Ag's bright future

If you ask Tom Vilsack, the road to prosperity is paved with pig manure.

And plant-based plastics, and bio jet fuel, and other ag-related innovations we've only yet dreamed of.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is celebrating its 150th anniversary, but when the former gov-turned-Ag secretary met with The Gazette Editorial Board this week, his eye was on the future.

He shrugged off concerns about scarce resources and complicated problems. That's no excuse not to move forward, in Vilsack's book. It just means we have to work smarter.

“I kind of chuckle when members of Congress say we're in tough times,” he told us, pointing out that in 1862, Congress managed to launch the USDA and land-grant institutions - right in the middle of the Civil War.

He ticked off projects like The Ohio State University's research into using hog manure in asphalt. Collaborations like the one between USDA and departments of Energy and the Navy, to create a drop-in aviation fuel industry with a built-in military customer base and potential commercial expansion. Partnerships between government agencies and private investors or conservation groups with mutual or compatible goals.

Vilsack, wearing a pinstriped suit and Iowa-shaped lapel pin, seemed personally offended when he talked about how agriculture, like rural America, generally, is “undervalued and underappreciated” on the national stage. It's agriculture that's “going to help get the country where it needs to be.”

We're all too familiar with the squeeze small family farmers have been under as large commercial operations continue to grow. But a quick look at the USDA census map shows that in most of rural Iowa, the number of farms actually increased from 2002 through 2007, not the other way around.

In fact, Vilsack pointed out, there were more farmers in this country (about 2.3 million) at the last agricultural census than there were five years before. Most of that growth came from small producers. He has a plan for them, as well.

Supporting local and regional food systems, encouraging farm-to-school programs and offering a helping hand to make it easier for young producers to get into farming - just a few of the ways USDA is helping support small operations and rural economies.

Agriculture isn't likely to ever look again like it did 150 years ago, or 100 years ago, or even 20. But that's OK.

Because after listening to Vilsack's ideas about our rural potential, I'm pretty excited about the future.

Comments: (319) 339-3154; jennifer.hemmingsen@sourcemedia.net