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In praise of the American farmer

In praise of the American farmer

Last updated on: February 24, 2017 at 5:30 am by Gene Veith

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In praise of the American farmer 2017-02-23T22:14:43-05:00 Gene Veith

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American agriculture has virtually eliminated world hunger. And American farmers preside over an industry that has become an economic powerhouse.

Kevin D. Williamson tells all about the success of American agriculture, what it means for world trade, and how farmers–with their use of technology and innovative techniques–have become the best example of capitalism at its most effective.

Farmers, are you really doing as well as Williamson says you are?

Even if you aren’t, thank you for your vocation. Through you God blesses us all by giving us our daily bread.

From Kevin D. Williamson, US Farmers Lead World Hunger Reduction | National Review:

Answer: California, Iowa, Texas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Illinois, Kansas, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Indiana.

Question: Whatever happened to world hunger?

World hunger is in dramatic decline. As our friends at HumanProgress.org reported over the summer, the hunger indicators are all moving in the right direction: Fewer people are going hungry, both in absolute numbers and as a share of the world’s population; hunger has fallen dramatically in China after a program of partial economic liberalization; those people around the world who are underfed are less underfed than they were a decade or two ago, with their average daily calorie deficits down to about 85 calories — just 1.5 McNuggets short of a full day’s nutrition; and world food prices are down steeply, having fallen by half in real terms over the past century. The USDA reported on Tuesday that world wheat production is expected to hit a record high this year, and that U.S. producers will export — not produce, but export — more than 1 billion bushels of the stuff. Export projections are up 50 million bushels since January, driven higher by large orders from China.

Trade with China may stink if you are an aspiring manufacturer of flip-flops or plastic toys, but it is making you rich if you are a farmer in Nebraska. Nebraska’s biggest export is beef. In fact, Nebraska’s two biggest exports are beef, according to the federal government’s statistics (fresh and frozen “meat of bovine animals” are separate categories), and a great deal of that beef goes to Hong Kong. And the Chinese are especially hungry for Nebraska’s third-largest export: soybeans. China is hungry for soybeans from Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and other big soybean-producing states, consuming half of U.S. soybean exports. Despite its heavy reliance on U.S.-produced meat and soybeans, there isn’t really a Chinese campaign for “protein independence,” just hungry people with cash in their pockets looking for the best product at the best price.

Tourists used to enjoy visiting the New York Stock Exchange, back before it was a fortified bunker. It gave them a thrilling impression of the hustle of Big Business. But if you really want to see the best of real capitalism in action — capitalism as it actually exists in the world, not the capitalism of theory — then you should visit three places: a German automobile factory, an American farm, and the Port of Los Angeles, which handles about 165,000 automobiles a year and 8 million tons of food.

[Keep reading. . .]

Photo by anned, Pixabay, CC0, Public Domain

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