What does the future of food production look like? That’s today’s This Land of Ours.
The Association of Equipment Manufacturers’ (AEM) recent whitepaper, The Future of Food Production, identifies 13 trends expected to shape food production over the next ten years. AEM President Megan Tanel says top-level trends include water issues and the needed increase in food production.
“Farmers have increasingly been asked to produce more while reducing their environmental impact. But what we see coming is a global population increase by roughly 2.2 billion in the year 2050. And that means farmers will have to grow about 70 percent more food,” she said. “The evolution of technology from our OEMs is key, but really the adoption of that technology will be the main point in being able to meet the food production demands coming in the future. For us, one big way of doing that, of course, is with precision agriculture. additional trends, or things that we really need to keep an eye on, the optimization of water usage. Concerns about water depletion will drive technology adoption to improve soil management and optimization of water use.”
She says it’s an important effort that will help guide equipment manufacturers and farmers through the future.
Listen to Sabrina Halvorson’s This Land of Ours program here.
Sabrina Halvorson
National Correspondent / AgNet Media, Inc.
Sabrina Halvorson is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and public speaker who specializes in agriculture. She primarily reports on legislative issues and hosts The AgNet News Hour and The AgNet Weekly podcast. Sabrina is a native of California’s agriculture-rich Central Valley.