
certified or
exempt organic
15
POLICY
NUMBER OF FARM OPERATIONS, BY STATE
TOP FIVE
EXPENSES
PROPERTY
VALUES
$1.1
MILLION
Worth of average farm

(including land
and buildings)
FEED
$63.7 million
$115,706
Worth of machinery
and equipment,
average per farm
$4,130
FARM SERVICES
$45.3 million
LIVESTOCK,
POULTRY AND
RELATED
EXPENSES
Texas
Missouri
Iowa
Oklahoma
California
Kentucky
Illinois
Ohio
Minnesota
Wisconsin
245,500
97,700
88,000
79,600
76,400
76,400
74,500
74,500
74,000
69,000
Tennessee
Kansas
Pennsylvania
Indiana
Michigan
North Carolina
Nebraska
Florida
Virginia
Arkansas
67,300
61,000
58,800
58,200
51,600
49,500
49,100
47,600
45,900
44,000
Alabama
Georgia
Mississippi
Washington
New York
Colorado
Oregon
South Dakota
North Dakota
Montana
43,400
41,100
37,100
36,700
35,500
35,000
34,600
31,700
30,300
27,800
Louisiana
New Mexico
Idaho
South Carolina
West Virginia
Arizona
Utah
Maryland
Wyoming
New Jersey
27,200
24,700
24,400
24,400
21,300
19,600
18,100
12,300
11,700
9,100
Maine
Massachusetts
Vermont
Hawaii
Connecticut
New Hampshire
Nevada
Delaware
Rhode Island
Alaska
8,200
7,800
7,300
7,000
6,000
4,400
4,200
2,500
1,240
760
$45.1 million
1,054,860
TRILLION
Asset value of all agricultural

land, including buildings
Asset value of
agricultural land, including
buildings, per acre
622,150
$34.2 million
$2.6
$3,020
NUMBER OF FARMS BY VALUE OF ANNUAL SALES
=20,000
LABOR
Asset value of
cropland per acre
$1,330
5
144,960
97,170
82,720
82,140
Asset value of
pastureland per acre
SOURCE: USDA
ALL INFORMATION
MOST RECENT AVAILABLE
RENT
$32.6 million
$1,000 to
$9,000
$10,000 to
$99,999
$100,000 to
$249,999
$250,000 to
$499,999
$500,000 to
$999,999
$1 million
plus
THINKSTOCK
16
POLICY
THINKSTOCK
FUELING
THE ARGUMENT
Delayed
quotas for
renewable
energy cause
turmoil
By Erik Schechter
HE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
AGENCY was late very late.
Since 2006, the EPA has been
required to set an annual quota,
known as the Renewable Fuel
Standard (RFS), for the amount of biofuel
that U.S. fuel producers are expected to
blend into gasoline. In an effort to lower
greenhouse gas emissions, the program
requires increasing the amount of renewable fuels that are mixed with gasoline
and diesel fuels, with a goal of reaching 36

billion gallons of renewable fuel by 2022.
However, the EPA delayed announcing
the quota amount in both 2013 and 2014,
citing controversy and comment around
the issue, and was running late on its 2015
announcement, expected in June. For the
ethanol industry and farmers, these long
delays introduced an uncomfortable level of
uncertainty, forcing people who might have
otherwise invested in renewable energy or
developed new technologies to avoid the
risk and go to the sidelines, said Tom Buis,
CEO of Growth Energy, the nations largest

ethanol trade association.
Finally, in November 2015, the EPA
announced its quota for 2016 (in addition
to releasing retroactive quotas for 2014
and 2015 close to what was actually
produced). Using a waiver, the EPA chose to
require only 14.5 billion gallons of conventional biofuels, such as those made of grains
and starch and that have the lions share of
the market, down from the 15 billion gallons
CO N T I N U E D
17
18
POLICY
Jeff Broin, CEO of South Dakota-based
POET, one of the worlds largest ethanol
producers, added that according to EPA
numbers, ethanol will comprise about 10.25
percent of the fuel supply this year. So the
blend wall has already been breached.
SECURITY VS. FREE MARKET
THINKSTOCK
originally specified by the 2005 law that

created the RFS.
But despite having an answer to a
years-old question, biofuel producers were
concerned by the new, lower quota. This
also hurt farmers, Buis said: Without the
(demand) from the
RFS, youre sitting here
with oversupplies.
And
an oversupply of
The long delays
corn, the most widely
before the EPA set
grown crop in America,
leads farmers to grow
ethanol quotas
other crops, so then
you have a surplus of
introduced an
soybeans or wheat, and
uncomfortable
those depress prices.
In response, a
level of uncernumber of groups with
tainty, forcing
an interest in biofuel production filed a
people who might
lawsuit in early January
have invested in
against the EPA in the
U.S. Court of Appeals for
renewable energy
the District of Columbia
or developed new
Circuit, arguing that EPA
officials were violating
technologies to
the laws requirements
by setting an annual RFS
avoid the risk.
quota lower than what
the law specified.
Oil industry
advocates, meanwhile, support the EPA.
They contend the agency has the right to
reduce its annual numbers, and ought to
do so, because the RFS goal of reaching
36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022 is
out of line with market capacity, said Chet
Thompson, president of the American Fuel

& Petrochemical Manufacturers, a nonprofit
that represents oil companies.
In certain respects, this newest dispute
reflects an update in the ongoing battle
between the ethanol and oil industries, the
latter arguing that conventional renewables
are not necessary for U.S. energy independence, arent environmentally friendly and
represent government interference in the
free market.
CREATING A BLEND WALL
The RFS was instituted in 2005 and

then amended before the Great Recession
of 2007-2009 drove down consumer
demand for gas, which was hitting record
high prices. According to the U.S. Energy
Information Administration, more than 13
billion gallons of ethanol were added to
gasoline produced in the U.S. in 2014, and
fuel ethanol made up 10 percent of the
volume of all gasoline used in the U.S.
(The EPA) never envisioned ... that more
than 10 percent of ethanol was ever going
to have to be in our fuel supply in order to
fulfill the mandates, Thompson said.
Now, he said, refiners have hit the
so-called blend wall, where they cant sell
any more ethanol beyond what could go in
an E10 blend (up to 10 percent biofuel and
90 percent gas) without some technical
and infrastructure changes. Nor can they
stockpile excess ethanol, because the official
Renewable Identification Numbers, used
to track ethanol purchased by refiners, are
only counted once the biofuel is blended
with gas.
Beyond arguing over specific numbers set

by the EPA, the oil industry would like to see
the government completely end its support
of renewable fuels.
This RFS program has been around since
2005. It is time for this industry to stand on
its own, Thompson said.
One purpose of the RFS, according to the
EPA, was to expand the nations renewable
fuels sector while reducing reliance on
imported oil. But hydraulic fracturing (also
known as fracking), which involves injecting
water, sand and chemicals underground to
recover oil from shale rock, led to a boom in
U.S. domestic production. At the same time,
the international market is seeing a glut of
oil, with prices dropping to $30.27 a barrel.
We are more energy-independent since
the shale revolution than ever before,
Thompson said.
With gas prices in a free-fall, what was
once cheap ethanol is now comparatively
expensive. In addition, it isnt as energyefficient as regular gasoline, which makes
ethanol unattractive to the consumer,
Thompson argued.
In response to the efficiency claim, Buis
contended that ethanols mileage drag
is not seen with E10 and E15 blends. In
addition, ethanol is a great source of octane.
You have to have octane in the car to make
it work, and ethanol is the lowest-cost
octane in the world, he added.
But if ethanol is so good, why not just let
the free market decide?
Because, POETs Broin explained, even
if most filling stations are independent,
refiners have control through marketing
agreements involving the canopies over the
pumps and their ties to the pumps.
Think of it this way: Its not as if CocaCola and Pepsi were vying for space in the
supermarket. Its more like Pepsi only being
sold at stores not owned by Coca-Cola and,
even then, only in a non-soda aisle, narrowing the ability of consumers to choose on
their own.
Michael Green, director of public relations
for the American Automobile Association,
believes that the numbers set by the EPA
in November struck a realistic balance
between supporting the continued development of renewable fuel and not forcing
drivers to use E15.
I know the ethanol groups and the oil
groups didnt really like what (numbers) the
EPA came out with, he said. To my mind,
that sort of suggests it was an effective
compromise. If the groups on the end didnt
like it, the middle must have been the
sweet spot.
19
20
COMBINING OPTIONS
Farmers fear higher costs, fewer choices as
agribusiness giants begin to merge
By Nelson Harvey
DUPONT; BILL PUGILIANO/GETTY IMAGES; THINKSTOCK
ENNIS CORYELL AND STEVE Sears may grow the same

crops on the same acreage in the same corner of
the same state, but that doesnt mean they agree on
everything.
Both men grow about 5,000 acres of corn and
wheat on farms 50 miles apart in rural northeastern Colorado.
Yet when it comes to predicting how the latest wave of mergers
between seed and chemical companies will affect farmers
whether the greater efficiency and innovation promised by the
mergers will outweigh the harm of declining competition the
men have sharply differing views.
The agricultural input sector which includes the crop seed
industry is undergoing a major wave of consolidation. In
December, just months after seed and biotech giant Monsanto
abandoned its bid to acquire Swiss rival Syngenta, giants Dow
Chemical Co. and DuPont announced plans to join forces,
merging Dows strength in chemicals with DuPont Pioneers
seed portfolio. The two U.S.-based firms hope to combine by late
2016, then spin off into three separate companies focused on
agriculture, materials science and specialty products.
In February, the wave continued as ChemChina, a Chinese
state-owned maker of chemicals for agriculture and other
applications, made a deal to buy Syngenta for $43 billion. If
approved, the merger would make ChemChina the worlds
largest agricultural chemical supplier and help bolster Chinese
food security.
By merging, these agribusiness powerhouses are coping
with a decline in demand for their products driven by sagging
commodity prices: Net U.S. farm income dropped to an estimated
$56.4 billion last year, down 38 percent compared with 2014,
according to U.S. Department of Agriculture figures.
At the same time, the strong U.S. dollar has weakened
agricultural export markets, activist investors are demanding
stronger quarterly returns and the cost of developing new
biotechnology platforms continued to grow. Monsantos Roundup
FACTS ABOUT
THE MERGER:
ESTIMATED
$3 BILLION
IN COST SAVINGS
CONTROL OF
+ 25%
OVERALL SEED/
CHEMICAL MARKET
PREDICTED
$130 BILLION
COMBINED MARKET
CAPITALIZATION
CONTROL OF
+39%
U.S. CORN SEED

MARKET
EXPECTED
3 COMPANIES
TO SPIN OFF FROM
MERGER
Ready 2 line, for instance, is one of those: Composed of genetic

traits, seeds and chemicals that work in concert, farmers who use
it can spray Roundup on those seeds and kill weeds around them
without worrying about killing the Roundup Ready plant.
Dow and DuPont executives have said their merger will yield
an estimated $3 billion in cost savings, some of which the firms
could theoretically plow into more research and development,
accelerating innovation. Yet Coryell views these prospects with
apprehension. He worries that in a less competitive marketplace,
companies will charge more for any new technology they
develop.
Certainly there may be some advances in technology, but
if they come at such a high cost that were no better off and it
drives us out of the market, Im not sure that it will be a net
benefit for agriculture, said Coryell, 63, who has been farming
near Burlington, Colo., since he was a teenager.
He points out that the agricultural input industry is already
highly concentrated. Since 2009, the four largest firms in the
seed, chemical, farm equipment, animal health and animal
genetics markets have accounted for more than 50 percent of
global sales in each sector. The genetically modified seed market
is especially consolidated. In 1994, the four largest firms in that
industry controlled 21 percent of the market, but by 2009 their
share had jumped to 54 percent.
The staggering capital costs amounting to hundreds of millions
of dollars of developing so-called biotech platforms where
patented genetic traits such as resistance to a companys
herbicide are introduced into seeds, then those seeds are sold
alongside the herbicide on farm store shelves have pushed
droves of smaller firms to succumb to buyouts from market
leaders like Monsanto over the last 20 years. In 1998, Monsanto
acquired DeKalb, then the nations second-largest hybrid corn
seed producer; in 2006, it bought the Delta and Pine Land Co.,
the leading U.S. cottonseed supplier.
If antitrust regulators dont require some divestment as a
21
DOW AGROSCIENCES
The merger of Dow Chemical Co. which includes the Dow AgroSciences division based in
Indianapolis, above and DuPont brings together two agricultural powerhouses.
When it comes to predicting how the latest wave of

agricultural mergers will affect farmers whether the
promised efficiency and innovation will outweigh declining competition farmers have sharply differing views.
condition of their merger a fairly standard
request a combined Dow and DuPont
would wield substantial market power,
controlling about 25 percent of the overall
seed and chemical market but much more
in areas including the U.S. corn seed market,
where its share would be 39 percent.
Yet farmers like Sears, 68, who has been
farming near Joes, Colo., since 1970, remain
optimistic about the trend toward declining
competition. Sears, a longtime customer
and supporter of Monsanto who has written
letters urging the Environmental Protection
Agency to approve the companys
patented genes for drought and corn worm
resistance, even hopes that the recent
mergers will strengthen companies enough
to usher in a new wave of innovation.
It has been wonderful to have Roundup
Ready corn, and to be able to control
pests like corn worms through the plants
genetics alone, he said, referring to the
yield improvements achieved through
genetically modified crops. These
companies have a selfish motive for merging

and combining their technology to complete
their portfolios. I say thumbs up let them
merge, and let them keep advancing.
Some economic research, though,
suggests that seed and biotechnology
companies may invest a smaller fraction of
their revenues in research and development
as their market power grows and
competition declines. In a 2013 paper on
competition in the market for genetically
modified seeds, Diana Moss, president of
the American Antitrust Institute, pointed
out that from the late 1990s to the early
2000s, the share of industry sales that
seed companies spent on research and
development steadily rose. Yet by the late
2000s, as consolidation continued, so-called
R&D intensity had declined back to
mid-1990s levels.
There is also a correlation between
industry consolidation and higher input
prices for farmers. According to the USDAs
Economic Research Service, the prices of
many farm inputs have risen faster than

commodity prices over the last two decades,
and declining competition is one possible
culprit.
At the same time, the link between seed
prices and the yield gains those seeds
provide has become increasingly tenuous.
Moss wrote in her paper that the ratio of
genetically modified seed price to yield for
corn more than doubled between 2001 and
2012, meaning that corn farmers paid at
least twice as much for the same yield gain
in 2012 as they did 11 years earlier.
Farmers in areas where a single crop
predominates including the heart of
the U.S. corn belt may be particularly
vulnerable to the growing market power
of large agricultural input firms. In a 2011
study, University of Wisconsin agricultural
economist Kyle Stiegert and his co-authors
found that seed companies offered fewer
discounts for genetically modified seeds
to farmers in the heart of the corn belt,
compared with those in fringe areas where
corn was just one of several potential crops
to grow. While farmers in marginal areas
may pay less for seeds, though, Stiegert
noted that industry consolidation may also
make it harder for those farmers to find
seeds bred specifically for the soil, climate
and pest population of their area.
All of the major biotech firms are
going to want to have a strong presence in
the corn belt, but do farmers in outlying
regions get served well by just a few seed
companies? Stiegert said. There is a lot of
land and pest heterogeneity that suggests
that a diverse seed market best serves all
farmers.
Antitrust regulators, including the U.S.
Department of Justice and the Federal
Trade Commission, will weigh all of these
potential harms when they review the
Dow/DuPont and ChemChina/Syngenta
mergers this year. The latter merger will also
face scrutiny from the federal interagency
Committee on Foreign Investment in the

United States. There is some concern
that a Chinese company would be acting
in accordance with the policy goals of
the Chinese government, instead of just
responding to market conditions and
incentives, the reason for the extra level of
evaluation.
To blunt the anti-competitive impact
of a particular merger, regulators can
require the merging companies to divest
overlapping assets or shed assets in areas
where the newly merged company would
have excessive market power. Yet in an
industry where only a few existing and
already powerful firms would have the
capital and expertise necessary to purchase
those assets, such divestment may do little
to boost competition.
If the goal is to reduce market
concentration, it would not make sense to
sell Dows business to Monsanto, said Peter
Carstensen, a professor emeritus at the
University of Wisconsin Law School and a
former attorney in the Justice Departments
Antitrust Division.
Selling some assets to a nondominant
firm is one option, he said, And yet its
unlikely that a firm not already in this
business will have the capital or managerial
skills to operate a seed and chemical
company on the same scale as the dominant
market players.
For Moss at the American Antitrust
Institute, thats reason enough for federal
regulators to cast a skeptical eye on the
proposed deals.
The companies will come forth with
claims about how the mergers will enhance
efficiency and push their costs down, she
said in an interview. The agencies will
scrutinize those arguments really carefully,
but they will have to be balanced against the
competitive harms, which are higher prices,
lower quality, less innovation and less
choice. That is a hard hurdle to clear.
TOP U.S. MERGERS

