Keeping America’s Farms and Families Healthy

We are already two weeks into the new year—a time of fresh starts and renewed commitments. With all the lists of resolutions and reflections, though, it can be easy to lose sight of the real progress and change that is made with small and steady practices every day. Let’s consider the resolutions on America’s farms and ranches—the way farmers resolve to do right and do better 365 days a year—and the real difference that has made for the well-being of our nation.

Keeping Our Families and Crops Healthy

The Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, platform is generating a lot of interest in how our food is produced. Farmers and ranchers welcome a healthy discussion—we always have. I think we can all agree on the importance of promoting good health for our families and our nation. Sadly, there are few of us who have not been touched by cancer or other serious diseases, and we all want solutions. A commitment to health is a great way to start the year, and healthy meals start with healthy farms. But it’s also important to understand the long-term implications of some ideas being promoted lately. Any discussion around agriculture must first be grounded in sound science if we are going to ensure the affordability, security and sustainability of nutritious food for all Americans.

Our long history of science-based standards has served us well in navigating a sea of new ideas over the years. Take the science and research when it comes to pesticides, for example, where thoughtful, demanding approval processes give farmers important tools to protect and nurture crops while also requiring these tools pass rigorous testing for safety, health and effectiveness. Did you know that only 1 in 10,000 pesticide discoveries actually makes it from the lab to the field? What’s more, with all the study, testing and review required, it takes around 11 years for a new pesticide to get approved for use. I’d say that’s a high, almost impossible, bar to pass. That’s why farmers are confident that they can safely use these products on their farms. And keep in mind, many farmers also live with their families on that same land where they are using pesticides. Farmers take our jobs seriously, and we take the health and safety of our families and yours seriously too.

And what about when those farm products get to your home? The U.S. Department of Agriculture releases a Pesticide Data Program Annual Summary to track pesticide residue on fresh fruits and vegetables—that’s in addition to the strict regulations in place from the Environmental Protection Agency. In 2023, USDA found that more than 99% of products tested not only met but exceeded EPA’s strict safety standards. That’s because farmers are following safety guidelines and using only what is necessary to protect crops and get them safely from the field to your table.

Keeping Our Soil Healthy

Sustainability is also a big part of the healthy food conversation with lots of talk around shifting to an only organic approach to farming. Farm Bureau is 100% supportive of organic farming. But we must keep in mind that there is no one-size-fits-all answer to advancing agriculture. We have a beautifully diverse landscape across this nation, and one of the great privileges of my job is getting to see agriculture in all parts of the country. I have seen first-hand what farmers all over this country know from practice: What works in one place isn’t practical or sometimes even possible in another—and that’s okay. It means we get diverse foods from diverse regions. We get seasonal produce like winter lettuce from Arizona and summer blueberries from New Jersey. That diversity is what gives resilience to our food production system.

American agriculture is the most efficient and sustainable across the globe because we use sound science, technology and innovation. Our overall greenhouse gas emissions are less than 10% of all industries. That’s no small feat, given that we are producing more than ever before to feed an ever-growing population. Protecting our crops through the safe use of pesticides and protecting our animals with medicines and vaccines help ensure that we can keep growing the food that fills Americans’ pantries.

Farmers and consumers benefit from the availability, choice and price options of both conventionally and organically grown products. Rejecting conventional farming altogether, however, would be harmful to food security and sustainability with no identifiable health benefit. Let’s remember that researchers have found no noticeable difference between organically and conventionally grown food when it comes to nutrition. Researchers have also looked at the environmental impact of this kind of shift, and they have found it would bring significant loss in yields, greater land use, and an increase in carbon emissions. For example, organic yields are roughly 20% less than conventional, and organic systems of meat and dairy production use 49% more land than conventional.

Keeping Our Food Supply Healthy and Secure

Wholly rejecting safe conventional practices and thoroughly tested products places our sustainability and our food security at risk. We can look back just a couple years to what happened in Sri Lanka to see the devastating impact this shift would have on our food system.

In 2021, the government of Sri Lanka banned certain farm supplies and practices, much like what some people are discussing today in the U.S. Production for their two key commodities, rice and tea, dropped significantly by 20% and 18%. This led the country to an increased dependence on imports and put their farmers on the brink of failure. Sri Lanka had to reverse the order later that year, but the damage was already done. The country was forced to import hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of food and then help devastated farmers recover. Organic farming still requires measures to protect crops from insects, weeds, disease and fungus. Mandating that all farming shifts to organic, though, would raise the cost of production, increase food costs for consumers, and set us back on sustainability gains. It’s important we keep in mind these tradeoffs and avoid mandates or restrictions that could lead to negative unintended outcomes for consumer food choice, price and security.

Farmers are always looking for ways to improve. This is a business that requires innovation and resolve. But it is also irresponsible to consider new ideas in isolation. That’s why farmers rely on agricultural researchers and scientists to innovate and thoroughly vet new ideas and practices.

If we are going to have meaningful discussion about improvements across agriculture, we must begin by recognizing how our steady commitments have yielded impressive results, and we must ensure farmers can continue to meet the diverse, nutritional needs of our nation. But we, as farmers, have a responsibility to help the public understand the tremendous advances in agriculture over the years. We should also welcome questions about how we grow the food that feeds America. Questions are just an invitation to tell our story and that’s a good thing.