This essay was written by the son of a family friend. It is entirely his work. I take no credit for it.

The single most important agricultural issue in today's economy is consumer awareness. The fact is that a good percentage of the U.S. population does not know that milk comes from cows and corn comes from a field, not the local supermarket. It is vital to our agricultural industry to educate American Youth if agriculture is to survive.

The education we provide will not only make consumers more aware of what they eat, but ensure agricultural sustainability. In 1970, 70-80 percent of the U.S. population was employed in agriculture. In 2008, 2-3 percent was employed directly in agriculture. The United States of America has an area of approximately 2.3 billion acres. Agriculture currently accounts for 922 million- in the care of 2.2 million farmers. This averages at about 418 acres per farmer. In contrast, in 1997, 960 million acres was being farmed at an average farm size of 431 acres. Simply stated, within ten years, America has lost 40 million acres of farm land. As Americans become less aware of how important the industry is that feeds them, the under-educated begin to make laws and restrictions to make it harder to apply pesticides and herbicides to ensure a healthy crop. Farmers, who now have less to plant, must raise yields in their fields in order to break even.

When the public doesn't know where their milk, bread and eggs come from, they don't know how to vote for the Ag community. In a new guidance form from the FDA, farmers who raise food producing animals are being pushed to eliminate antimicrobial drugs. The FDA alleges the promotion of these products can affect the meat and the consumer eating the product. If a junior showman is unable to treat his market hog's scrapes and cuts with neosporin (a benign topical antibiotic), he runs the risk of infection and ruining the meat through bacteria or worse yet bacterial infection and death. In that one decision a 12 year old 4-h'er loses not only the hog but all the time and devotion to the animal. These "guidelines" could soon turn to legislation. If the regulations on food producing livestock operations get any worse than they are, prices in the consumer market will sky rocket. High production costs force higher retail costs. The outlaw of horse slaughter in the U.S. came with catastrophic effects. People have no affordable way to be rid of a useless equine, and many are being dropped off or abandoned on public property. The average cost to euthanize a horse is around 300 dollars. Many of the general horse community do not have 300 dollars to be rid of their old horse. So a horse that could be used to feed America or its pets is now being abandoned for tax payers to pay to take care of. The congressmen who were advised to vote on the outlawing of horse slaughter are just as uneducated as the public and humane society representatives that forced it on Capitol Hill.

The collective result is that the general public does not have enough knowledge to vote in favor of the industry that feeds them. Without the immediate connection of gallon of milk = farm, loaf of bread = farm, farms are forgotten. Without aggressive education, agricultural land will continue to diminish, yields will suffer, and programs like 4-H will cease. In order to save our industry in these times of economic hardship, we must educate our youth. After all, the future of Agriculture is in their hands.

By Justin Sauers