Two chemical and agricultural giants, Dow Chemical and DuPont, in December signed a
$68.6 billion deal to merge, the 18th largest merger ever worldwide. It ranks among the
top 10 U.S. deals, and is the largest U.S. agriculture related merger.
COMPANIES MERGING
uAmerica Online Inc./Time Warner

uPfizer Inc./Allergan PLC
uVerizon Communications Inc./Verizon Wireless Inc.
uPfizer Inc./Warner-Lambert Co.
uExxon Corp./Mobil Corp.
uAT&T Inc./BellSouth Corp.
uTravelers Group Inc./Citigroup
uComcast Corp./AT&T Broadband & Internet Services
uDow Chemical/DuPont
uActavis PLC/Allergan Inc.
AMT. IN BILLIONS
YEAR
$164.7
2000
$145.8
2015
$130.3
2013
$89.2
1999
$78.9
1998
$72.7
2006
$72.6
1998
$72.0
2001
$68.6
2015
$68.4
2014
SOURCES: USA TODAY; INSTITUTE FOR MERGERS, ACQUISITIONS AND ALLIANCES
22
FARM TO CAFETERIA
New USDA regulations lead to healthier,
locally produced school lunches
By Karen Asp
ALK INTO ALMOST ANY

school these days and you
might just be tempted
to stay for lunch. Thats
because in recent years,
meals for students have undergone a serious
nutritional makeover thats markedly
increased their appeal when it comes to
appearance as well as flavor.
Since the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act

of 2010 was enacted, schools have been
required to serve healthier meals (parts of
the law are already in effect; others are still
being rolled out). Think more fruits and
vegetables, whole grains and low- or no-fat
dairy.
CO N T I N U E D
Elementary school
students from
Arlington, Va., check
out fresh foods
brought to them by
local farmers. More
schools are using locally grown products
to make healthier
lunches attractive to
the children.
LANCE CHEUNG/USDA
23
24
A typical school
lunch that follows
USDA guidelines,
such as this one
from Mirror Lake
Elementary School
south of Seattle,
includes plenty of
fruits and vegetables.
TED S. WARREN/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Its a revolution of sorts that has also

resulted in sourcing locally grown food for
the cafeteria and educating children about
where their food comes from.
THE RISE OF LOCAL FOODS
When the National Restaurant Association

surveyed almost 1,600 professional chefs
to learn what would be hot on restaurant
menus in 2016, one word kept popping
up: local. Its a trend that has expanded to
schools, where the local food movement is
exploding.
Credit the creation of the U.S. Department
of Agricultures Farm to School Program for
contributing to the fever pitch surrounding
local foods. The program encourages schools
to buy locally produced foods.
In addition to making improvements
on the nutrition side with the Healthy,
Hunger-Free Kids Act, Congress decided it
was important to pay attention to where
the food was coming from, said Deborah J.
Kane, national director of the Farm to School
Program.
Data indicates that the voluntary program
is catching on with schools. The USDAs
most recent Farm to School Census based
on data from the 2013-14 school year and
collected in 2015 found that more than

42,000 schools were participating in the
Farm to School Program and that dollars
invested in local communities rose to
$598 million, a $212 million increase from
the census conducted two years earlier.
This tells me the USDA is doing a good
job in helping schools go beyond fruits
and vegetables to provide local goods,
said Kane, adding that foods such as meat,
dairy and seafood now fall under the local
category.
KIDS WITH ACCESS

TO VENDING
PROGRAMS ATE:
26%
MORE FRUIT
OF GROWERS AND GARDENS
Schools rely on a variety of sources for

healthy food items, but when it comes
to locally sourced foods, they draw from
two main suppliers: growers and school
gardens.
Largely inspired by first lady Michelle
Obama, an advocate of school gardens as
part of her focus on childhood health and
nutrition, the cultivated areas on school
grounds serve several purposes.
Along with providing food, school
gardens offer educational opportunities,
said Carol Chong, a national nutrition
adviser for the Alliance for a Healthier
Generation, which created a Healthy
14%
MORE
VEGETABLES
30%
MORE WHOLE
GRAINS
Schools Program in 2006 and designed

its own set of science-based nutritional
guidelines for children. Today, the alliance
provides technical assistance to schools to
help them meet the governments nutrition
regulations and works with manufacturers to
produce healthier foods.
At Margaret B. Henderson Elementary
School in Dallas, which joined the Healthy
Schools Program in 2009, each grade has its
own plot in the school garden. As students
grow the produce, teachers integrate lessons
from the garden into their curricula.
In one class, students taste the gardens
bounty for flavor, texture and freshness and
compare store-bought vegetables to gardengrown vegetables. The produce then goes
home with students or is cooked for students
and staff.
Seeing what theyre growing makes kids
more likely to eat that food, said Margaret
Lopez, executive director of food and child
nutrition services for the Dallas Independent
School District (ISD).
WEIGHING THE COSTS
Healthier foods, however, dont come

without controversy, namely their cost. Its
often assumed that good-for-you grub costs
25
HOW THE NEW DIETARY

GUIDELINES AFFECT YOUR KIDS
DALLAS INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT
Students at Margaret B. Henderson Elementary School in Dallas taste-test locally grown

beans during a Harvest of the Month event that also let them meet actual farmers.
ACCORDING TO THE FARM TO SCHOOL PROGRAM CENSUS OF 2013-2014:
$598
42,000+
HAS BEEN INVESTED

INTO COMMUNITIES
PARTICIPATE IN THE
PROGRAM
MILLION
SCHOOLS
more, but thats not always the case.

In some cases, it can be more expensive,
sometimes less expensive, Kane said. The
Farm to School Census found that 75 percent
of respondents experienced at least one of
four benefits one of which was lower food
costs as a result of buying local.
A 2012 study from the USDAs Economic
Research Service, which estimated the
cost for more than 4,400 food items, found
that when measured for edible weight
or average portion size, grains, produce
and dairy foods were less expensive than
most protein foods as well as those high in
saturated fat, added sugars and/or sodium.
Yet Lopezs experience has taught her
the opposite. Fresh produce costs more,
she said. Plus, theres the added expense of
labor to prepare and cook fresh produce.
Of course, cost largely depends on two
variables, Kane said what foods school are
trying to buy and what time of year theyre
trying to buy them. Buying out-of-season
might result in higher costs. In-season foods
could come with a lower price tag.
Like any business, schools then need
to budget for those healthier foods. Some
might be able to allocate the subsidies they
receive from the USDA for meals served to
23.5M
STUDENTS
When it comes
to eating healthier,
Americans can turn
to the government
for answers. Dietary
guidelines written
by experts from the
U.S. Department of
Agriculture and the
Department of Health
and Human Services
are updated every five
years, and the 2015 to
2020 guidelines were
released in January.
So whats new for
kids? The following
four changes are worth
noting:
SODIUM LEVELS
DECREASED.
Studies show that
limiting sodium in
kids can prevent
hypertension and heart
disease later in life,
said Jennifer Glockner,
a registered dietitian
nutritionist in Los
Angeles and creator
of the Smartee Plate

e-book series.
New sodium
recommendations are:
No more than 1,500 mg
per day for kids aged
1 to 3; no more than
1,900 mg per day for
kids 4 to 8; no more
than 2,200 mg per day
for kids 9 to 13; and no
more than 2,300 mg for
kids over 14.
TEEN BOYS ARE

ADVISED TO CUT
BACK ON PROTEIN,
including red meat,
poultry and eggs, and
eat more veggies.
While kids usually
consume enough
protein, they fall short
on produce, so this is
advice that could apply
to all kids, Glockner
said. Limiting red meat
is key. Its filled with
saturated fat, which can
lead to cardiovascular
disease, and may also be
carcinogenic, she said.

LIMIT ADDED
SUGAR TO LESS
THAN 10 PERCENT OF
DAILY CALORIES.
The new sugar rule
applies to everybody,
but especially kids.
Studies show that
excess sugar can lead to
weight issues, obesity
and type 2 diabetes in
kids, Glockner said.
Note that this doesnt
apply to natural sugars
in fruits, 100 percent
fruit juice and milk.
CUT DOWN ON
SATURATED FATS.
Instead of feeding
children animal sources
that contain saturated
fat, serve them plantbased proteins and oils
such as nuts, beans,
low-mercury fish,
avocado and olive oil,
Glockner said.
Karen Asp
ARE ENGAGED IN FARM

TO TABLE PROGRAM
students.
Those costs can be further offset through
various financial assistance programs.
Schools that participate in the School
Breakfast Program and National School
Lunch Program, run by the USDA, receive
monetary reimbursements for every meal
and snack they serve. Schools can also
apply for grants through the Farm to School
Program, which currently gives out up to
$5 million a year. The Senate Agriculture
Committee has advanced legislation that
would double the annual amount.
THE PROOF IS IN THE PALATE
If youve ever tried to get kids to eat more

fruits or veggies, you no doubt recall the
uphill battle. So what are schools doing to
turn young taste buds onto healthier foods?
In a nutshell, marketing.
You have to draw kids into your
restaurant and make kids want to eat
there, Chong said.
For starters, some schools are going
beyond otherwise boring hot entrees and
offering items that mirror what kids are
eating in restaurants, including wraps and
salad platters.
Meanwhile, through the Harvest of the
Month program at Dallas ISD schools, one

vegetable or fruit is spotlighted monthly,
and farmers who have supplied the produce
often introduce it in person to the students.
Dallas ISD schools also participate in Farm
Fresh Fridays, a statewide incentive that
connects schoolchildren to local farmers and
ranchers by featuring their foods in meals
every Friday.
The upshot? Kids are more likely to
eat foods from producers theyve just met
than the same foods that are just sitting
randomly in a lunch line, Kane said.
How food is presented is also critical.
Chong learned from her previous position
with Miami-Dade County Public Schools
in Florida that serving cut-up fruits instead
of whole fruits made a difference in the
amount students consumed. More students
ate that fruit and more of it when it
was cut than when we served it whole, she
said.
Making the food more convenient to eat
serving peeled oranges, for instance is
another strategy. Because students often
have short lunch periods with little time
to eat, schools have to make it easier to
consume those foods quickly, especially now
that kids are required to select either a fruit
or vegetable at each meal, Chong said.

It turns out all of these strategies are
paying off. A study by the Harvard School
of Public Health comparing eating habits
at four schools before and after the new
Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids regulations went
into effect found that fruit selection went
up by 23 percent and the consumption of
vegetables per student increased by 16.2
percent.
Another study published in the journal
Childhood Obesity found that at schools that
provided healthy foods mostly or entirely
a la carte or through vending programs,
middle-school-age kids ate 26 percent more
fruit, 14 percent more vegetables and 30
percent more whole grains throughout the
day.
Revenues from school lunches are also
on the rise, indicating that parents are
more confident that their children will get
healthier meals while at school and are
willing to pay for them, Kane said.
The true sign of success, though?
Children, including those in Dallas, are
asking their parents to buy the foods theyre
being served at school.
Now, thats what you might call a true
food revolution.
26
27
ENVIRONMENT
Drought damage in Fresno,
Calif., as seen in 2014. The
ongoing California drought
is thought to be one sign of
climate change, a topic that
concerns farmers.
EXTENDED FORECAST
CYNTHIA MENDOZA/USDA
New USDA reports herald climate changes

potentially significant impact
By Adam Hadhazy
ENE FERGUSON HAS HAD

a good run as of late. The
southeastern Kansas farmers
3,000 acres of wheat and corn
have flourished for the last
several years, thanks to the steadiest
rainfall hes seen in a decade.
Now, nobody looks for that to
continue, Ferguson said with a laugh.
In this part of Kansas, weve always had
to deal with extreme weather conditions. Typically, he said, the rains vanish
for weeks during the growing season.
Our crops burn up at least twice every
summer.
Farmers such as Ferguson have
grappled with Mother Natures incon-
stancy at best and cruelty at worst

ever since agricultures invention 12
millennia ago.
Modern science has helped make
farmers more productive than ever. But
this same science also predicts a major
new challenge: climate change.
Climate scientists overwhelmingly
agree that, because of human activities
such as burning fossil fuels, the planet
has already warmed by nearly 2 degrees
Fahrenheit since the 19th century.
Climatologists project an average of at
least another 2.7 degrees of warming by
the dawn of the 22nd century.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is
taking the threat of climate change very
seriously, given its focus on agricultural
production, economic prosperity and
maintaining adequate food supplies for

Americans as well as providing extra
sustenance to help others around the
world.
We need to understand the changes
that are occurring, and we need to figure
out ways we can adapt to and mitigate
those changes, said USDA Secretary Tom
Vilsack. We want to make sure farmers
have all the information they need to be
in better position to deal with a changing
climate.
Toward these ends, two recent reports
from the USDA are newly outlining the
big-picture effects climate change could
have on food production domestically
and globally.
CO N T I N U E D
28
ENVIRONMENT
The planet has

already warmed by
nearly 2 degrees
Fahrenheit since
the 19th century. Climatologists
project an average
of at least another
2.7 degrees of
warming by the
dawn of the 22nd
century.
A Hanover, Va., farm uses

pivot irrigation techniques
to keep crops watered.
More farmers may need to
turn to advanced irrigation
methods if rainfall patterns continue to change.
To prepare food producers for the

climate-related pressures they can expect in
the decades ahead, the USDA has rolled out
new programs, such as its regional Climate
Hubs. Communication will be somewhat
challenging, though, with some farmers
remaining skeptical that anything out of the
ordinary is at hand.
I think most people dont believe in
it, said Ferguson of farmers and climate
change. They think its just the variability
we have every year and have always had.
WHATS TO COME
According to a major USDA report on climate change released in November, weather

variability is highly likely to increase and
pose concerns for domestic field crops for
the remainder of the current century.
The report weighed numerous factors,
including temperature increases, shifting
rainfall patterns and surface- and groundwater supplies. Future human decision-making
entered the equations as well. For instance,
farmers will opt for growing certain crops
versus others as climate change alters food
availability and prices.
All told, the results projected that hay,
barley and wheat should see gains in
production, owing to their resilience to
temperature stress and typically dryland,
rather than irrigated, growing conditions,
with wheat boasting a nearly 12 percent
yield increase in 2080 compared with a
baseline assuming no climate change.
But that was the good news. Other key
crops such as corn, soybeans, rice, sorghum,
cotton and silage could see drop-offs, with
oats down nearly 21 percent productionwise come 2080.
CO N T I N U E D
LANCE CHEUNG/USDA
29
30
ENVIRONMENT
Our analysis suggests that most major
field crops are projected to fare poorly
under climate change, said Elizabeth
Marshall, an economist at USDAs Economic
Research Service and the reports lead
author.
Farmers have long relied on irrigation
to not only help crops grow in otherwise
too-arid regions, but to get thirsty crops
through dry spells.
Yet the USDA report found that dwindling
surface water supplies, particularly in
Southwestern states reliant on the Colorado
River, as well as across large chunks of
California and the Plains states, would leave
farmers with little choice but to switch to
dryland crop varieties such as wheat.
In many regions and for many crops, we
simply wont be able to irrigate our way
out of those temperature impacts, said
Marshall.
These challenges posed to U.S. agriculture
will hamper other nations production,
putting at risk the progress made in recent
decades in global food security.
Thats the takeaway of a second report
Vilsack released during the Paris Climate
Conference in December, a meeting that led
to a breakthrough commitment from the
195 attending countries to reduce emissions
of climate-warming greenhouse gases.
Compared with six years ago, 200 million
more people are now food secure by
having reliable, physical and economic
access to sufficient quantities of nutritious
food, said that USDA report.
In coming decades, however, climate
change could negatively act on all the links
in the chain of food security, from production to food being properly packaged and
transported to consumers before spoiling.
Production is very important, but its
just one part of a much larger food system,
said Margaret Walsh, an ecologist with the
USDAs Climate Change Program Office and
one of the authors of the December report.
As Tom Grumbly, president of the
Supporters of Agricultural Research (SoAR)
Foundation, pointed out, global food
insecurity is a factor behind failing states
and lawlessness, and even terrorism.
Theres a very good association between
sharp spikes in food prices and rises in
political instability, he said. Its in our
national security interest to make sure that
that doesnt happen.
GETTING THE WORD OUT
With these concerns on the horizon,

