Professor addresses future of farming

Friday, November 2, 2001
By Janet Kubat Willette
Agri News staff writer 

WASECA, Minn. -- Changes in farming in southeastern Minnesota during the last quarter-century have at least one agricultural expert concerned about the future.
The changes are many. Farms have become larger and fewer, pest problems have become more severe, prices have dipped to the lowest levels in years and soil erosion has increased.

University of Minnesota soils scientist and professor Gyles Randall discusses these concerns in a four-page paper released earlier this year. "I feel particularly concerned about southeastern Minnesota," Randall said. "It comes back to conservation É short-term efficiency does not bode well for the long term." Soybean acreage in Houston and Wabasha counties has increased from 4,000 and 12,000, respectively in 1975, to 26,000 and 35,000 in 1999. The shift has come mostly at the expense of alfalfa, pasture and small grain acreage, he writes. Randall's report, "Present-Day Agriculture in Southern Minnesota: Is It Sustainable?" offers food for thought and allows readers to drawn their own conclusions. Based on what he's discovered, Randall has made several recommendations to Minnesota's two senators and southern Minnesota's two congressmen. He recommends that to participate in Farm Service Agency programs, farmers should be in compliance with established conservation practices. Research money must allow be allocated, he said, in the new federal farm bill to allow public research into landscape changes the policy will bring about. "Too often we don't do a good job of monitoring, assessing farm bill changes," Randall said. Money should also be targeted to finding uses for non-traditional crops that provide more protection for the soil. Farm policy should be about more than economics or Republican vs. Democrat, he said. It should be about the quality of rural life. "I know change is inevitable É as rural America changes we can't forget about our stewardship of the soil and water," Randall said. "Nobody is suggesting rapid, quick shifts in turnaround," he said. "What I'd like to see is a slow greening of the landscape."