1993 high school graduating class of Essex Agricultural & Technical Institute, picture this... a vast, sweeping river bottom lands, dotted with the occasional village, surrounded by thousands of small squares and rectangles of rich flood plain rice paddies, divided by narrow embankments for flood control... hundreds of men and women emerge from villages at day break to care for individual paddies in order to sustain their daily lives.
Now, switch to another vast plain of rich, black prairie soil, dotted with the occasional farm house, surrounded by thousands of acres of farmland, few trees and not a fence to be seen... but instead of hundreds of men and women, a few lone green or red combines kicking up dust on the cool October morning.
Two visions of agriculture, one in the rich Sichuan Basin of central China, the other in the cornbelt of central Illinois. Both systems, productive in their own way. One system demanding the input of millions of human hands, the other demanding the input of millions of barrels of a black, liquid pumped from the earth, somewhere in the deserts of the Middle East, and transported around the world to where it is used to create the modern miracle we call American agriculture. Which system is a success?
Your answer will depend on your time perspective. In the short term, exploitation of fossil fuel oil for the manufacturing of nitrogen fertilizer, agricultural chemicals, energy for the planting, cultivating, harvesting, and processing of corn in Illinois, potatoes in Maine, asparagus in the Connecticut River Valley, and cranberries on the bogs in Plymouth, is a grand success.
In the long term, oil dependency - fossil fuel dependency - will redefine our understanding of what is success. Your grand and terrible challenge in the 21st century, will be to sustain the farms, the greenspace, the agricultural systems of the Commonwealth.
This will be your great challenge, but it is no more or less daunting than the one faced by your ancestors, who landed on this shore over 300 years ago.
This land they called Massachusetts;
- settled 1000's of years ago by the first Americans,
- 300 years ago by European and African Americans,
- and recently by diverse ethnic groups from Asia and Latin America,
- this land is a treasure - a wealth we hold in our common trust; a commonwealth.
The science and the art of managing and caring for that wealth, that land, that water - we call agriculture.
Agriculture is a human activity that pursues two primary goals and has two main responsibilities, economic growth and environmental quality.
We have a responsibility to each other, today,
- to manage that wealth, efficiently and effectively - as a modern business, for we live and work and compete in a global economy. One in which the least efficient, fall out - disappear.
We have a responsibility to each other, today;
- to produce food and provide the green areas, the flowers, the landscape, the trees that enhance our quality of life - that make life worth living.
We have a responsibility to each other, today;
- to process, package, ship, market, consume, and dispose of the waste products associated with this agricultural system in a safe and efficient manner - or we will be outcompeted by those who can do it better - in New York, Texas, Mexico, Argentina, China.
And, must we embrace this challenge, these responsibilities to manage those complex agricultural systems as a modern business, to enhance economic growth in the Commonwealth - to provide a safe, inexpensive and plentiful food supply, and quality living environment, in every household, every community and every town in Massachusetts.
But we have a second responsibility. We have a responsibility to our children, our grandchildren, and their grandchildren to be good stewards of this wealth, this land, this rich part of the planet.
We have a responsibility to manage this treasure, this wealth, for the common good of those living here today and those generations yet to be born.
Those two responsibilities, to enhance economic growth and ensure environmental quality, through efficient management and effective stewardship - that is agriculture.
You have received an education in some aspect of agriculture. As such, you will be the ambassadors for agriculture in the 21st century. This will be true, whether you eventually make agriculture your life work, or not. Because you know more about agriculture than most citizens.
You know that agriculture in Massachusetts is growing cranberries, processing milk products, and maintaining green space - yet you know that it is more.
Agriculture provides the scenic open lands that grace our Berkshire hills; and the jobs in food production, processing, shipping, retailing - in Taunton, Springfield, Bourne - in every community and every town in the Commonwealth. But that's not all.
Agriculture also provides jobs in flower production, lawn maintenance, and green space stewardship - in Brockton, North Adams, Lawrence and Lowell.
Agriculture in the Commonwealth is;
- the tomatoes on your pizza in Worcester,
- the flower stalls at the Quincy Market,
- and the open vistas of South Deerfield.
Agriculture in the Commonwealth;
- manages the golf courses of Cape Cod,
- adorns the homes and yards of Framingham,
- puts the butter on your bread in Cambridge,
- and bread on your tables in Roxbury.
Agriculture today is vibrant in the Commonwealth and vital to the Commonwealth. Yet we know, this vision, this understanding of agriculture that we have, is not shared by most citizens.