the USDA is taking steps to help American
farmers prepare now for their future and
that of their country and the world.
In April 2015, Vilsack presented a new
USDA initiative called Building Blocks for
Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry
which, if followed, could reduce carbon
dioxide emissions by 120 million metric
tons per year. Among the voluntary building
blocks: encouraging better nitrogen and
You just show producers how variable the last five

years have been, and they all know that, and then
theyre on board with you and you have an entirely
different dialogue.
Jerry Hatfield, director, USDA Midwest Climate Hub
MATT MORTENSON/USDA
Cattle move across grassland in the USDAs Northern Plains Regional Climate Hub, which includes the largest remaining tracts of native rangeland in North America.
nutrient application, and improved grazing
management for livestock.
A top measure is intended to improve soil
health by boosting no-till practices, which
increase soil water and nutrient retention.
The USDAs goal is to expand no-tillage from
67 million acres of farmland today to 100
million acres by 2025.
The USDAs Climate Hubs, another
significant project, are identifying and
communicating region-specific strategies
to help producers adapt to and mitigate

climate change.
(Climate Hubs) are providing the kind of
information that farmers expect and need,
said Vilsack.
In the Midwest, stricken between 2012
and 2014 by drought with the breadbasket state of Iowa one of the hardest-hit
USDA personnel are advocating the use of
drought-resistant corn varieties along with
protecting and enriching the soil by planting
cover crops in between cash crop seasons

so stressed crops avoid withering during
hot, dry stretches.
Producers realize its not just one part
of the puzzle that they have to think about
changing, said Jerry Hatfield, the director
of the Midwest Climate Hub as well as the
USDAs National Laboratory for Agriculture
and the Environment. Its their farming
CO N T I N U E D
31
32
ENVIRONMENT
Hay is a resilient crop

that may see more
production despite
climate change; it
does well in dryland
conditions.
USDA
system in the aggregate.
NOT BETTING THE FARM
Some farmers, however, remain unconvinced that anything truly extraordinary

climate-wise will be afoot in the decades
hence.
Politics plays a role, for sure. A recent
Agri-Pulse Farm and Rural Poll of 750 farmers who own at least 200 acres of farmland
found that 70 percent identified as or
leaned Republican, with just 19 percent as
Democratic and 12 percent as independent.
Numerous polls show that as a voter bloc,
Republicans are more likely to question
climate change than Democrats.
Although Hatfield has encountered some
skepticism from farmers about whether
climate change is anything other than
normal variability, he has found his audience
to be receptive when presented with data
that jibes with their recent experiences.
Across the Midwest, Hatfield said, wet
springs are now being followed by dry,
more variable summers, with these recent

precipitation records on the fringes of
normal trends documented back to 1985.
You just show producers how variable
the last five years have been, and they
all know that, and then theyre on board
with you and you have an entirely different
dialogue, said Hatfield.
The experience is similar in the Southwest, one of the most naturally extreme and
variable growing regions in the country.
Al Rango, the Southwest Regional Climate
Hub director, is helping leverage the hubs
message by working with the Cooperative
Extension, a USDA service that for a
century has educated rural communities on
agricultural issues.
Michael Crimmins, an associate professor
at the University of Arizona and a Cooperative Extension specialist Rango works with,
believes that while climate change is on
everybodys radar in the rugged Southwestern states, many producers seem jaded.
A lot of Westerners feel like theyve seen
it all, and in some respects theyve seen

a lot, said Crimmins. But I dont think
theyve seen it all.
The November USDA report by Marshall
and colleagues does paint a stark picture.
By 2080, the Arizona region fed by the
Colorado River could see a more than 75
percent decrease in surface water availability, severely straining agriculture. Here,
its all about water, said Crimmins.
TODAY, TOMORROW AND

NEXT DECADE
Still, given the long timelines for climate

changes more serious consequences, its
understandable that farmers today who
have already weathered tough seasons
in their careers are more worried about
nearer-term problems.
We dont pay a whole lot of attention to
USDA reports, said Pete Brickner, who has
lived on a Sturgeon Bay, Wis., farm since
1975, where he supports nearly 400 dairy
cows on 2,000 acres along with growing
corn, wheat and vegetable crops on the side.

Were mostly just watching the weather.
John Anderson, deputy chief economist
at the American Farm Bureau Federation, a
lobbying organization, does believe a lot of
farmers have the long-term viability of their
farms in mind.
Theyre not just planning for the
next five years, Anderson said. Theyre
planning for their grandchild and the next
50 years on this farm.
But Anderson said he does not see how
the gradualism of climate change would
really alter day-to-day operations compared
with business as usual.
If we are in fact seeing greater challenges
and additional variability, said Anderson,
I think our farmers are going to respond to
that the way they always have.
On this point at least, there is wide agreement. Farmers adapt every day to changing
environmental and economic conditions,
said the USDAs Walsh. So theres certainly
a lot of adaptive capacity there.
33
34
ENVIRONMENT
Kansas farmer Jay Garetson, standing next to a pump
on his familys farm, worries
about the challenges the
next generation will face
because of declining groundwater levels.
VANISHING
GROUNDWATER
IAN JAMES/THE (PALM SPRINGS, CALIF.) DESERT SUN
Farmers worry as U.S. aquifers are pumped beyond their limits

By Ian James and Steve Reilly
UST BEFORE 3 A.M., Jay Garetsons phone

buzzed on his bedside table. He picked
it up and read the text: Low Pressure
Alert.
The Kansas farmer felt his chest
tighten, dreading what that automated
message probably meant: With the water table
dropping, another well on his familys farm
was starting to suck air.
The Garetson family has been farming in
the plains of southwestern Kansas for four
generations, since 1902. Now they face a hard
reality. The groundwater they depend on is
disappearing. Their fields could wither. Their

farm might not survive for the next generation.
At dawn, Jay was out among the cornfields
at the well, trying to diagnose the problem.
The pump was humming as it lifted water from
nearly 600 feet underground. Just as he had
feared, he saw fine bubbles in the water.
Its showing signs of weakening, he said
sadly, standing in the shoulder-high corn.
Thisll last another five or 10 years, but not
even at the production rate that were at here
today. Its just a question of how much time is
left.
Time is running out for portions of the High
Plains Aquifer, which lies beneath eight states
from South Dakota to Texas and is the lifeblood

of one of the worlds most productive farming
economies. The aquifer, also known as the
Ogallala, makes possible about one-fifth of the
countrys output of corn, wheat and cattle. But
its levels have been rapidly declining, and with
each passing year more wells are going dry.
As less water pours from wells, some
farmers are adapting by switching to different
crops. Others are shutting down their drained
wells and trying to scratch out a living as
dryland farmers, relying only on the rains.
In parts of western Kansas, the groundwater
has already been exhausted and very little can
be extracted for irrigation. In other areas, the
35
ENVIRONMENT
Very simply, were

running out (of water),
and its happening far
faster than anybody
anticipated.
Jay Garetson,
Kansas farmer
remaining water could be mostly used up

within a decade.
The severe depletion of the Ogallala
Aquifer is symptomatic of a larger crisis in
the United States and many parts of the
world. Much more water is being pumped
from the ground than can be naturally
replenished, and groundwater levels are
plummeting. Its happening not only in the
High Plains and drought-ravaged California,
but in places from the Gulf Coastal Plain to
the farmland of the Mississippi River Valley,
and from the dry Southwest to the green
Southeast.
In a nationwide examination of the
problem, USA TODAY and The (Palm Springs,
Calif.) Desert Sun analyzed two decades
of measurements from more than 32,000
wells and found water levels falling in
nearly two-thirds of those wells, with heavy
pumping causing major declines in many
areas. The analysis of U.S. Geological Survey
(USGS) data revealed that:
u Nationwide, water levels have declined
in 64 percent of the wells included in the
government database during the past two
decades.
u The average decline among decreasing
wells has been more than 10 feet, and in
some areas the water table has dropped
more than 100 feet during that period
more than 5 feet per year.
u For 13 counties in Texas, New Mexico,
Mississippi, Kansas and Iowa, average water
levels have decreased more than 40 feet
since 1995.
u Nationally, the average declines have
been larger from 2011-2014 as drought has
intensified in the West. But water tables
have been falling consistently over the years
through both wet and dry periods, and also
in relatively wet states such as Florida and
Maryland.
u Across the High Plains, one of the
countrys largest depletion zones, the average water levels in more than 4,000 wells
are 13.2 feet lower today than they were
in 1995. In the southern High Plains, water
levels have plunged significantly more in
places more than 100 feet in just 20 years.
Aquifers are being drawn down in many
areas by pumping for agriculture, which
accounts for nearly two-thirds of the
nations use of fresh groundwater. Water
IAN JAMES/THE (PALM SPRINGS, CALIF.) DESERT SUN
The green circles of center-pivot irrigation systems stand out in Kansas farmland that relies on water from the High Plains Aquifer.
STEVE ELFERS/USA TODAY
Jim Sipes, a dryland farmer, grows wheat and sorghum on about 14,000 acres in Manter,
Kansas. He expects that more farmers will be forced to stop using groundwater to irrigate.
is also being drained for cities, expanding
development and industries.
Since the beginning of the 20th century,
the U.S. is estimated to have lost more
than 1,000 cubic kilometers of water from
the nations aquifers about 28 times the
amount of water that can be held in Lake

Mead on the Arizona/Nevada border, the
countrys largest reservoir.
That estimate of water losses from 1900
through 2008, calculated by USGS scientist
Leonard Konikow, shows the High Plains has
accounted for 35 percent of the countrys

total depletion. Californias Central Valley
accounted for more than 14 percent, and
other parts of the country have depleted the
remainder, about half of the total.
The declines in U.S. groundwater mirror
similar decreases in many parts of the
world. NASA research has found that more
than half of the worlds largest aquifers are
declining.
Groundwater depletion is this incredible
global phenomenon, said Jay Famiglietti,
a professor of earth system science at the
University of California, Irvine, and the senior water scientist at NASAs Jet Propulsion
Laboratory. We never really understood it
the way we understand it now. Its pervasive
and its happening at a rapid clip.
In parts of the southern High Plains, farmers are feeling the effects. Some counties
have seen small decreases in population
as people have moved away. Local leaders
have been expressing concerns about what
sorts of businesses can help sustain their
economies as water supplies dwindle.
The Kansas Geological Survey has
mapped out how much longer the Ogallala
Aquifer can support large-scale pumping. It
projects that some places still probably have
more than a century of water left, but that
large patches of western Kansas will go dry
in less than 25 years. Some areas will likely
run out faster, within a matter of years.
CO N T I N U E D
36
ENVIRONMENT
The Ogallalas decline shows what the
world can expect in other areas where
groundwater is being quickly depleted,
Famiglietti said. The fact that theyre
running out of water means that we will no
longer be growing food there, and so where
will that food come from?
HITTING BOTTOM
In Haskell County, Kansas, lush, windswept fields of sorghum and corn stretch to
the flat horizon in a swaying sea. But driving
along the arrow-straight country roads, Jay
Garetson can point out spots where wells
have gone dry, including an abandoned
farmhouse where he lived as a boy.
Very simply, were running out, and
its happening far faster than anybody
anticipated, he said.
Over the past five years, the pumping
capacity of the Garetsons wells has
decreased by about 30 percent as the water
table has fallen. Theyve been forced to plant
less corn and instead sow more wheat and
sorghum, which use less water and bring in
smaller earnings.
When Jays grandparents drilled wells in
the mid-20th century, they were told the
water supply was inexhaustible. They had
clung to their land through the hardships
of the Dust Bowl, when blowing drifts of
soil and grit decimated crops and sent
STEVE ELFERS/USA TODAY
many others packing. In the decades that
Jay Garetson sits on the front porch of a house on his familys Kansas farm, abandoned after
followed, they built a successful business on
its well went dry two years ago.
the water they pumped from the ground.
Since then, numerous studies have shown
that the status quo is far from sustainable.
PUMPING NIAGARA
relatively little in some of the countrys
Starting in 1986, Congress directed the
The U.S., along with India and China, is
wetter areas, as rainfall and snowmelt have
USGS to monitor and report on changes in
one of the largest users of groundwater in
offset the amounts pumped out. But even
the levels of the Ogallala Aquifer, recognizthe world.
in the Northeast and upper Midwest, there
ing its economic importance. An estimated
The federal government has estimated
have been significant declines. Average
30 percent of the groundwater used for
that in 2010, the country used 76 billion
water levels in Cumberland County, N.J., for
irrigation in the country is pumped from
gallons of fresh groundwater per day. Thats
instance, decreased nearly 6 feet over the
the aquifer. Researchers have projected that
117,000 cubic feet per second, roughly
past two decades. In Outagamie County,
without action to slow the losses, the porcomparable to Niagara Falls.
Wis., there was a decline of 6.1 feet.
tion of the aquifer in Kansas
Wells across the country are
Elsewhere, there has been significant
will be nearly 70 percent
pumping out as much water
depletion across entire regions, largely
depleted within 50 years.
SINCE 1995
even slightly more than the
driven by agriculture. Average water levels
Jay, an influential farmer
WATER
LEVELS
average flow of approximately
fell by 5.7 feet across the Mississippi River
and a longstanding member
100,000 cubic feet per second
Valley aquifer system, by 12.6 feet in the
of the Kansas State Board
HAVE DECREASED
that tourists see plunging
Columbia Plateau basaltic rock aquifers of
of Agriculture appointed
MORE THAN
from the top of Niagara Falls.
the Pacific Northwest, and by 17.8 feet in
by both Democratic and
Most of the planets
some of the Snake River Plains aquifers of
Republican governors, has
available freshwater lies
southern Idaho.
many ideas about how to
underground. Aquifers store
Big drops in water tables have occurred
extend the life of the aquifer,
water like sponges, holding it
in many parts the country. The USGS data
including mandatory water
in the spaces between rocks,
show that individual monitoring wells with
cutbacks that would be
IN 13 U.S. COUNTIES sand, gravel and clay. So much
water level decreases of more than 100
shared by farmers. But he has
water is now being sucked
feet in the past two decades are located
faced resistance from those
from some aquifers that those
in a long list of states: California, Nevada,
who oppose mandatory
underground spaces are collapsing and the
New Mexico, Texas, Maryland, Washington,
limits.
surface of the Earth has been permanently
Oregon, Kansas, Iowa, Arkansas, Idaho,
What frustrates me is with all this
altered. In parts of California, Texas, Arizona
Arizona, Louisiana, Colorado, Wyoming and
knowledge and all this information, we still
and Nevada, the shifting earth has cracked
Mississippi.
collectively refuse to act, Jay said. Its
the foundations of houses, left fissures in
In each state, the use of groundwater falls
something I used to read about and study,
the ground and damaged roads, canals and
under different laws. In many areas, though,
you know, the Dust Bowl. And you would
bridges.
the agencies charged with managing water
see these abandoned farmsteads, and now
Groundwater levels have changed
supplies have allowed aquifers to fall into
Im actually seeing it in my own lifetime.
40FT.
a state of perpetual overdraft, with water

levels receding deeper by the year. Even
where groundwater regulations exist,
pumping often remains largely unchecked.
DRY LAND
In areas where little water remains,

people have been turning to dryland farming, relying on rain to grow wheat and other
crops. That switch leads to sharply reduced
earnings per acre. It requires farmers to use
much bigger acreages to turn a profit. It
means the land will support far fewer farms,
and that could bring hard economic times.
One experiment aimed at slashing water
use on farms is underway in Sheridan
County, in northwestern Kansas, where the
states first Local Enhanced Management
Area, or LEMA, was established in 2013.
Through that five-year plan, farmers are
trying to keep within a budget that calls
for a 20 percent reduction in water use.
Even as that strategy is showing signs of
working, water managers acknowledge its
not coming close to halting declines in the
aquifer. Its simply buying a bit more time.
Mark Rude, executive director of the
Southwest Kansas Groundwater Management District No. 3, can put a specific
number on the gap between the amounts of
water pumped and the quantities of rainfall
that recharge the aquifer in an average year:
Were only about 9 percent sustainable.
In other words, the people of southwestern Kansas are pumping out 11 times
more than the aquifers natural recharge.
For every acre that runs out of irrigation
water and starts being dry-farmed, the state
estimates the economy loses nearly $4,000
a year.
The Garetsons 17-year-old son, Jared, is
cautiously assessing the future and thinks it
may be difficult to return home to farm after
college. They are a close-knit family, and
stories of their farming history are woven
into conversations around the kitchen table.
Its a legacy that may be slipping away for
Jared.
Ive thought, Why dont we just pack
up, sell the farm and leave? And well find
somewhere else thats got water and thats
going to continue to have water, where we
can build? Jared said.
But thats a difficult idea for his parents
and grandparents to accept. Its been our
home for 113 years now, and for all that to
go away and just stop that, that hundredyear-old investment, and thatd be really
hard to just pack up and say goodbye to
everything, Jared said.
Until weve got our water issue taken
care of, then I ... have no future here.
Steve Elfers, Caitlin McGlade and Chad
Gillis contributed to this report, which was
produced with a grant from the Pulitzer
Center on Crisis Reporting. Read the full
package at usatoday.com/pages/interactives/
groundwater
37
38
FIELD CROPS
BY THE
NUMBERS
Annual production, 2015
$34.5
BILLION
3.9
Annual yield, 2015
BILLION BUSHELS
Annual yield per acre, 2015
48
BUSHELS
Exports, 2015
$18.9
BILLION
SYNGENTA; THINKSTOCK
SOY
DID YOU KNOW?
uU.S. soybean production, both total and
per acre, hit record levels in 2015, edging
out 2014s previous records.
uSoybean oil usage in the U.S. is projected
to go up by about 150 million pounds
in 2016 to about 19.6 billion pounds
largely because of increased use in
biofuels.
uSoybeans make up 90 percent of all
oilseed production in the U.S., the worlds
leading soybean producer and exporter.
Olive 2.3 million

