Conservation Corner: April 30, 2001

The Changing Face of Agriculture
by James L. Cummins

In late March, Matt Ridley of Newcastle, England, wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal titled "The End of Agriculture." Agriculture is not coming to an end, however, I do think it is undergoing, and will continue to undergo, many changes.

One of the things Ridley discusses is that people are moving away from the farm to more urban areas. We, of course, have seen that in Mississippi. "But what will happen to the land?" states Ridley. "Population is growing more slowly than food supply. This means that somewhere in the world, marginal land will start to come out of cultivation. Soon Eastern Europe will get its agricultural act together. Soon Africa will grab its share of the green revolution and harness the benefits of fertilizer, pesticides and plant breeding (not to mention genetic modification). At that point countries with economically marginal farmland will have to find other uses for the land." "It happened in New England a century ago. Farms were abandoned and reverted to forests as their owners moved west to exploit the prairies. Today, these New England woods have far more value as private wood lots or conservation easements, than they would ever have as farmland. The same thing is happening in Britain. Much of the Scottish highlands is now valuable more for its deer than for its sheep. In parts of Devon, pheasant shooting is more profitable than raising cattle."

Thanks to excellent research, such as that by the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, we can produce double the amount of food on an acre as we could 40 years ago. Last year, in an article in Technology, Indur Goklany stated that in order to meet the increased demand for food, an additional 1.2 billion acres of farmland would be needed if yields remain as they presently are. Farmers in developing countries may have to clear rain forests and habitat for endangered species in order to feed themselves.

Ridley went on to say, "In a few decades time, when population growth has slowed to zero, irrigated, hydroponic, genetically modified agriculture may be able to supply the world with an ample food supply from a much smaller acreage than today."

The "highest and best use" of this marginal land that will come out of cultivation may actually be in the form of habitat for ducks and trophy deer, bottomland hardwoods for filtering the air or even in uses that have not been considered.

Mississippi has the land and "know how" to develop alternative uses of the land that will not only create employment for local citizens in the form of outfitters, guides and helpers, but the clients attracted to Mississippi would utilize hotels/motels, restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, gift shops and a variety of other existing, as well as new, businesses.

James L. Cummins is Executive Director of the Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation in Stoneville, Mississippi. Known as "Wildlife Mississippi," the Foundation is a non-profit, conservation organization founded to conserve, restore and enhance fish, wildlife and plant resources throughout Mississippi.