change

[cakadu]

I have been reading with some interest the comments on taxes, energy and biotechnology. I have been thinking about how to word a response because I don't want to offend anyone. In my opinion, change is very hard. Noel M's comments about the decrease in numbers of farmers are quite interesting. I just read an article in the latest edition of Grain News that said if we went back to the farming practices of 1945, we would need an additional 188 million hectares or 410 million acres of land. Land, unfortunately is the one thing we cannot get more of to any degree and without doing serious damage to our ecosystems. Change is difficult and nobody really likes change, but it will happen whether you want it to or not. Sometimes it just is - you don't have to to like/dislike it - that's just the way it is. The key is how you adapt to the change. It is hard to say why there has been a decline of rural areas and I'm not sure the finger can be pointed at any one thing. It is more likely a combination of factors. I think what we should be looking at is how to best handle the challenges of the changes in agriculture and food production that are before us. If we keep focussing on the problems, we will never find solutions.

[jwright]

Agreed. Unfortunately the prevailing ideology is that we have to accept everything the unfettered marketplace throws at us, as fast as it throws it at us, when it seems obvious to me that there are choices we can make.

[bernie]

Unfortunately we are not dealing with unfettered markets. We have been producing for and competing with heavily subsidized markets. Their is very little reality in the 'major' crop markets we deal with.

[danm]

You are correct in saying that we should not be only focusing on the problems.Here is a question that was asked of me tonight'how do you see the future of agriculture in ten years & then how would would you like to see it?