Coconut 3.4 million
Cottonseed 5.1 million
Peanut 5.5 million
WORLDWIDE USE
OF VEGETABLE OILS,
IN METRIC TONS,
2014-2015
Palm kernel 7.3 million

Sunflower seed
15.2 million
Rapeseed 27 million
Soybean 47.4 million
Palm 62.4 million
Total: 175.6 million
TOP SOYBEAN-PRODUCING
STATES, IN BUSHELS, 2015
Iowa
Illinois
Minnesota
Nebraska
Indiana
Ohio
South Dakota
North Dakota
Missouri
Arkansas
553.7 million
544.3 million
377.5 million
305.7 million
275 million
237 million
235.5 million
185.9 million
181.4 million
155.3 million
SOURCE: USDA
39
40
FIELD CROPS
WHEAT
BY THE NUMBERS
Annual production,
2014-15*
Annual yield per

acre, 2015
BILLION
BUSHELS
$12.1
Annual yield,
2015
2.1
BILLION
BUSHELS
43.6
Exports,
2015
$5.6
BILLION
*MARKETING YEAR JUNE 2014-MAY 2015
DID YOU KNOW?

uU.S. wheat consumption has been dropping steadily as
more Americans adopt low-carbohydrate diets, falling from
146.3 pounds per person in 2000 to 132.5 pounds per person
in 2011.
uU.S. wheat exports were down in 2015 because the dollar
was strong against foreign currencies, making U.S. wheat
more costly, and because global wheat supplies were ample.
uNew federal dietary guidelines specifically suggest eating
more whole-wheat versions of foods, especially pasta.
TOP WHEAT-PRODUCING STATES, 2015

North Dakota:
370 million bushels
Kansas: 321.9 million
Montana: 185.4 million
Washington: 111.5 million
Texas: 106.5 million
South Dakota:
103.4 million
Oklahoma: 98.8 million
Minnesota: 88.3 million
Idaho: 87.8 million

Colorado: 79.6 million
WHEAT PRODUCTION BY THE BUSHEL, 2015

Hard red winter
Hard red spring
Soft red winter
Soft white
Durum
Hard white
FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
826.9 million
564.1 million
359.1 million
197.8 million
82.5 million
21.4 million
SOURCES: USDA, U.S. WHEAT ASSOCIATES
41
42
FIELD CROPS
BY THE
NUMBERS
Annual production, 2015*
$52.4
BILLION
13.6
Annual yield, 2015*
BILLION BUSHELS
168.4
Annual yield per acre, 2015*
BUSHELS
USDA; THINKSTOCK
CORN
DID YOU KNOW?
Feed
5.3 billion bushels
uCorn is projected to account for 93.8

percent of all feed grain produced in the U.S.
in 2015-16.
Alcohol for fuel

5.2 billion bushels
uThe FBI reports a rise in Chinese companies

allegedly stealing patented U.S. seeds so
they can counterfeit them without paying
for their own research and development. A
Chinese national pleaded guilty in Des Moines
in January to conspiracy to steal trade secrets
in this case, corn seeds and ship them to
his employer in China.
Exports, 2015
$8.3
BILLION
*SEPT. 2014-AUG. 2015
TOP CORN-PRODUCING
STATES,IN BUSHELS,
2015
Exports
1.6 billion bushels
HOW CORN
IS USED IN
THE U.S.
High-fructose corn syrup

478.5 million bushels
Glucose and dextrose (sweeteners)
Starch
uCorn stockpiles in December were the

largest ever, according to a Bloomberg
analysis, partially because exports are down
and other countries are growing more.
Cereal and other products

Alcohol for beverages and manufacturing
The U.S. produced 13.6 billion bushels of corn in 2015.*
Heres where it went:
*MARKET YEAR SEPT. 2014 TO AUG. 2015
Other
100 million bushels
Seed
Iowa
Illinois
Nebraska
Minnesota
South Dakota
Kansas
Ohio
Wisconsin
Missouri
North Dakota
2.5 billion
2 billion
1.7 billion
1.4 billion
799.7 million
580.2 million
498.8 million
492 million
437.4 million
327.7 million
SOURCES: USDA; DES MOINES REGISTER;

AMERICAN FARM BUREAU FEDERATION
43
44
FIELD CROPS
RICE
DID YOU
KNOW?
BY THE
NUMBERS
uArkansas produces
the bulk of rice in the
United States, with
9.4 billion pounds
produced from 1.3
million acres in 2015.
Second is California,
at 3.7 billion pounds
from 423,000 acres,
followed by Louisiana
with 2.9 billion pounds
from 420,000 acres.
$2.6
BILLION
Annual yield, 2015
19.2
BILLION
POUNDS
Annual yield per acre, 2015
7,470
uThe U.S. grows

less than 2 percent of
the worlds rice, but
accounts for more
than 10 percent of
global rice trade.
uMost long-grain
rice is grown in
Arkansas, with
7.7 billion pounds;
California grows the
most medium-grain,
at 3.4 billion pounds
and the most shortgrain, at 260 million
pounds.
POUNDS
Exports, 2015
$2.1
BILLION
WHERE
RICE IS
GROWN
IN THE
UNITED
STATES,
2015
uArkansas
uCalifornia
uLouisiana
uMississippi
uMissouri
uTexas
WHERE U.S. RICE IS USED

IN BILLIONS
OF POUNDS
Domestic
LONG-GRAIN
2.7
7.1
10.3
Exports
DAVID NANCE/USDA
Other
Total:
20.1 billion pounds
MEDIUM/
SHORT-GRAIN
2
2.7
Total:
7.7 billion pounds
SOURCE: USDA
45
46
FIELD CROPS
BY THE
NUMBERS
Annual production
Fruit and tree nuts
$30
BILLION
Fresh market vegetables
$13
BILLION
Annual yield
Fruit and tree nuts, 2014*
62
40
BILLION POUNDS
Vegetables, 2015
BILLION POUNDS
LANCE CHEUNG/USDA
PRODUCE
4.3
1.6
MILLION
Vegetables, 2015
More than 70 percent of the nations $30 billion

worth of fruits and tree nuts comes from California,
as well as 44 percent of the nations vegetables,
outpacing any other state. Despite the states
ongoing drought, agriculture is still a primary piece
of its economic engine.
TOP PRODUCEAND TREE NUTPRODUCING

COUNTIES
Kern (almonds, grapes,
pistachios, tangerines)
San Joaquin (walnuts)
Monterey (lettuce,
strawberries)
MILLION
Exports, 2015
Fruits
PER CAPITA USE, 2014
Tomatoes
THINKSTOCK
DID YOU KNOW?

Lettuce
111.2 87.8 24.8
Sweet corn
21.3
Onions
20.6
TOP 5 FRUITS:
Ventura (strawberries;
tie with Monterey)
Tulare (oranges)
Fresno (tomatoes)
Oranges
Grapes
$6.3
IN POUNDS
MOST RECENT AVAILABLE
TOP 5 VEGETABLES:
Potatoes
Acreage
Fruit and tree nuts, 2014*
Apples
56.7 54.4 45.6
Bananas
27.9
Melons
22.8
uIncreased grape production in 2015, especially in

California, should boost the amount of grapes available
to be crushed for wine by 4 percent to 6 percent, to
about 4.8 million tons.
uThe average American ate about 260 pounds of
fruit and 384.4 pounds of vegetables per year in 2013.
uFruits and vegetables accounted for 35 percent of
all U.S. plant food imports in 2014, $25.7 billion of the
$73.5 billion total.
SOURCES: USDA; CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF FOOD & AGRICULTURE
BILLION
Vegetables
$5.1
BILLION
Tree nuts
$8.4
BILLION
*MOST RECENT AVAILABLE
47
48
49
50
A customer places
her order at a Chipotle Mexican Grill in
Miami in April. The
popular chain obtains
its ingredients from
suppliers that use
sustainable farming
methods.
THE W
CHIPOTLE
EFFECT
By Matt Alderton
Can sustainable agriculture

feed the nation?
HEREVER YOU ARE IN the

U.S., the line at the nearest
Chipotle Mexican Grill is
already starting to swell
at 11 a.m. By high noon
lunchtime its positively serpentine. The
line punctuates the doorway and spills out
onto the sidewalk, everyone in it salivating
over the infant-sized burritos inside.
Those responsible for the line are fanatical
about food and this food in particular, which
they flock to not only for its spice, but also
for its stewardship, inherent in Chipotles
commitment to responsibly raised meats,
organic produce, pasture-raised dairy and
non-GMO ingredients.
Theres just one problem: What has thus
far differentiated Chipotle threatens to also
undo it.
So portends an incident last year
that Chipotle fans dubbed the Great
Carnitas Shortage of 2015. It started in
January, when Chipotle ceased serving its
JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES
popular carnitas at more than a third of

its restaurants due to conflicts with one of
its pork suppliers. During a routine audit,
the supplier was found to be in violation of
Chipotles strict animal welfare standards.
Chipotle subsequently suspended the rogue
supplier, creating a void in its supply chain
that left some restaurants pork-free for
approximately nine long months.
Chipotle aficionados were outraged.
Omg if I do not get my #Chipotle #carnitas
soon bad things will happen! #withdrawal #bringbackcarnitas #chipotlesmylife
#ilovechipotle, one fan tweeted.
Saddest moment in my life: walking
into Chipotle and finding out they dont sell
carnitas anymore. #BringbackCarnitas,
tweeted another.
Meanwhile, the companys annual
revenue growth slowed to 9.6 percent in
2015, down from 26.7 percent in 2014.
Whether its poultry, pork or beef, the
premium, specialty product that places like
Chipotle buy only represents a fraction of
the total supply in the single digits as a
51

Chipotle customers
were unable to order carnitas for several months
in 2015 after one of the
companys pork suppliers was found to have
violated its strict animal
welfare standards.
STEVE DYKES/GETTY IMAGES
percent of the whole, explained Jeff Tripician, general manager of Niman Ranch, the
sustainable pork producer that ultimately
helped Chipotle ease its carnitas famine
when it dipped into its pork reserves to
meet the companys demand. So when
they experience either dramatic growth
or a disruption in supply, companies like
Chipotle dont have the ability to say, Well,
Ill just get the product somewhere else. It
doesnt exist.
Tripician said it takes two years to raise
cattle and seven months to raise hogs to
the point where they reach market weight
for slaughter. And thats not counting the
time it takes to convert a conventional
farms infrastructure and operations into a
sustainable business model.
Ferrari only makes a very limited
number of cars, he said. If a whole bunch
of people decided they suddenly wanted
Ferraris, Ferrari would have to say, OK,
but its going to take some time because
we have to build them, and we build them
by hand. Its not a question of price; its
a question of availability. They dont have

extra product just sitting around. Its the
same thing with livestock.
Which begs the question: As demand for
sustainable food increases including not
only livestock, but also fruits, vegetables,
dairy and grains will the Chipotle effect
multiply and spread to other suppliers and
retailers?
According to Tripician and his agricultural
peers, it could. But it might not be simple.
SUSTAINABILITY PROBLEM
Increasing the sustainable food supply to

avoid future shortages will require overcoming a number of fundamental challenges,
according to Steve Balling, former director
of agricultural services and corporate
responsibility at Del Monte Foods. There
are a whole lot of barriers to achieving
fully sustainable agriculture, said Balling,
a retired entomologist who oversaw the
companys efforts to reduce pesticide use.
The first is the definition: Who makes the
rules for what sustainability really is?
The answer right now is: anyone.

Its really being driven at the company level, explained Bob Young, chief
economist and deputy executive director of
public policy at the American Farm Bureau
Federation. The Walmarts and Unilevers of
the world all have their own certification
systems.
Chipotle, for instance, requires that hogs
be antibiotic-free, allowed to freely root and
roam outdoors, and sheltered in pens with
straw beds. Whole Foods Market shares
Chipotles opposition to antibiotics and
its commitment to straw beds, but has no
requirement about outdoor roaming.
Meanwhile, the National Pork Boards
Swine Care Handbook states, There are a
variety of housing and system types that
can be appropriate for raising pigs.
Hog farmers are, therefore, faced with
competing standards.
Chipotle got hung up on one or two
tiny little things because they wanted to
look like they have higher standards than
everybody else, said eighth-generation hog
farmer Brandon Whitt, manager of Batey
Farms in Murfreesboro, Tenn. The fact is,
the National Pork Board and farmers all
across the country already are upholding
99 percent of Chipotles standards. So when
Chipotle said there was a pork shortage,
there wasnt. There was plenty of pork to go
around.
Chipotle spokesperson Chris Arnold
called this a misreading of the situation:
There was not enough pork that met our
standards. There are a number of options
that come close, but that is not enough. The
pork supplier that we suspended (which
prompted our shortage) was in violation
of some of our standards with regard to
welfare for the animals. We could find
additional domestic suppliers that met
most of our antibiotic standards, but not
the antibiotic standards and the welfare
standards.
Simply put: The difference between
an abundance of product and a shortage
depends on whose standards youre
considering.
Many farmers have no choice but to adopt
the least onerous standards, according to
Tripician, who noted that converting ones
farm from a conventional to a sustainable
business model takes time, money and land.
Those who invest in supply without demand
risk losing their livelihood.
A couple years ago, corn spiked at
more than $6 a bushel, so a lot of farmers

switched what they were planting to raise
more corn. Well, by the time their harvest
came in, corn prices had dropped down to
$3, Tripician explained. Farmers need to
know that all the work, effort and risk it
takes to increase our sustainable food supply
will be worth it, and right now they dont
have the confidence that it will be.
The market for sustainable food is so
tenuous because there is a disconnect
between consumers beliefs and behaviors,
according to Arthur Gillett, head of research
at HowGood, an independent research
organization that rates foods based on its
sustainability.
Sustainable agriculture, Gillett pointed
out, produces smaller yields and is more
labor intensive for farmers, who have to
rely less on automated machines and more
on skilled workers to maintain the requisite
quality. That creates extra costs, and extra
costs cause higher prices, which Americans
thus far have been unwilling to pay.
We have been accustomed to what
is effectively underpriced food for a long
time in this nation; food takes up a smaller
percentage of our annual income than it
ever has in history, Gillett said. While
that makes food more available to people
who need it, at the same time it creates the
conditions for a race to the bottom, where
the only way to make money is to create
highly processed foods that can be sold for
significantly more than the cost of their
ingredients because theyre value-added
If we want farms to be more sustainable,
we have to make it possible for farmers to
make more money per calorie than theyre
making right now.
Echoed Young, Just look at what it costs
to shop at Whole Foods versus what it costs
to shop at Kroger. There is a significant
difference. If folks are willing to pay that,
farmers will provide the supply.
BIG AG TO THE RESCUE?
In sustainability circles, industrial

agriculture is typically cast in the role of
supervillain. Because of the gap between
supply and demand, however, Big Ag isnt
just part of the problem; since it constitutes
a majority of the food system, it also has to
be part of the solution.
You can have a much greater impact on
overall sustainability by focusing on the big
CO N T I N U E D
52
Many farms, including this one in

