Agriculture Group

Agriculture Community Breakfast Comments, February 10, 2005

What trends will affect the way you do business in 5 years?

Economy	Medical costs are rising. Consumers are seeking healthy alternatives in food. Mini farms are developing, small plots of 1-2 acres. Consumer focus on low prices. Can't afford to buy land and commodity farm prices low Farms will gradually be swallowed up by developers. With low farm prices, it is becoming difficult to compete. Continued demise of small businesses; those companies that excel at vertical integration are winning the customers dollars because they can offer the lowest price. The key question is-will consumers begin to consider other factors besides price when making purchasing decisions? More opportunities for global sales. More competition. Funding challenges forcing aggregations of businesses. Economics do not support all small farms everywhere; most people get food where it's most efficiently grown. Smaller farmers turning to entrepreneurial ventures to improve agriculture profitability vs. large efficient commodity operations. Efforts to preserve farmland and agriculture; farmland preservation and open space. More wine production in area. Energy needs; need to look at all energy sources - wind Pressure from development; real estate development pressure-zoning laws, roads/infrastructure, cherries (larger), grapes (smaller). Hard to keep the "next" generation in agriculture. More appreciation/market for value-added products. Environmental pressures - chemicals, water quality. MSU extension funding Development rights as a way to preserve farmland Alternative energy Changes in land use: gas & oil development, wind energy, development rights Changes in MSU extension funding. Trend towards organic foods. Increased population in area - attempts to preserve open space and live with city neighbors. More restrictions on water use/chemical - farm land is being reduced; economic education needed. High labor cost; no labor; hard to find labor (no secret about undocumented aliens) Rising land values - low ROI. Decline of traditional farmer - loss of basic agriculture infrastructure. Some a-traditional agriculture activities will emerge (whoever deals with these individuals must identify who & what they do before the competition capitalizes). Trend continues toward production of on-farm value-added products An increasing demand on this region's natural resources Seeking successful models - value added organic farm market. Seeking new markets farm to table, export. Water issues: a successful model. Innovations in product forms & markets for regionally grown crops required. Great consolidation of production units. What is sustainable agriculture - get big or get out? Agriculture Entrepreneur (Black Star example). Animal agriculture and water quality. Christmas tree market flat to declining next 5 years. Energy costs limiting our access to markets. Expect acreage of fruit overall to remain quite stable, but longer term high land prices will make transition to next generation a challenge.
Government	Homeland security. More government regulation on small processing entrepreneurs. Regulations - all aspects, especially environmental; many regulations driven by groups of citizens outside the ag area; how to deal with Federal, State & Local regulations? Water issues; irrigation regulatory; land use. Continued cuts - need the research. Small farms not encouraged through Federal Government policy. More stringent regulation on area businesses Immigration issues
Technology	Continued and increased use of technology in agriculture. Better yield potential through genetic research. Need ability to analyze soils/disease quickly; currently sending out for result, labs slow to react. Increased use of software as an implement of agricultural husbandry. Greater demand for trained bio-technicians. Farmers that remain will be very sophisticated and will need higher levels of education and services.
Demographics	Lack of agricultural workers. Population growth, less open space, larger business, less small business. More Hispanic employees; growing dependence on largely Hispanic work force; mostly non-English speaking. Increasing population will put demands on farmland - decreasing farmland and increasing subdivisions and other development will change the agricultural character of this area. Age of growers and customers.
General	How can we preserve the agricultural culture and continue to encourage it to improve?

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