Today we celebrate National Agriculture Day, and on behalf of the entire College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) at Cornell University, I salute the hard work and dedication of the farmers everywhere who provide the food that nourishes and sustains us.
Being a farmer requires the steely determination to grapple with the unknown. Will temperatures soar, or plummet? Will there be too much water, or not enough? Will pests and disease overrun the fields, and if so, what can be done to stop them? Modern environmental challenges like extreme weather, invasive pests and a changing climate have only compounded the risks associated with these age-old questions.
To remain successful, today’s farmers must also be visionary entrepreneurs, gifted financial planners and canny marketing gurus. The business of feeding the world is often unpredictable and unprofitable. When margins are slim, an unexpected regulatory change, price fluctuation or a bad growing season can mean the difference between breaking even and breaking the bank.
Increasingly, today’s farmers must also contend with the growing disconnect between the work they do and the people they feed. In the United States fewer than 2% of the population farms for a living. Many consumers have little understanding of what’s truly involved in delivering fresh meat, dairy and produce to their dining tables. The effects of widespread public apathy toward agriculture can be seen in everything from the steady decline in governmental support for agricultural research, to misplaced hostility generated by scientifically unfounded fears surrounding GMO crops.
With all these challenges to overcome, one can be forgiven for wondering why on earth anyone would choose to farm nowadays. But as the daughter of dairy farmers, I can attest that it is because famers love the land and the lifestyle they have chosen. There is no satisfaction quite as sweet as knowing at the end of a hard day’s labor that all your sweat and toil goes to delivering the wholesome foods that feed families and help communities to thrive. After all, a safe and plentiful food supply is the very foundation upon which our society is built.
And so today, I hope you’ll join me in giving thanks to our farmers, as CALS renews its Land Grant pledge to them. We are committed to delivering knowledge with public purpose that helps our farmers cope with environmental change, the whims of the market and the evolving tastes and opinions of consumers. We are also dedicated to making the finest educational opportunities available to farm families, so that the next generation of farmers is fully prepared to meet the enormous challenge of sustainably feeding the people our state, our nation and our planet.
After all, our job is to make their jobs a little easier.
-Kathryn J. Boor, Ph.D. The Ronald P. Lynch Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