Mechanicsville, Va.,
are using techniques
such as crop rotation
to increase yield in
sustainable ways.
LANCE CHEUNG/USDA
If we want farms to
be more sustainable,
we have to make it
possible for farmers
to make more money
per calorie than theyre
making right now.
Arthur Gillett, head of research
at HowGood, which rates foods
based on sustainability
guys, Balling said. Small, integrated farms have a role to play,

but we have to move all of agriculture forward, not just the
margins.
Field to Market, an alliance of nearly 100 food producers and
retailers committed to agricultural sustainability, is focusing in
particular on the environmental impact of commodity crops
such as corn, cotton, potatoes, rice, soybeans and wheat.
According to president Rod Snyder, the organization and its
members including the American Farm Bureau Federation,
Coca-Cola, General Mills, McDonalds, Syngenta, Unilever and
Walmart, among others are developing scientific baselines
against which to benchmark industry progress.
Weve come up with some really important metrics and
indicators for things like irrigative water use, soil erosion, water
quality and greenhouse gas emissions, which is allowing us for
the first time to have a common approach to measuring our
(environmental footprint), Snyder said. Once you get the
underlying science right, you can begin applying it to supply
chains within companies to help them make improvements
with their growers.
The gestational nature of agriculture means it will take
years perhaps even decades to effect radical change within
the food system. Instead of prescribing specific standards
or practices, therefore, Field to Markets goal is continuous
improvement.
Its not a one-size-fits-all approach. Depending on geography, crop and supply chain, there might be different solutions
that need to be applied, Snyder said. The most critical
thing right now is for food companies to begin this journey
by establishing relationships with suppliers and asking the
questions that will help them identify which improvements are
going to be most impactful.
One improvement thats already creating positive impact is
no-till, cover-crop farming, which helps farmers improve soil
quality, limit greenhouse gas and reduce the use of synthetic
fertilizers by foregoing plowing and instead planting fall cover
crops plantings that cover what would otherwise be fallow
ground in winter, then rot in place come spring.
Large-scale producers are using cover crops to build soil
organic matter, capture carbon, hold water and maintain
nutrients in soil, explained Rob Hedberg, national director of
the U.S. Department of Agricultures Sustainable Agriculture
Research and Education Program (SARE), which provides
federal grants and education to advance innovations in sustainable agriculture. Thats taking place on farms of 23,000 acres,
and theyre very excited about it. So, sustainable practices are
definitely finding their way into very-large-scale food production.
CO N T I N U E D
53
54
BOB NICHOLS/USDA
Farmers in Rockingham County, Va., check the results of no-till techniques, a method of farming that cuts down on soil erosion and increases the amount of water and nutrients in the soil.
Even companies as large as seed
behemoth Monsanto are getting in on the
act. A founding member of Field to Market,
it announced in December 2015 a commitment to be carbon-neutral by 2021.
You often hear people say, Save the
planet; plant a tree. Thats because
planting a tree can reduce climate change
by reducing carbon in the air. Well, you
can also save the planet by planting a
corn crop, said Monsanto President and
Chief Operating Officer Brett Begemann.
Because it sequesters carbon in the soil
like a tree does, utilizing cover crops and
reduced tillage in high-productivity systems
will actually produce a negative carbon
footprint.
DAVID TEACHING GOLIATH
Although companies like Monsanto

promise theyre moving in an ever more
sustainable direction, Big Ag is climbing a
peak whose summit is years away.
Companies like Chipotle are making
sustainability announcements on Tuesday
and expecting everything to be different on
Thursday, but the system just doesnt move
that fast, Young said. We only grow one
corn crop a year, for example, which means
you only get to make decisions once a year,
too. Were not talking about changing chips
on a computer; its a biological process.

Technology is an apt comparison. In that
industry, small start-ups are incubators
for innovation due to their flexibility and
agility, which allow them to quickly develop
new capabilities that can be acquired later
by larger competitors. The same potential
exists in agriculture, where small and
midsize farms in many cases are illustrating
proofs of concept that may one day prove
scalable by Big Ag.
SARE is fueling many of those farms with
its grants, which have advanced research
in areas as diverse as water management,
aquaponics, livestock breeding and
integrated pest management. In turn, that
research has helped spawn an array of
alternative food systems, from farmers
markets to urban agriculture.
We have a thousand different types of
systems in a thousand different locations,
and the ones that are successful are becoming a model that can help others, Hedberg
said. Diversity in and of itself is a strength,
because even if a system is only 1 percent
or half a percent of our national market,
at least its there, providing opportunity,
income and family enterprise for somebody
who can then keep growing, expanding,
changing and evolving.
Examples of innovators include The
Happy Egg Co. of San Francisco, which this

year plans to double its production of freerange eggs sourced from Mennonite farms;
PRE Brands of Chicago, whose 100 percent
grass-fed beef went from distribution at
seven local stores to more than 200 stores
nationwide in a span of just eight months;
and Urban Produce of Irvine, Calif., which
plans to build 100 vertical farms in urban
locations across the country by 2020.
Then theres Niman Ranch, which has
been demonstrating the scalability of
sustainability since 1969.
Niman is a company thats tied to family
farmers, explained Tripician, who said the
company acts as a broker between small
local farms and large national buyers; it
helps the latter source sustainable meats
by helping the former execute sustainable
business practices, and paying them a
premium to do so.
As the middleman, Niman secures
demand before it builds supply, ensuring farmers investment in sustainable
operations. Ten years ago we had a couple
hundred farmers and ranchers. Today, we
have more than 700. We bring them all on
one at a time, and only when were sure we
can do a good job helping them grow and
thrive.
Although Niman Ranch was acquired
last year by poultry giant Perdue Farms,

Tripician insists the relationship has helped
rather than hindered its mission. In fact,
he said its illustrating how agricultural
innovators can educate Big Ag to make the
entire food system more sustainable.
Were run as a separate company, but
we spend a lot of time talking to the Perdue
family about how to engage farmers at a
deeper level to provide them with greater
assurance and move in the direction of
more antibiotic-free, more organic product,
Tripician said. Theyre doing it the same
way we are, just with more zeros at the
end. And because of their scale, theyre
making a greater impact than we are.
For now, the impact is small. If food
systems can collaborate on sustainable
solutions, however, it will continue growing
diminishing the Chipotle effect with every
incremental step.
People have different definitions of what
sustainability is, but I think everybody
agrees that agriculture should be as sustainable as possible, Begemann said. How we
get there isnt a question of big agriculture
or small agriculture; its a question of how
big agriculture and small agriculture can
work together to accomplish a sustainable
food system by leveraging the capabilities of
both.
55
56
LIVESTOCK
DID YOU KNOW?
BY THE NUMBERS*
uEgg exports fell by 47 percent in November

2015 because of the avian flu outbreak; the
outbreak killed enough egg-laying chickens
to affect production, and several countries
banned imports of eggs from American
states experiencing outbreaks. The USDAs
export forecast for 2016 is only 330 million
dozen eggs, down from previous forecasts.
BROILERS
EGGS
Broilers inventory,
2014
Egg-layer inventory,
Feb. 1
BILLION
MILLION
8.5
uThe USDA has finalized new poultry

standards that could prevent as many as
50,000 foodborne illnesses each year.
The standards will help to reduce cases
of salmonella and similar diseases related
to ground poultry products as well as raw
chicken breasts, legs and wings; the latter
group of products accounts for 80 percent of
the chicken bought by American consumers.
351.8
Broiler production,
2014
Egg production,
2015
BILLION POUNDS
BILLION EGGS
Broilers, annual sales,

2014
Annual egg sales,

2014
BILLION
BILLION
51.4
uAbout 55 percent of all chicken is sold

through grocery stores, with the rest being
used in food service settings; 56 percent of
food service chicken goes toward fast food.
96.4
$32.7 $10.2
IN 2015, AMERICANS
ATE MORE CHICKEN PER CAPITA
THAN ANY OTHER TYPE OF MEAT
ALL POULTRY PRODUCTS
233,770
Number of farms
Turkey
16 pounds
Pork
49.9 pounds
Exports, 2015
Beef
53.9 pounds
$4.9
Chicken
90.1 pounds
BILLION
*ALL NUMBERS MOST RECENT AVAILABLE

LANCE CHEUNG/USDA; BOB NICHOLS/USDA; MAP AND ICONS: THINKSTOCK
CHICKEN & EGGS

TOP FIVE
EGG-PRODUCING STATES
Iowa
Ohio
Indiana
Pennsylvania
Texas
32.6 million egg-layers

30.8 million
26.9 million
23.7 million
15.6 million
TOP FIVE
BROILER-PRODUCING STATES
Georgia
Alabama
North Carolina
Arkansas
Texas
7.5 billion pounds

6.05 billion
6.04 billion
6.01 billion
3.6 billion
SOURCES: USDA, NATIONAL CHICKEN COUNCIL, UNITED EGG PRODUCERS
57
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58
LIVESTOCK
BY THE
NUMBERS
92
Inventory, Jan. 1
MILLION
23.7
MILLION
POUNDS
Annual cash receipts, 2015
$76.6
BILLION
Average live weight,

Feb. 27
1,380
POUNDS
KEITH WELLER/USDA; THINKSTOCK
BEEF
On the Fourth of July, Americans are most
likely to put these cuts of beef on the grill:
Strip
5.3 million
Brisket
3.2 million
Top sirloin
1.9 million
T-bone:
1.4 million
Porterhouse
1.1 million
Number of
beef producers
727,906
uThe 92 million cattle in the

U.S. as of Jan. 1 is the highest
number since 2011. At least
30 million are beef cows, up 4
percent from a year ago. And
34.3 million of them are calves,
a 2 percent increase.
uGround beef accounts for
more than half of all beef sold
during the summer.
uThere are more cattle farms
among the nations 2.1 million
farms than any other crop.
831
POUNDS
DID YOU KNOW?
SUMMER DELIGHTS
Ribeye
8.9 million lbs.
TOP BEEF STATES
Average dressed weight,

Feb. 27
Exports, 2015
THE MOST
CATTLE FARMS
Texas: 151,362
Missouri: 53,401
Oklahoma: 51,043
Kentucky: 40,141
Tennessee: 38,826
THE MOST
CATTLE
Texas: 11.2 million
Nebraska: 6.4 million
Kansas: 5.9 million
California: 5.4 million
Oklahoma: 4.2 million
$5.4
BILLION
SOURCE: USDA; THE BEEF CHECKOFF
59
60
LIVESTOCK
BY THE
NUMBERS
THE AVERAGE PIG

CREATES 207.5 POUNDS
OF MEAT AND OTHER
PORK PRODUCTS
68.3
Inventory, 2015*
IN POUNDS
Shoulder
MILLION
ANIMALS
22.2
Picnic
22.4
INCLUDING
10.9 LBS.
BLADE
ROAST
INCLUDING
16.1 LBS. BONELESS
PICNIC MEAT
Ham
52.6
INCLUDING
29.6 LBS.
CURED HAM
Annual production, 2014**
Loin
MILLION
POUNDS
22.6
Side
29.2
INCLUDING
16 LBS. CURED
BACON AND
7.9 LBS.
SPARE RIBS
Misc.
33.4
INCLUDING
13.1 LBS.
OF JOWLS,
FEET, TAIL,
ETC.
47.7
INCLUDING
16.6 LBS.
BONELESS
LOIN
Annual cash receipts, 2015
$19.5
BILLION
Average live weight, 2015
285
POUNDS
Average dressed weight,

2015
213
LANCE CHEUNG/USDA
PORK
TOP PORK-PRODUCING
STATES, BY HEAD, 2015:
Iowa
North Carolina
Minnesota
Illinois
Indiana
Nebraska
Missouri
Ohio
Oklahoma
South Dakota
21 million
8.8 million
8 million
5.1 million
3.7 million
3.3 million
3 million
2.5 million
2.1 million
1.4 million
POUNDS
THINKSTOCK
DID YOU KNOW?

uMexico is now the top market for U.S. pork
exports by volume, although Japan still spends more
on U.S. pork.
uThe U.S. Department of Agriculture believes that
large flexible totes used to transport pig feed ingredients from China into the United States may have been
the source of an outbreak of viral disease that killed
millions of pigs between May 2013 and September
2015; the department is now working to prove that the
virus can survive long transit times.
uLitter rates are on the rebound after the epidemic,
which hit piglets hardest, increasing 2.9 percent in 2015
to an estimated 10.5 piglets per litter.
Number of producers
55,882
Exports, 2015
$4.3
BILLION
*NOV. 30, 2014-DEC. 14, 2015

**MOST RECENT AVAILABLE
SOURCES: USDA; PORK CHECKOFF;

GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE
61
62
LIVESTOCK
BY THE
NUMBERS
9.3
Inventory, 2014*
THE
AVERAGE
AMERICAN
DRINKS ABOUT
19.1 GALLONS
OF MILK
EACH YEAR ...
MILLION
MILKING COWS
Estimated annual
milk production, 2015
208.5
... the lowest

amount since
1909
BILLION POUNDS
Annual milk sales, 2014*
$49.3
DID YOU KNOW?
BILLION
uRussias 2014 ban on food imports

from the European Union and the
United States, as well as a Chinese
slowdown on imports, continues to
limit both dairy exports and prices
from those regions.
Number of farms
46,005
uDairy is the second-most popular

category of organic food sold in the
U.S., accounting for 15 percent of all
organic food sold. Produce is most
popular, at 43 percent.
Exports**
MICHAEL CONROY/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS; THINKSTOCK
DAIRY
uGreek yogurt was the most heavily advertised dairy product during
the first week of March, accounting
for 28 percent of dairy ads, followed
by cheese at 23 percent, ice cream
with 14 percent and cream cheese
with 10 percent.
TOP CHEESE-PRODUCING STATES, IN POUNDS, 2015
$5.2
BILLION
*MOST
RECENT AVAILABLE
**ALL DAIRY PRODUCTS
U.S. PER CAPITA FLUID MILK CONSUMPTION, 2013

IN GALLONS; MOST RECENT AVAILABLE
South Dakota
278 million
Minnesota
679.5 million
Idaho
941 million
6.7
Wisconsin
3 billion
5.2
New York
805.7 million
California
2.4 billion
2.7
2.7
1.6
Pennsylvania
401.6 million
New Mexico
762 million
Iowa
244.1 million
Ohio
211.3 million
0.2
Plain
2% milk
35%
Plain
whole milk
27%
Plain
1% milk
14%
Skim
milk
14%
All flavored
milk
9%
Eggnog/
buttermilk
1%
SOURCE: USDA
63
64
HORTICULTURE
GARDEN
VARIETY
TOP
HORTICULTURAL
STATES
Operations
Sales
Both
NUMBER OF
OPERATIONS
Florida
2,069
California
1,710
Pennsylvania
1,397
North Carolina
SALES
WITH BEST-SELLING CROP
California
Nursery stock
$1.8 billion
Aquatic plants
Oregon
$932 million
Oregon
Michigan
$645 million
Bedding/garden plants
Retail garden
centers
$2.4 billion
Direct to
consumer
$2.1 billion
Landscape
contractors
$1.9 billion
Texas
Supermarkets
$1 billion
Sod
Landscape
redistribution
yards
$673 million
$593.8 million
23,221
HOW HORTICULTURAL
PRODUCTS ARE SOLD
Florida
Cut Christmas trees
TOTAL U.S. OPERATIONS
HINK OF FARMING, AND most people envision corn or wheat or soybeans. But
food crops arent the only ones produced in the United States; in 2014, more
than 23,000 horticulture operations specialized in growing $13.8 billion
worth of decorative plants and trees ranging from azaleas to zinnias.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been keeping tabs on horticulture
since 1889. Heres a look at what was being grown in 2014, according to the USDAs
10th and most recent horticultural specialties census, released in December 2015.
$2.9 billion
1,337
1,281
USDA tallies up the plants

that make America beautiful
TOTAL U.S. SALES
$13.8 BILLION
Wholesale florists
$539 million
Retail florists
$200.9 million
Nonprofit groups/
fundraisers
$92.3 million
Interiorscapers
$65.7 million
Other mass
marketers
$2.9 billion
Other marketing
channels
$1.9 billion
65
HORTICULTURE
23.7 million
$270.6 million
Azalea 14.7 million