Whereas once everyone understood agriculture, today it is almost invisible to the average citizen. Unlike the rice lands of central China, where 90% of the population is involved in food production, agriculture is taken for granted in the United States.
In the earliest days of our nation, agriculture was held in high esteem by the citizenry. Thomas Jefferson wrote, "Those who labor in the earth are chosen people of God." Ben Franklin called agriculture the only honest way to make a living.
Agriculture until shortly after the Civil War when an exodus from the farm to the city began. In the 1950's, technological changes in pesticides, plant breeding, and mechanization were viewed by most Americans as a modern miracle. Biology and chemistry, engineering and manufacturing, doubled farm productivity, while consumers spent less and less of their income on food.
Today, when 2% of Americans work on the farm and only 16% are employed in agricultural related industries, most Americans don't have any first-hand knowledge about agriculture. The exodus from the farm that began shortly after the Civil War is now nearly complete.
The first generation to leave the farm, had roots in farming. Even the second generation, had some understanding of agriculture. The third and fourth generations from the farm, had no way of making a personal connection with agriculture, so that today, there is little understanding, and therefore little appreciation. Today, agriculture is almost invisible.
Much of our society doesn't know where food comes from and really doesn't care. As long as the Stop and Shop has fruits and vegetables, Burger King is open 24 hours, the Cumberland Farms has milk when you run out, there is no real reason for consumers to be concerned. Our supermarkets abound with produce, grains, meat, milk and packaged goods. Raspberries in February... Asparagus in November... and Pineapples every day of the year. Whatever we want, we get.
The source of that food and the cost of getting it to the retail store is invisible to the average citizen. The maintenance of green space, both public and private, is taken for granted by a public unaware of the effort that is required.
Of course, the public expects farmers and land owners to be excellent stewards of the natural wealth that we hold in our common trust. Of course, they expect and demand excellent and efficient management and stewardship - and they are not disappointed. In many respects, American agriculture has been a grand success, a modern miracle. But, we have also been the victims of our own successes. We are too invisible to the public.
This is not true in Latin America, Africa, China. In these places, agriculture preoccupies a majority of the population, just for their survival.
Agriculture in Asia and Africa has a major visible impact on the landscape, as people cut down the trees and allow the soil to wash into the rivers.
The success of American agriculture has allowed the public to take it for granted. We have met the challenges of the past. Yet we know that only through continued good management and excellent stewardship by the producers, landscapers, processors, shippers, marketers; only through sound, science-based educational programs will we be able to meet the challenges of tomorrow.
And the big one, that grand and terrible challenge you will face, is to be able to provide safe, inexpensive and plentiful food in an oilless world.
Today, we consume in one year as much oil as it took nature roughly a million years to produce. This is a non-sustainable use rate.
In a world without cheap fossil fuel, local and regional food production, here in New England, will become more important. Landscape and green space maintenance will require new ways of thinking and doing that are less dependent on external inputs of pesticides and energy.
In order to sustain the efficiency of agricultural systems, and the effectiveness of environmental stewardship, we must continue to invest and nurture the educational system, such as Essex Agricultural & Technical Institute and the University of Massachusetts College of Food and Natural resources, those systems which support agriculture in the Commonwealth.
We have delivered. But it is not enough.
It is not enough that US agriculture produces 40% of the world's corn, 50% of the world's soybeans, and 25% of the world's beef, with 1/3 of one percent of the world's agricultural labor force.
But it is not enough. We must continue to strive to enhance both economic growth and environmental integrity - to constantly improve - through research, education, and practice - through investments in the future - in a future far different from the past.
It is not enough, because that remarkable productivity is based on the availability of a black liquid, pumped from the bowels of the earth in a desert somewhere in the Middle East, a product that one day will no longer be easily available and inexpensive, one day, within your lifetimes. That will be your great and terrible challenge. That will be the challenge of the human species and modern civilization.
Presidential candidate, William Jennings Bryan, almost 100 years ago warned; "...the great cities rest upon our broad and fertile prairies. Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic; but destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country."
As the future guardians of our agricultural sustainability, Bryan's warning is your challenge.
I close by applauding those of you who will work in the food production and marketing, and landscape and green space management systems of tomorrow. I wish you well in your endeavors to enhance the economic well-being and environmental quality of Massachusetts, through the science, the business, and the art, we call agriculture.
Thank you for your attention and good evening.