Economist says Iowa, U.S. positioned for future demand

CEDAR RAPIDS – Using a mixture of facts, figures and self-deprecating humor, a New Mexico economist and futurist on Wednesday told an audience of local businesspeople that Iowa and the nation are poised to take advantage of future world economic trends.

Lowell Catlett, regent's professor, dean and chief administrative officer at New Mexico State University's College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, was the keynote speaker for the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon at The Kirkwood Center.

Citing basic values that have stood the test of time, Catlett said farmland produced the best investment return over the last 16 years.

“Agriculture real estate kicked out 6 percent during that period,” Catlett said. “The stock market in that same 16-year period turned out 3.9 percent and the bond market produced 3.6 percent.”

Catlett said 2 billion residents in developing countries who formerly lived in abject poverty have moved up in recent years to become part of the middle class.

“They want the same lifestyles that we have,” he said. “There's been a fourfold increase in meat consumption in China in the last decade, most of it in poultry that comes from the United States. Beef consumption has doubled in India over the last five years.

“They want things that we manufacture and we are producing more things today that we ever have as a nation.”

Catlett said agriculture will continue to embrace technology as it plays an increasing role in healthcare nutrition and world trade. He said applications written for handheld computing devices like i-Pods likely will educate consumers on how to properly prepare food they purchase in supermarkets.

“Agriculture also is going to play a major role in energy, ecology and healthcare,” Catlett said.

Catlett said embracing Iowa's agricultural heritage and offering older Americans the opportunity to live among plants, animals and people will prove popular in the future.

“We're seeing an increasing number of people who are moving back to places like Cedar Rapids from Arizona and Florida,” he said. “They're saying that while the weather is nice and they didn't need a snow shovel, they missed their friends and family. The relationship between plants, animals and people is a core value that is phenomenal and the world wants it.

“We will need a river where people can come, sit on a porch, pet their dog and enjoy a lifestyle that you take for granted. You will need to get ready because Cedar Rapids will grow.”