Boxwood
11.8 million
Holly 10.3 million

9.8 million
$214.8 million
Juniper
Arborvitae 6.7 million

Maple (all varities)
6 million
Crepe myrtle 4.8 million

Rhododendron
3.6 million
All
Sales
$19.9 million
$5.6 million
$42.2 million
$4.4 million
$44.6 million
$13.6 million
$17.3 million
$82.4 million
$16.6 million
$32.2 million
$61.8 million
$81.3 million
Coleus
$102.9
million
Vinca
$222.8
million
Calibrachoa
$197.8
million
Combination
planter/color bowl
Hanging
(retail)
Marigold
Pots
(retail)
Begonias
Flats
(retail)
$27.5 million
$2.6 BILLION
Pansies
$523.4 MILLION
$44.1 million
TOTAL
Impatiens
RETAIL
Geraniums
ANNUAL BEDDING/
GARDEN PLANTS
Petunias
$80.4 million
$133.3 million
Oak 3.3 million
$186 million
Pine
MOST POPULAR FLOWERING

ANNUALS
$263 million
MOST POPULAR
TREES/EVERGREENS
CUT FLOWERS SOLD

WHOLESALE AND RETAIL
Tulip
$65.3 million
Lily
$65.3 million
Gerbera daisy
$35.2 million
RETAIL
Gladioli
$25.1 million
Rose
$22.2 million
$44.7 MILLION
TOTAL
Chrysanthemum
$15.1 million
Iris
$13.8 million
$458.1 MILLION
Sunflower
$13.8 million
Snapdragon
$12.2 million
Dahlia
$10.4 million
IMAGES: THINKSTOCK
66
HORTICULTURE
TOP SUCCULENT GROWERS
SALES OF ALL
HORTICULTURAL
SPECIALTY CROPS
SEEDS SOLD
IN CENSUS YEARS
Vegetable seeds
Ve
Vegetable
37.1
MILLION
2014
$13.8 billion
pounds
$135.1
MILLION
2009
sales
$11.7 billion
$117.9 million
wholesale
1998
$17.2 million
retail
$10.6 billion
Flower seeds
F lower
3.8
MILLION
1988
$4.8 billion
pounds
$31.6
MILLION
1979
$3.2 billion
sales
$28.7 million
wholesale
$2.9 million
retail
California
Arizona
6.1 MILLION 2.1 MILLION
Florida
Texas
190,097
133,829
Wisconsin
109,562
TOP FLOWER SEEDS

Sweet alyssum
29,094
pounds
Marigold
3,166
pounds
Sweet pea
329
pounds
$960.9 million
1959
$515.7 million
3.8 MILLION POUNDS TOTAL
Wildflowers
874,070
pounds
1970
North Carolina
98,030
Virginia
24,281
Hawaii
Michigan
10,200
4,520
Pennsylvania
2,245
1949
$300.6 million
TOTAL NUMBER SOLD
TOTAL SALES
10.5 MILLION
All Other 2.9 million pounds
$40.9 MILLION
1929
$192.1 million
1889
$26.2 million
TOP HORTICULTURE COMMODITIES

INCREASE FROM PREVIOUS CENSUS YEAR, 2009
Nursery
stock
Annual bedding/
garden plants
Sod, sprigs
and plugs
Potted flowering
plants
Potted herbaceous
perennials
Food crops under

protection
$4.27
billion
11%
$2.57
billion
11%
$1.14
billion
30%
$1.08
billion
24%
$945
million
12%
$797
million
44%
SOURCE: USDA CENSUS OF HORTICULTURAL SPECIALTIES, 2014
67
68
69
Farmer and Bachelor star Chris Soules

meets with National
FFA Organization
members at the
Executive Women in
Agriculture conference in December.
Groups such as the
FFA help young
people learn about
agriculture.
JEFF HAYNES/INVISION FOR BASF/AP IMAGES
STARTING EARLY
Youth organizations encourage students to try farming

By Diana Lambdin Meyer
TYPICAL DAY IN Randy Lambdins

3,000-acre grain operation
requires the Illinois farmer to
communicate job responsibilities
to his employees and two sons
who work with him. He then meets with
a sales representative or two from various
chemical or grain companies before heading

out to a meeting with the soil and water
conservation department or the Environmental Protection Agency to learn how the
latest government guidelines will affect his
business.
While he certainly learned some of
these skills from the six generations of his
family who farmed before him and from a
bachelors degree in agronomy, Lambdin, 55,

credits much of his knowledge and success,
which includes the title Master Farmer,
as selected by Prairie Farmer magazine,
to his membership in the National FFA
Organization, formerly the Future Farmers
of America, during his high school years.
CO N T I N U E D
70
Keri Moore, 14,

of Meridian, Miss.,
shows off Dolly,
a 17-week-old
rose comb brown
leghorn hen that
won awards at the
Lauderdale County (Miss.) Fairs
4-H competition
last September.
4-H members get
hands-on experience in raising
farm animals.
I think a lot of passionate individuals come out of high

school into college and miss much of the camaraderie and
like-mindedness that we find in 4-H and FFA.
Stephanie George, college senior and Agriculture Future of America ambassador
FFA members
Danny Quinn,
left, and David
Townsend display
their red romaine
lettuce plants,
grown from
seeds from the
same lot sent to
the International
Space Station, at a
Washington, D.C.,
event in October.
Both FFA and
NASA promote
careers in science
and technology.
ROGELIO V. SOLIS/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS; LANCE CHEUNG, USDA
FFA taught me how to communicate

with a diverse number of people, which is
far more important in farming than many
people would think, said Lambdin. FFA
teaches leadership and communication
skills that give you the confidence to speak
with bankers and other professionals who
will help you reach your goals on the
farm.
Founded in Kansas City, Mo., in
1928 in part because young men
were losing interest in farming as
a career, FFA today has more than
625,000 young men and women
in chapters throughout the U.S.,
Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin
Islands, its highest membership
numbers ever.
If it was a challenge nearly
90 years ago to keep kids on the
farm, consider the challenges in the
21st century, when technology has
opened so much more of the world to
young people than ever before. FFA, 4-H
and other youth agriculture organizations
today should really have their hands full.
But thats not necessarily the case,
according to Shanna Finnegan, FFA chapter
adviser at Firelands High School in Oberlin,
Ohio.
Our students are driving the change and
leading with the message that agriculture is
so much more than cows and plows, said
Finnegan.
Finnegan, who was an FFA member when
she was in high school in the 1990s, has
witnessed the shift from a predominantly
white, male organization to one where male
and female students of all ethnicities and
family backgrounds now actively participate. Of the 90 students in her chapter, only
a handful come from what many would
consider a traditional family farm operation.
Young people who dont live on a farm
are still interested in what FFA is about and
can participate in experiential learning
projects, she said. For example, one
student who lives in town without any
land has an arrangement with a local
goat cooperative for his livestock
experience. Another student is
raising chickens in the backyard.
Finnegan and others credit the
current trend toward healthier
eating in the U.S. with some of
todays interest in agriculture,
particularly among those who
dont have a farm background. But
savvy, career-minded young people
are also aware that some of the
best jobs in their future will involve
feeding a growing population on less
available land.
And that is the challenge for educators
and agriculture-related youth organizations to better prepare young people for
the massive number of industry jobs that
are available today as well as those jobs
that have not yet been identified in the 21st
century. The U.S. Department of Agriculture
reports that in the five years between 2015
and 2020, nearly 58,000 new jobs will be

created annually for those with degrees
in food, agriculture, renewable natural
resources or the environment. More than
15,000 of those annual jobs are science and
engineering related.
In an effort to meet that challenge,
the University of Minnesota Center for
Youth Development, which oversees the
states 4-H initiative, created a science of
agriculture specialist position, the nations
first extension service role designed to
put greater emphasis on science skills and
exposure to ag science careers in the 4-H
curriculum.
Former West Virginia high school FFA
adviser Josh Rice landed the job.
In many ways, 4-H is shifting back to
its roots by sharing new and developing
techniques from the land grand universities,
but combining this with projects that teach
real job skills for our changing world, said
Rice, who started his job in 2015. Since
then, at least four other state extension
programs have hired or are in the process of
hiring a similar science specialist.
The four primary goals of the Science in
Agriculture Challenge in Minnesota, the first
of its kind in 4-H, are:
uSTEM emphasis (science, technology,
engineering and mathematics)
uCritical thinking and communications
skills
uAgriculture literacy (educating the
public about the food process)
uExposure to careers in agriculture.
In designing programs with these goals
in mind, Rice recognizes that 4-Hs unique
strength, as an extracurricular activity, is
the ability to address very local needs and
quickly adapt to changing conditions. For
example, when the avian flu prevented
225 Minnesota 4-Hers from showing their
poultry at the state fair, the students worked
with local experts and designed posters
and other media that demonstrated their
knowledge of poultry and served a dual
purpose as an agriculture literacy tool for
the general public who attended the fair.
With about 6 million U.S. students ranging
in age from 5 to 21 years of age, 4-H is in
a key position to launch young people on
their agriculture career path. While many
participants are children and grandchildren
of 4-Hers, Rice is particularly excited about
the opportunities to reach first-generation
4-H members.
We have a large Somali and Hmong
immigrant population in Minnesota who
have never been exposed to the educational
benefits and experiences of 4-H, which
makes it particularly exciting to plan unique
programs for those communities, he said.
The dominant youth agriculture organizations in this country, 4-H and FFA, are not
alone in their efforts to prepare young
people and educate the public. AFA, the
Agriculture Future of America, was founded
in 1996 to connect talented college men
CO N T I N U E D
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72
NATIONAL FFA
ORGANIZATION
uOriginally called the Future
Farmers of America, the group
began in 1928 in Kansas City
as a way to keep boys from
leaving the farm for other career
opportunities.
uMembers today come from
all 50 states and two U.S.
territories; more than 629,000
students belong to 7,575
chapters.
uFamous alumni include actor
Matthew Fox (Lost); singers
Taylor Swift and Tim McGraw;
and Olympic gold medalists
Rulon Gardner and Stacy Dragila.
uFFA adopted its iconic blue
corduroy jacket as official wear
in 1933 after the Fredericktown,
Ohio, chapter rocked the look at
the annual convention.
4-H
LOGOS: COURTESY OF THE ORGANIZATIONS; PHOTOS: COURTESY OF RANDY LAMBDIN
uFormed in 1902 in Ohio as

a series of clubs to promote
agriculture as a career, 4-H is
now the primary youth mentoring organization for the USDAs
Cooperative Extension Service.
uMore than 6 million students
belong to the organization,
which has about 25 million
alumni.
uThe four Hs are the values
followed by members: Head
(managing and thinking), Heart
(relating and caring), Hands
(giving and working) and Health
(being and living).
uFamous alumni include sports
figures Johnny Bench and Pat
Summitt; Garfield creator Jim
Davis; and former first lady
Rosalynn Carter.
SOURCES: NATIONAL FFA
ORGANIZATION; 4-H
Illinois farmer
Randy Lambdin,
seen at top harvesting his crops, credits
FFA with his success
in the fields.
and women interested in

careers in agriculture with
leadership and career
development opportunities.
Stephanie George, a
senior at Washington State
University in Pullman, Wash.,
majoring in agriculture food
systems and economic sciences, is a student ambassador
for AFA.
I think a lot of passionate
individuals come out of high school into
college and miss much of the camaraderie
and like-mindedness that we find in 4-H
and FFA, yet still havent found a focus for
their career, said George.
AFA is known for leadership conferences
that pair students with industry leaders
to discuss problems and challenges facing
agriculture, as well as job opportunities
and other issues. George, who was in 4-H
throughout her youth in rural western
Washington, plans to attend law school at

Montana State University and specialize in
agriculture policy. Her motivation comes,
in part, from what she has learned through
AFA conferences.
Because so much of our society is so far
removed from the food production process,
our government leaders, those who make
our laws, often do not have an accurate
perception of what agriculture is about,
she said. This is where I think I can make a
difference.
Georges observations astutely validate
goals established by 4-H and FFA, as well
as the real-life experience of Illinois farmer
Randy Lambdin. While a number of skills
and talents are beneficial in this career
choice, communication and leadership
prowess are those that cross all industry
lines for a successful career in agriculture.
Editors note: Randy Lambdin is writer Diana
Lambdin Meyers brother.
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74
FRESH
FARMERS
MELISSA PASANEN/BURLINGTON (VT.) FREE PRESS; LANCE CHEUNG/USDA; MARJI GUYLER-ALANIZ/FARMHER INC.
Groups under-represented in agriculture find their way to the field
By Erik Schechter
ARRIE MESS GREW UP as a city

girl in Madison, Wis. But in
high school, she met her future
husband, Patrick, whose parents
owned a dairy farm. So years later,
after the two married, she decided to give
up her sales and marketing career and move
to the farm.
Its pretty difficult going from a life
where you can order pizza and Chinese
(food) to your house to living in the country,
where you dont have delivery or a day off,
she said. But I really found my passion.
On the Messes dairy farm in Watertown,
Wis., the main veterinarian is female, as
is the hired hand, and Mess, 33, is a board

member of the newly formed Dairy Girl
Network, which supports women in the
industry.
Call it a sign of the times.
U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics
show that the average farmer is a white man
who is 58.3 years old and has been farming
for more than 10 years. Often, hes working
land that has been in his family for more
than a generation. But others women,
young newbies, African Americans and
veterans have been availing themselves of
professional networking groups and government programs to make it in agriculture.
The USDA will spend $5.6 billion during
the next two years to help new farmers and
ranchers enter the field, with a focus on

attracting veterans, women and students.
FARMING WHILE FEMALE
In 2013, three years after she quit her job

at Rain and Hail, a leading crop insurance
company, Marji Guyler-Alaniz founded
FarmHer, a group that promotes the image
of women in agriculture.
I travel to farms all over the United States
a lot of them in Iowa and in the Midwest,
but all over and photograph women
actively working on farms and ranches, or
maybe even in ag businesses, Guyler-Alaniz
explained.
CO N T I N U E D
The U.S. Department of Agriculture

has numerous programs to encourage
African Americans,
veterans and women
to join the ranks of
farmers.
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76
According to the USDAs

female farmer might go to a
2012 Census of Agriculture,
meeting of a local farmingreleased in 2014, women
related organization and be
comprise 30 percent of
the only woman there. But
all farm producers and 14
she can find organizations
percent of primary farm
that specifically support
operators, both numbers
women in agriculture, such
down from the previous
as American Agri-Women,
census in 2007.
Annies Project and the Dairy
But those figures only
Girl Network.
reflect part of the picture,
Here, in Iowa, we have
she said; women are taking
the Women, Food and Ag
on a more active, outdoor
Network, Guyler-Alaniz
role in the farm.
said. And that is focused on
Many of them are
women in that smaller-scale,
OF ALL AMERICAN
involved in livestock. You
chemical-free, organic-type
FARMERS ARE BLACK
see a lot of women on
arena, so (were) connecting
ranches. You see a lot of
women through that.
women involved in specialty
THE ROMANCE
crops and niche marketing,
said Krysta Harden, the
OF FARMING
Besides being predomiUSDAs former deputy
nantly male, agriculture is
secretary of agriculture.
old.
And, Guyler-Alaniz said,
Farmers over the age of 65
they are also graduating at
outnumber farmers under
super-increasing numbers
35 by a margin of six to
from college-level agriculone, said Chelsey Simpson,
tural business programs. At
communications director for
Iowa State University, for
the National Young Farmers
example, women constitute
Coalition.
49 percent of the underOF RECENT HIRES
Bucking this trend, young
graduate enrollment in the
AT THE USDA HAVE
people are returning to the
College of Agriculture and
BEEN MILITARY
land. These university grads
Life Sciences, a 9 percent
VETERANS
and former office workers
increase since 2004.
want to set up new famI just got off the phone
ily farms of their own and
with a young woman who
engage in direct-market
is managing the entire
sales to neighboring cities.
business side of a large,
The problem is that, being
pecan-growing operation in
first-generation farmers, they
Texas, she added.
lack both experience and
Still, women report to
land.
Guyler-Alaniz that theyre
There are apprenticeships
treated dismissively:
to help fill in the gaps in
They say, My husband
professional knowledge,
and I walked into a tractor
Simpson noted. But firstdealership together but
generation farmers are
they dont look at me as
at a major disadvantage
part of the decision-making
OF ALL FARM
compared with those who
process.
PRODUCERS
come from farm families,
Harden has noticed this
where land is passed on from
continuing trend as well.
ARE WOMEN
generation to generation.
In an interview before she
THINKSTOCK
Between 2004 and 2014,
left the USDA in February,
national farm values more
she said, I had a young
than doubled, from $1,360 per acre to
woman I think she was in North Dakota
$2,950 per acre. Buying land (as well as
at one of our roundtables who ... went the
other necessities) may require taking out a
first time to market her grain. The person,
massive loan against slim first-year profits.
just not knowing, said, Wheres your
In some cases, their education may work
father? Wheres your husband? Wheres
against them. If youve got that (student
your brother? And she said, I dont have
loan) debt already on your balance sheet,
any of those. (But) I think its changing; its
when you go to apply for a loan for land
evolving.
thats not going to look favorable to a
Then there are the feelings of isolation. A
1.4%
20%
30%
lending institution, Simpson said.

