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In
1988, prezactly 20 years ago, I wrote a column predicting what the
livestock industry will be like 50 years later; 2038.
Some
of my predictions were:
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90 % of meals will be eaten out. Home cookin’ will not exist.
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Fertile agricultural land will be scarce.
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The cessation of grain feeding to livestock.
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Cattle will be slaughtered at 12 months of age.
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Feedlot cattle will eat garbage, recycled manure and ethanol pulp.
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Calf birth weights will be 30 lbs.
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Feedlots will be demanding that cattle have bones like a chicken, loins
like a dachshund and the digestive system of a goat!
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And packers will be financing research to develop cattle without hair,
ears, tails, spleens, lungs, kidneys and feet.
Much
of my prediction depends on genetic manipulation and digestive chemical
technology. It also relies on the presumption that the population and
urbanization of the best farm ground will increase exponentially. Now,
2008, 20 years down the road, we are steadily making progress to prove
many of my postulations true.
What
I did not take into account was:
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Worldwide zoonoses, particularly BSE and its changelings.
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Catastrophic natural or unnatural occurrences, i.e., global cooling,
global warming, a devastating epidemic like the 1918 flu, AIDS2, nuclear
war, sunspots, despotism, famine and/or the Second Coming.
I
admit I don’t spend much time anguishing about the world’s
uncontrollable forces. I am an agricultural person. I will concentrate
on doing what I do best —- which is to feed the world. Whether there
is a bubonic plague or tripling of the world population in 30 years, it’s
our job to produce enough food, sufficiently efficient to ensure the
masses something to eat every day.
I
cannot predict America will always be the land of luxury where you can
buy a 99¢ Wendy burger that would feed an entire family of four in the
oppressed country of Sudan today. But I am counting on the ag community
responding to the demands the world will make on it in the next 30 years
and our country’s greatest strength, our generosity, will keep us
strong.
God
Bless America.
NOTE:
Baxter’s previous column, March 2, 1988, is available at www.baxterblack.com. |
