Economists, farmer point to positive trends in local and global agriculture

By: Chris Hokanson

Posted: 3/3/08

Farmer Brad Stufflebeam points to a return to local, community farming as the future of agriculture. Small farms, not large, corporate ones, provide communities with greater variety and greater accountability, he said.

Stufflebeam, who owns Home Sweet Farm in Brenham and serves as president of the Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, spoke Thursday at the Association for Social Entrepreneurship's Agriculture Teach-In. He, along with agricultural econmists Bruce McCarl and James Richardson, discussed agriculture's role in the changing global climate, the world's economy and the community.

McCarl, professor of agricultural economics at A&M and a member of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said that global warming is the major problem, and it will affect agriculture in a big way.

"Over the last 25 years, we've seen more precipitation coming in more intense storms, and that's not good for agriculture," he said. "Agriculture needs nice, steady rainfall, and we're seeing less and less of that."

McCarl said that while warming is good for agriculture in northern areas like Canada, because killing frosts are non-existant in areas they used to be prevalent, areas like Texas will be severely affect by drought and more intense hurricanes. More intense and longer heat waves, longer periods between rainfall events, an increase in hurricane intensity and a large increase in sea level will all contribute to a worsening situation, he said.

Because of the need for lower emissions, the need for biofuels has risen dramatically, Richardson said. The regents professor of agricultural economics and director of A&M's Agriculture and Food Policy Institute, Richardson said shared a presentation he is slated to share to several U.S. Congressional committees this week. Greater demand for biofuels means higher prices for feedstocks like corn, he said, so many areas of agriculture are benefitting, such as corn farmers. But because more and more corn is going into ethanol production and corn prices are higher, industries which rely on corn for feed, like the beef and dairy industries, are suffering.

Stufflebeam, whose farm produces more than a hundred different varieties of fruits and vegetables, said small farms can be more resistant to fluctuations in the agricultural economy than corporate farms can.

"Farmers are the biggest gamblers," he said. "Why would I put everything into one crop? I'm a plant nut... I would get bored if I grew a thousand acres of just tomatoes."

Small farming is beneficial to the world in many ways, Stufflebeam said, from nutrition to the environment. Because all of his buyers are close, his food never travels more than 60 miles from his farm. This means less and less emissions in a world where food in a local grocery store might have travelled across the country, he said.

Stufflebeam also pointed to his goal of more "relationship farming" - a community supported agriculture in which the local farmers are accountable to their buyers.

"Why do I need the USDA to certify my foods as organic when all my customers trust me and can come to my farm and watch me grow their food?" he said.

The Association for Social Entrepreneurship's Agriculture Teach-In was their second teach-in this semester. Their first teach-in focused on the Fair Trade movement, and Elliot Hall, the ASE program coordinator, said he hopes that the events raise awareness about ongoing social issues.

"We as a student organization feel that it's our job to raise awareness about these issues," he said. "So that when A&M students graduate and move on, issues such as our agriculture system or pollution in our environment are still on their minds, so that the business they choose to work for is one that gives back and works to address those issues."