One place new farmers can turn to for
financial assistance is the USDAs Farm
Service Agency, which offers microloans of
up to $50,000.
The National Young Farmers Coalition is
supporting the Young Farmers Success Act, a
bill introduced in the House of Representatives last June. The bill, which has been
referred to committee, would add farmers
to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness
Program, which allows individuals in certain
professions to have their student loans
forgiven after they make qualified payments
for 10 years.
I think (student loan debt as a barrier
to entry is) an issue that we do need to
address, Harden said. But, she added, it
would take a change in tax policy to allow
any type of forgiveness or change.
STRUGGLING FOR A FOOTHOLD
According to the USDAs 2012 census, 1.4

percent of all American farmers are black.
Thats 44,629 African-American farmers, a
smallish number, but a 12 percent increase
since 2007.
Andre Peer is one of those farmers,
working land in eastern Arkansas owned
by his family as well as rented acres. Peer
had worked at USDAs Natural Resources
Conservation Service, but feeling confined
indoors, began farming in 2002, growing
rice, wheat, soybean, milo and corn.
I like to be an outdoors person, he said.
I grew up on the farm, driving tractors and
playing in the soil.
African Americans face a number of
challenges, he said. First, they generally
dont inherit land, equipment and grain
storage facilities as many of their white
counterparts do. Peers family owns just 117
acres tiny by local standards.
Second, theres sometimes a lack of
access to money.
In 1997, a group of black farmers filed
a class-action lawsuit against the USDA,
claiming discrimination with regard to
loans, and that their complaints had not
been investigated. Two years later, the
plaintiffs won Pigford v. Glickman, a victory
that paved the way for other payments
related to discrimination.
I think that past practices, past ways
of thinking probably did impact young
peoples decision to stay on the farm or
go back to a farm, because they had seen
or felt there was discrimination, Harden
said. I think weve turned a new leaf at
USDA. I think our employees are very proud
that we are embracing of people of color,
of gender, different ways of life, different
backgrounds.
Still, Peer said, there are loan officers
GOVERNMENT HELP FOR NEW FARMERS
stuck in their old-fashioned ways, which

can be discouraging for an African-American
farmer.
FROM SERVICE TO FARM
Military veterans are finding that the

federal government is offering them more
tools to get into agriculture, but many
producers still struggle to get through the
paperwork and red tape.
Aaron White, a livestock and vegetable
farmer from Carlisle, Iowa, who served four
years in the U.S. Marine Corps, said at an
October USDA roundtable that he has not
used the departments services.
I think the services out there are great,
said White, who wasnt sure how to ask
for help or whether he had the money to
participate in some of the programs. I have
not personally used any of the services
through USDA because I am somewhat
intimidated by the process.
The transition from the battlefield to the
farm field underscores a growing trend in
America: As thousands of young military
personnel leave the service, many are
finding themselves drawn to the prospect
of jobs on farms and ranches scattered
throughout the countryside, according to
the Farmer Veteran Coalition of Iowa, which
works with farm groups to put veterans to
work in agriculture.
USDA officials said even though
rural America makes up 17 percent of the
population, it accounts for 44 percent of the
men and women who served in the military.
The department has expanded its
outreach in recent years to veterans. The
2014 farm bill required the USDA to make
veterans a priority and established a liaison
at the department to help farmers understand agriculture programs and advocate
for their interests. Its already paying off,
with about 20 percent of recent hires at the
department being military veterans.
We look for veterans, said Agriculture
Secretary Tom Vilsack. We know what
(veterans) bring to the table: tremendous
skills, experiences, knowledge and the
capacity to deal with a crisis situation.
The USDA is working with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Defense
Department to reach military personnel
before they leave the service to present
farming as a career option.
We do understand the restorative
value of linking growers back to the land
and having a positive experience growing
something and producing something,
Vilsack said. Unfortunately, for whatever
reason, agriculture is not the first thing
(new veterans) think of.
Christopher Doering contributed to this story.
uusda.gov/newfarmers provides personalized information on where new farmers can get assistance and advice.
uebenefits.va.gov/ebenefits leads veterans to resources where they can learn more about farming as a career (search for farming).
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Indoor farms use LED

lights that emit only specific
red and blue frequencies of
the visible light spectrum
needed for plant growth,
causing an eerie pink glow.
PLOT TWISTS
Unusual locations shift the perspective
on where food can be grown
By Brian Barth
ENE GIACOMELLI HAS AN unusual

rsum for a horticulturist.
As the director of the Controlled Environment Agriculture
Center at the University of
Arizona, he has helped to develop a
greenhouse capable of growing crops on
the moon and worked on the design for
the Antarctic growth chamber, which
has provided fresh greens and veggies to
American scientists at the Amundsen-Scott
South Pole Station since 2004.
But mostly, Giacomellis work has been to
elevate the humble greenhouse from a place
to start seedlings in spring to a venue for the
full crop cycle, from seed to harvest.
Technological advances such as
nutrient sensors, CO2 enrichment, hydroponics, all of it computer-controlled have

transformed greenhouses into optimized
growing environments that cant be
replicated in the field. And rapid advances
in LED lighting technology have made the
greenhouse itself an optional component,
hence the term controlled environment
agriculture (CEA) a catch-all phrase for
any type of indoor commercial growing,
whether its inside a dark warehouse or on a
sunny rooftop.
As a production system, CEAs provide
a greater degree of certainty compared to
the open field, said Giacomelli. You know
when the crop is going to be harvested, how
much youll have, and you have a reasonable
guarantee of a good-tasting product.
The controlled environment agriculture
market in North America, which is centered

on hydroponic vegetable production, is
now worth approximately $21.4 billion
and is expected to increase to about $36.9
billion by 2023, according to a September
2015 report by the research firm Manifest
Mind. Demand for fresh, local, sustainably
produced food is a top driver for the
industry, said Giacomelli.
These systems can be put almost
anywhere, he said. And the exciting thing
to me is that its allowing a lot of young
people who were not born into agriculture,
who never had their hands in the dirt, to
begin growing and selling food.
Meet four such individuals and learn
about the companies theyre building.
CO N T I N U E D
JENNIFER KATHRYN PHOTOGRAPHY
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80
REPURPOSING THE ROOFTOP
GIVING NEW MEANING TO FACTORY FARM
Gotham Greens
New York and Chicago
Founded: 2009
FarmedHere
Bedford Park, Ill., and Louisville
Founded: 2011
Working in the sunshine is one perk of the farming lifestyle, but
the pinkish glow of LED grow lights has a different sort of allure.
Weeds are nonexistent in a controlled indoor growing environment, for example, and there is no noise or exhaust from diesel
equipment to put up with.
Yet Matt Matros, CEO of FarmedHere, the largest indoor
vertical farm in the country with a 90,000-square-foot facility
in the Chicago area and a 60,000-square-foot facility planned
for Louisville, said there is another, often overlooked, benefit of
growing under lights: When youre not reliant on sunlight, you
can stack the crops on top of each other, floor to ceiling.
The 3-D arrangement combined with high-yielding hydroponic
methods means for every acre of indoor space we have, weve
replaced 30 acres of outdoor space, Matros said.
Another plus: With total environmental control, crops are less
susceptible to pests and disease, meaning CEA growers are less
likely to need chemical controls.
We use beneficial insects, said Matros. I call them probiotics
the good bugs that eat the bad bugs.
Finding an all-natural nutrient solution that provides everything
a crop needs in a soilless environment has been one of the
stumbling blocks for many CEA operations to achieve organic
status, but in 2012, FarmedHere broke that barrier, becoming
the first certified organic indoor vertical farm in the country. Not
that Matros is willing to share the ingredients of their nutrient
solution: I have to be a little cagey about it, he said. Thats our
secret sauce right now.
CO N T I N U E D
GOTHAM GREENS
Gotham Greens owners Viraj Puri, Eric Haley and Jennifer Nelkin Frymark employ 125
people in their rooftop gardens, which produce 20 million heads of lettuce and other salad
greens from sites including the roof of a Whole Foods Market in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Viraj Puri came to agriculture by way of a

career in ecological design and sustainable
development. Working on projects in India,
Malawi and elsewhere early in his career, he
was exposed to a variety of green building
systems, including greenhouses.
The technology of the greenhouse really
appealed to me, especially the resource
efficiency, said Puri. Greenhouses can be
very resource-intensive, make no mistake,
but they can also be very energy-efficient,
very water-efficient and very crop-efficient.
Technology is the enabler, but its really a
matter of what we do with it.
As co-founder and CEO of Gotham
Greens, the largest rooftop vegetable grower
in the nation, both in terms of size and
production, Puri has done wonders with
CEA technology. He and his two business
partners oversee 170,000 square feet of
greenhouse space across four facilities

(three in New York City and one in Chicago)
producing 20 million heads of lettuce and
other greens per year, all with systems that
utilize 100 percent renewable energy and
recycle 100 percent of irrigation water.
Employing 125 people and having raised
more than $30 million in outside capital to
date, Puri said, weve demonstrated that
this is not just a proof of concept, its a
tangible, profitable business.
Locating on unused rooftop space is one
key to farming profitably in places where
a tiny plot of land costs millions, but it
also helps to be in such close proximity to
customers. For the Gotham Greens facility
on top of Whole Foods Market in Brooklyn,
N.Y., for example, the delivery route is the
length of an elevator ride. Were cutting out
the middlemen, Puri said with a grin.
JENNIFER KATHRYN PHOTOGRAPHY
Matt Matros, CEO of FarmedHere, the largest indoor vertical farm in the U.S., says his companys controlled-environment
agriculture methods can produce 30 acres worth of vegetables in
a 1-acre warehouse.
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FARMING IN THE GREAT WHITE NORTH
INDOOR INSECT NURSERY
Vertical Harvest Hydroponics

Anchorage
Founded: 2013
Aspire Food Group

Austin and Kade, Ghana
Founded: 2013
Several years ago, Cameron Willingham, a

lifelong Alaskan gardener and CEA research
technician at the University of Alaska in
Anchorage, was at a party when he struck
up a conversation with Daniel Perpich, a
business consultant and former military
man who had done a tour of duty at a base
in the Arctic.
He said the price of lettuce up there was
$14 a head, even though it was brown and
nasty, recalled Willingham.
A light bulb went off between the two
men, and a few weeks later, they sat down
to draft a business plan for Vertical Harvest
Hydroponics, now a fledgling company
that is starting to bring CEA technology to
isolated northern communities.
People are finding some great niches in
urban areas with controlled environment
ag, said Willingham, but we see it as being
a perfect fit for inaccessible places, for really
extreme environments.
The cost and complexities of building CEA

systems in Alaskas remote communities,
few of which have year-round road access,
led Vertical Harvest to adopt a novel approach: outfitting shipping containers the
8-foot-wide-by-40-foot-long metal boxes
designed to move goods by truck, train or
boat with hydroponic growing equipment
at their facility in Anchorage, which can
then be trucked across seasonal ice roads to
their destination or shipped by barge during
the warm season. This spring, they will send
their first model, a turnkey system capable
of producing 23,000 heads of lettuce per
year, to a farmer in Dillingham, a tiny fishing
village on Alaskas Bristol Bay.
We dont want to just hand off the equipment and say good luck, said Willingham.
Our model is to couple the equipment
with technical support to help people
become major producers in their respective
communities.
ZEV THOMPSON
Mohammed Ashour, CEO of Aspire Food Group, holds a grasshopper in Oaxaca, Mexico, where they are prized as a food source.
VERTICAL HARVEST HYDROPONICS
Vertical Harvest Hydroponics owners Daniel Perpich, Linda James and Cameron Willingham use shipping containers as portable greenhouses that will be able to bring fresh produce
to isolated communities with less-than-perfect farming conditions.
CEA growers excel at providing hyperlocal greens, herbs,

tomatoes and other vegetables, but generally leave carbohydrate
and protein crops to farmers in rural areas. A group of former
MBA students from McGill University is starting to change that
paradigm, but not by growing corn and soybeans in a greenhouse
theyre raising insects, high-quality, organic, made-for-humanconsumption crickets, said Gabriel Mott, COO of Austin-based
Aspire Food Group. Insects are far more sustainable than any
existing livestock.
It may come as a surprise, he adds, but there are a lot of startups in the U.S. that use cricket powder in a variety of packaged
foods.
Aspires modest warehouse on the outskirts of Austin has
the capacity to produce 7 million crickets, which are raised in
bathtub-size plastic bins stacked together in rows like a giant
filing cabinet, per week. Even as their domestic production ramps
up, the company is already expanding overseas to tap markets
where entomophagy insect eating is the norm. Aspires
facility outside Accra, the capital of Ghana, supplies the West
African market with palm weevil larvae, a local delicacy.
Anywhere that people traditionally eat insects, they cost
more than beef or chicken, so we want to bring modern cultural
techniques to the production of insects to drive the price down,
said Mott, of the companys social mission. Our goal is to provide
access to quality food for people living in urban slums.
In North America, however, insects occupy a tiny niche in the
upscale food market Aspire sells whole crickets for $38 per
pound.
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86
By Stephanie Anderson Witmer
NATURAL
SELECTION
Demand for organic products leads
to an increased need for feed
REMY GABALDA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
A French farmer examines organic corn that will be used for feed for organic chickens. American farmers are turning overseas for their organic feed supply as demand increases.
TROLL AROUND YOUR LOCAL

grocery store and youre bound
to spot the green-and-white U.S.
Department of Agriculture organic
seal on everything from peas and
pizza to cereal and celery.
While fruits and vegetables account for
most organic-food sales, animal-based
organic products such as meat, poultry, eggs
and dairy are also gaining popularity. This
may sound like great news for growers, but
American organic meat, poultry and dairy
farmers face a significant stumbling block
to meeting increasing consumer demand
access to organic feed for their animals.
For a gallon of milk, a carton of eggs
or a New York strip steak to be certified
organic, the animals from which these foods
come must eat a strictly organic diet. (Even
bedding and straw for windbreaks must be
organic, as theres a chance the animal could
consume it.) Depending on the animal and
how its raised, this organic diet consists,
at least in part, of organic feed. And its not
cheap; organic feed is often double or triple
the cost of conventional feed, said Kevin
Ellis, a poultry specialist at the National
Center for Appropriate Technology in San
Antonio.
For poultry, the amount of feed you
need to source is fairly significant, Ellis
said; it can be as high as 2 pounds per day
for a broiler chicken. A lot of people are
doing pastured chicken (raised outdoors)
now, but you still need that feed ration to
either produce a reliable number of eggs or
get meat off of the chicken. For cattle (which
eat about 2 percent of their body weight per
day), it depends how theyre raising them
and how theyre finishing them. If theyre
doing pasture, their feed cost is going to be
a little bit lower.
The demand for organic animal products
CO N T I N U E D
87
88
and by extension, organic animal feed is

said Rakola. If youre converting from a
outpacing the U.S. supply of organic corn
conventional system and suddenly youre
and other feed crops. According to data
going to crop rotation, manure and cover
from USDAs Economic Research Service
crops, she said, figuring out how to deal
(ERS), organic crops account for less than 1
with all those different factors can be a big
percent of the total acreage for each of the
challenge.
top three feed crops: corn, soybeans and
Additionally, the current agricultural
wheat.
infrastructure was created to accommodate
Similarly, the yields of conventional feed
conventional, not organic, farming, said
crops far exceed those of their organic
David Fairfield, senior vice president of feed
counterparts. Organic corn yields were 41
services at the National Grain and Feed
bushels per acre lower than conventional
Association. Grain and feed commodities are
yields; organic soybeans, 12 bushels per
typically gathered from a variety of sources
acre lower; and organic wheat, 9 bushels
and comingled, then sent on through the
per acre lower. All of this translates to less
distribution chain. This system doesnt work
feed.
for organics.
Were hearing from our livestock proIts very important to maintain the
ducers that theyre having a really hard time
integrity of the organic product, said
finding organic feed, said Betsy Rakola, a
Rakola. Thats not easy with bulk grains.
USDA organic policy adviser. Some of them
Theres a lot of dust, theres a lot of cleaning
are getting it from overseas, and theyre
procedures our handlers have to take on to
starting to import increasing quantities of
ensure that organic product is organic from
organic grains from other
start to finish. Getting
countries. Its not like
those feed mills or grain
theyre doing it because
elevators or trucks to take
Organic feed
its cheaper; theyre doing
on that additional burden
it because they dont know
of segregating products
can be double
what else to do.
and having that separate
While importing organic
supply chain creates a real
or triple the
grain from Europe, South
challenge.
cost of convenAmerica and Asia can
Supermarket shoppers
help ease the immediate
arent the only ones retional feed, and
supply crunch, experts
sponsible for the increased
demand for it is
expect consumer demand
demand for organic feed.
for organic animal-based
Both independent and
on the rise.
foods to increase, requirchain retailers are stocking
ing even more organic
their shelves with organic
grain production.
feed.
Theres a lot of energy right now in the
One of the largest, Tractor Supply Co.,
U.S. to grow the organic feed-grain sector,
caters to lifestyle rather than production
said Catherine Greene, a senior agricultural
farmers, selling a variety of livestock and
economist with ERS. Its coming from
small-animal feeds. In 2014, following
investors, from food manufacturers, from
customer demand and a successful test run,
people that work with farming associations,
TSC began selling 5-, 10- and 40-pound
from a lot of different directions.
bags of organic poultry feed in all of its
But organic farming takes time. It takes
stores, said Steve Barbarick, TSCs executive
at least three years for American farmers
vice president and chief merchandising
to earn the USDAs organic certification.
officer.
The process, however, can cost thousands
Most of these sales have been of the
of dollars, and during that waiting period,
smaller bags, he said, which suggests
farmers miss out on the higher profits from
these customers are individuals or families
marketing and selling their products as
keeping backyard coops to raise their own
certified organic.
organic eggs.
Theyre really concerned theyll be out of
Barbarick anticipates this demand will
business before they can get those organic
continue to grow. So far, he describes the
premiums, said Ellis.
customer desire for organic feed as broadThis uncertainty, he said, leads some
based across its nearly 1,500 stores in 49
farmers to practice sustainable farming but
states, not specific to any one area of the
skip official certification, instead marketing
country.
their goods as GMO-free or pesticide-free.
The companys next step may be to test
They might be minimizing risk, but theyre
how well organic sheep and goat feed sell
also minimizing potential profits. Current
in a small number of stores, but, Barbarick
ERS data shows organic corn and soybeans
said, were not quite there yet.
command significantly higher prices than
And, just as they do at the grocery store
conventional crops $5 to $10 more per
or farmers market, TSC customers pay more
bushel of corn, and $10 to $15 more per
for organic than conventional.
bushel of soybeans more than offsetting
The customer will end up paying about
higher organic production costs.
60 to 70 percent more for organic versus
Likewise, organic farmers can discover
what theyd get normally, Barbarick said,
that they face a steep learning curve or
but were finding theyre willing to pay for
lack deep generational farming knowledge,
that because they see value in it.
NEW PRODUCT OPTIONS
CHRISTINE ADAMS; GREEN HERON TOOLS
Ann Adams and Liz Brensinger show off products from

Green Heron Tools.
WOMENS WORK
When Liz Brensinger and Ann Adams expanded their
longtime gardening habits to provide produce for Adams
sons restaurant, they discovered a major hurdle: There
were very few farming tools designed specifically for
womens use.
With more than 1 million women working as farmers,
the pair realized that better equipment would find a
market. Using their combined backgrounds in nursing,
public health, research and farming, and with engineers
at Penn State University, they began to research how to
improve the equipment needed to farm efficiently and
comfortably. In 2009, they created Green Heron Tools.
The New Tripoli, Pa.-based company (greenherontools.
com) makes ergonomic farming and gardening tools
specifically for women.
When tools are designed for the 50th-percentile
man, thats not nearly appropriate for a womans body,
said Adams. It really does put women at risk (for injury).
... Women never noticed it because there was never
another option. Women told us from all over the country,
I just make do.
Green Heron sells its own products the HERShovel
and the HERSpadingfork created based on research
supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agricultures Small Business Innovation Research Program.
The company also serves as a dealer for other products
that arent made specifically for women but have been
tested and vetted by Adams, Brensinger and other female
farmers and gardeners. A popular item is a tractor hitch
that can be connected and disconnected while the driver
remains seated.
Now their customers rave about Green Herons products. Its not until people start telling you, then youre like,
Wow! This is why we wanted to do this in the first place!
said Brensinger. Its actually materially improving women
farmers quality of life.
Stephanie Anderson Witmer
uHeightappropriate
HERSpadingfork,
$84.95
uHERShovel,
a shovel-spade
hybrid, $66.49
89
90
AG TECH EVOLVES
These four visionaries work to make precision agriculture more user-friendly
By Brian Barth
VER THE LAST QUARTER

century, the concept of
precision agriculture has
come to embody many of
the hopes and opportunities for feeding a planet of 7.4 billion
and counting without depleting the
Earths resources.
The goal is to simultaneously
improve productivity, efficiency, profitability and sustainability, according
to Raj Khosla, a professor in the
department of crop and soil science
at Colorado State University and
founder of the International Society of
Precision Agriculture. In other words,
he said, doing more with less.
Technology is the enabler for
making that dream a reality. But as
agriculture becomes part of the glitzy
world of Big Data and the Internet of
Things, farmers are often left in the
lurch to figure out which technologies
will actually make a difference in their
unique circumstances. In response,
providers of agricultural technology
are reformulating their approach to
better meet the needs of their customers: busy farmers who cant afford the
time to troubleshoot new technology.
As farmers adopt the practices of
precision agriculture, and the technologies that go with it, Khosla suggests
evaluating each change in strategy by
how it will support what he calls the
Five Rs of precision agriculture: the
right input, in the right amount, to the
right place, at the right time, and in
the right manner.
These four ag tech companies are
trying to help farmers connect those
dots without overloading them with
data and gadgets they dont need.
EMPIRE UNMANNED
Joe Swart, a pilot with Empire Unmanned, the first agricultural drone service provider to receive FAA approval, launches
the SenseFly eBee Ag drone on an Idaho farm.
CRAIG CHANDLER/UNL COMMUNICATIONS
Vishal Singh and his start-up, Quantified Ag, are using telemetric ear tags on cattle to transmit biometric
health stats to a central database.
DRONES AS
TOOLS, NOT TOYS
CATTLE CARE
SIMPLIFIED
Unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly referred to as drones,

have tremendous potential as a data-gathering tool for
farmers. Outfitted with cameras and other sensors, they can
quickly fly over hundreds of acres to assess the health of a
crop. And now that inexpensive drones are widely available,
many farmers are beginning to dabble in the technology.
But there is a big gap between getting a drone in the air over
your field and getting useful information out of it, said Bradley
Ward, president of Empire Unmanned, an agricultural drone
service provider based in Hayden, Idaho.
You need to know how to process the data. ... Our drones
take about 500 photos for a 200-acre field; we put all of
those together into a single mosaic, and then the mosaic is
geo-rectified ... meaning every pixel is associated with GPS
coordinates, said Ward.
The drones cameras create a detailed 3-D image of the field,
capturing infrared light that reveals plant stress before it is visible. Empire Unmanned gives the data to an adviser who builds
seed, fertilizer and irrigation prescriptions for the field.
While Federal Aviation Administration regulations currently
bar the use of drones for commercial purposes, it does allow
some to fly with a Section 333 Exemption, which requires that
the operator have a recreational pilots license. Some farmers
are flying drones anyhow, risking citations and liability issues,
but Empire Unmanned became the first agricultural drone
service provider to receive a Section 333 exemption last year.
If theres an accident, insurance companies are not going to
pay if a farmer is breaking the rules, he said.
Precision agriculture is also revolutionizing the

livestock industry. Just as wearable devices help people
monitor their health, technology that tracks biometric
data for animals is becoming common. Slight changes
in vital stats reliably indicate infection early, allowing
farmers to provide treatment before symptoms are
visible, reducing herd losses and antibiotic use.
The drawback, said Vishal Singh, founder and CEO of
Lincoln, Neb.-based Quantified Ag, is that most wearable devices have caused more problems than they
have solved. One of the first wearable technologies
for cattle neck collars with built-in sensors were
cost-prohibitive and got caught on fencing.
Singh realized the solution was to embed sensors in
the one wearable already common to all commercial
livestock: identification ear tags.
We found that feed yards dont really want to
change their existing process, said Singh. Its like a
pit crew almost one person is giving (the animal)
a shot, someone else is taking its temperature and
another is putting on the ear tag. They typically spend
half a minute on each animal.
Once the ear tags are in place, a smartphone app
informs workers which holding pens have animals that
are in need of attention. A tiny LED light, visible even
in the sun, identifies the cow in question.
CO N T I N U E D
91
92
FARMER-FRIENDLY
USER INTERFACE
HANDS-ON
SOIL SCIENCE
ADAM BEH
Community members in Kenya try out the USDAs LandPKS apps, developed in
partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development.
FARMLOGS
The farmer-friendly FarmLogs app uses real-time satellite imagery to identify locations
where crop growth is weak, and provides GPS coordinates of the problem area.
Jesse Vollmar is one of those rare people
who is equally at home driving a combine
and writing computer code. The 27-yearold Michigan native is the co-founder and
CEO of FarmLogs, a phone app that tracks
real-time field data, but his outlook on
technology is rooted in his familys farm
outside Saginaw, not in a Silicon Valley
boardroom.
The inspiration for FarmLogs came from
his familys first efforts to digitize their
farming operations.They spent $750 on
some software that came on a CD, and
every year they had to buy a new CD for
$750 to get all the updates, he said. It was
so hard for them to use, they had to pay to
go to training seminars for it.
In contrast, the entry-level version of
FarmLogs is free and allows a user to see
what is happening in the field by tapping
a map on a smartphone. Soil types are
overlaid with up-to-the-minute rainfall
totals and heat unit accumulation. Farm

managers can log their field activities, such
as fertilizer application, irrigation intervals
and planting dates, or snap a GPS-tagged
photo of an impending insect invasion and
send it off to a farmhand with notes on the
best treatment protocol.
Pay-to-play upgrades glean data from
sensors embedded in the farmers phone
and from the on-board computers of
modern farm machinery, enabling advanced
features like custom nitrogen prescriptions,
which FarmLogs agronomists can upload
remotely to a farmers variable-rate
fertilizer spreader.
Designing for user experience was really
important to the popularization of modern
apps, but none of that was happening in
the ag tech space, said Vollmar. We saw a
huge opportunity to make software easier
for farmers, that would actually help them
unlock value from their land.
The vast majority of precision agriculture technology is geared for large-scale

operations feedlots, commodity crop
farms, etc. and is either too costly,
or simply irrelevant, for the needs
of small farmers. Which is why U.S.
Department of Agriculture soil scientist
Jeffrey Herrick is developing a suite of
apps for the little guy, collectively called
the Land Potential Knowledge System
(LandPKS).
The idea, said Herrick, who works
with the USDAs Agricultural Research
Service in Las Cruces, N.M., is to
provide the user with information on
how they might be able to increase
yields or find a different system thats
going to be better matched to their
particular type of land. Rather than
putting sensors on tractors and moving
across large acreages of land, were
putting tools in the hands of somebody
who can dig a hole and tap into the
huge wealth of knowledge that is tied to
their soil type.
The LandPKS apps are starting to
gain popularity among small farmers
in the U.S., but were originally created
for the developing world. Pulling up an
aerial photo of a rural area in Namibia,
Herrick pointed out the rich vegetation

on the right side of the image compared
with the relatively sparse landscape on
the left.
If you had a soil map, this would all
be mapped as the same soil. But if you
put in a little corn plot here, he said,
pointing to the right side of the image,
youre going to get a crop out of it even
if its a drought year. If you planted your
corn literally 20 paces away, youre not.
Standard soil maps do not provide
sufficient detail to inform the decisionmaking process for someone farming
just a few acres, Herrick said. The apps
require nothing more than a shovel and
a yardstick notched in five places to
take measurements. The user is guided
step-by-step through their own soil
analysis complete with short videos
to give a visual explanation of the
process which is then matched to a
specific soil type in the apps database.
Once youve got that, youve
suddenly opened up a world of information, said Herrick. Then you can look
at trade-offs between productivity and
sustainability, and ultimately identify
those win-win situations where you can
increase both.
The goal is to simultaneously improve productivity, efficiency, profitability and sustainability, doing more with less.
Raj Khosla, founder of the International Society of Precision Agriculture
93
94
CROP INVADERS
Border Patrol, farmers keep watch for unwelcome insect visitors
By Elizabeth Neus
Bugs and weeds top every farmers list of worries, but when the pest
comes from abroad, the threat is more difficult to fight. Heres a look
at some of the troublemakers trying to cross U.S. borders.
COCONUT
RHINOCEROS BEETLE
MEDITERRANEAN FRUIT FLY
Commonly known as the Medfly, this tiny but destructive

pest infests produce and nuts, making the crops inedible.
The insect tends to enter the U.S. on imported food, which
is why the Border Patrol and the U.S. Department of
Agriculture question travelers closely about the food they
bring in from overseas. Californias farmers keep a close
eye on possible infestations; the state grows more
than one-third of all vegetables and two-thirds of
all fruits and tree nuts in the U.S.
The coconut rhinoceros beetle

was first found in the U.S. on
Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam
in Honolulu in 2013. The horned
insect damages the coconut
palm, a plant critical to Hawaiis
economy, ecosystem and image.
It can also make its way through
bananas, sugar cane and date
palms. Officials watch to make sure
the 2-inch-long beetle doesnt
cross into California or Mexico,
sites of large date palm crops.
KHAPRA BEETLE
The insidious Khapra beetle is considered a major risk to

stored grains and other dried products such as noodles
and spices. Its called the dirty feeder for both its habit
of eating only part of a grain and contaminating the rest,
and because it leaves bits of hair behind. The 2-millimeter
beetle is a tough guy to spot and control: Its resistant to
many insecticides, needs little moisture, hides in tiny places
and can live without eating for long periods. Knowing the
danger it can cause people who eat the contaminated
grain get sick U.S. Customs and Border Patrol
keeps close watch on imported goods.
GIANT
AFRICAN SNAIL
Eight inches long and 5 inches

in diameter, the massive snail eats
more than 500 kinds of plants, from
crops to trees. It will even chew on stucco if its
hungry enough. The snail can produce about 1,200
eggs per year and can live as long as 10 years, making
eradication tough (although Florida officials say numbers are
down). The GAS, as its known, is illegally imported as a pet or
for food. The Border Patrol seized a shipment of 67 of the snails
marked for human consumption in July 2014.
CLOCKWISE FROM FLY: PEST AND DISEASES IMAGE LIBRARY, AUSTRALIA; HAWAII DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE; NATASHA WRIGHT, FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND CONSUMER SERVICES, BUGWOOD.ORG.; USDA
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LAST MAN STANDING

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