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Fifty-four
percent of the world’s agricultural products are produced within
500 miles of St. Louis. Heartland America, St. Louis, Mo. and
Illinois comprise a great deal of the world’s breadbasket. This
region has the economic tools, the where-with all and the skills
to feed a great portion of people on six continents.
Still, poverty is prevalent and the figures for starvation and
malnutrition are staggering.
Here are some startling facts:
Nineteen children
will die every single minute because of water-born diseases.
Every year 15 million children die of hunger.
The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the
world is well-fed, one-third is under-fed, and one-third is
starving to death.
Three billion people in the world today struggle to survive
on less than $2 a day for food.
One out of every eight children under the age of 12 in the U.S.
goes to bed hungry every night.
About 183 million children weigh less than they should for their
age due to malnutrition.
Every 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger.
That’s not to say those in the agricultural industry are not
doing their best to stem the tide and turn world hunger into
world feeding. Our farmers are producing safe, edible crops
to feed the hungry world-wide.
This year, the World Agricultural Forum (WAF), headquartered
in downtown St. Louis at the Regional Chamber and Growth Association,
is celebrating its 10th year in business, and will host some
350 internationally renowned agricultural leaders at the bi-annual
World Congress scheduled for the Chase Park Plaza Hotel May
8-10th.
Meanwhile Midwest farmers are growing products for U.S. consumption
and for international export. For instance, let’s look what’s
going on—on the farms in Illinois.
“Illinois is the second most productive state for corn and soybean
products (trailing only Iowa)” reports Illinois Farm Bureau
spokesman John Hawkins.
Because of the Midwestern river systems, Illinois farmers are
taking advantage of bringing their crops down the rivers to
New Orleans, and then shipping to world ports.
The most pressing goal for the IFB is upping its growth of biofuels,
best utilizing ethanol products. “Congress wants seven-and-a-half
billion gallons of biofuels to be produced in Illinois by the
year 2020,” says Hawkins.
The Illinois Farm Bureau is an advocacy and lobbying group representing
three-quarters of the 80,000 farmers who have their crops tilled
over 27.3 million acres in every county in the state.
The increase in yields in Illinois is significant. Fifteen to
20 years ago, a bumper crop meant five billion bushels of corn
produced annually. Now, Illinois farmers are talking about bumper
crops of 10 to 11 billion bushels. “Better yields, less problems
from weeds and pest, and better use of biotechnology projects
are giving us this significant growth,” says Hawkins, explaining
the dramatically-increased pattern.
The Illinois farmer is not your father’s farmer. Most are college
educated with some holding masters and doctoral degrees in agricultural-related
subjects. Farmers master computers for information and record
keeping, while using global positioning systems to find the
optimum fertile fields to plant new crops.
Trade missions are an important part of farming in Illinois.
In February, a dozen Illinois farmers visited Mexico helping
their counterparts increase the yield on their land.
Charlie Kruse, President of the Missouri Farm Bureau, and himself
a fourth generation farmer, who still tills the soil in Dexter
(Southeast Missouri), maintains a very close relationship with
his counterparts in Illinois. “We interact closely with the
Illinois Farm Bureau. I’m close friends with Phil Nelson (their
president). We are perfectly positioned (Missouri and Illinois)
between one unbelievable river (the Mississippi), in order to
move our crops and products to markets all over the world,”
he extolls.
Kruse calls the Missouri farmer a ‘risk taker,’ one involved
heavily in the Midwestern economy. “One out of every five Missouri
jobs is directly connected to agricultural in some way. The
food on our grocery shelves is a direct reflection of the risk
our farmers wake up and take every single day as they produce
goods and fibers for domestic and world consumption,” he relates.
Like the IFB, the Missouri Farm Bureau is a strong advocacy
and lobbying group on behalf of its members. “We truly are a
grass-roots organization. We get involved with many facets of
agri-business, whether it is transportation, taxing policies—just
about anything that affects the Missouri farmer,” he says. Currently,
Kruse is dealing with regulatory issues that are having negative
effects on the rivers (Missouri and Mississippi), and hampering
the ability to move products to market smoothly and cost-effectively.
Meanwhile, local farmer Warren Stemme, Missouri Farm Bureau
representative for the St. Louis area, points to Missouri for
farming success, and says Americans are lucky to be so well
off financially.
“People have never had to go hungry in this country. We have
never been like European and Baltic countries following World
War II,” he says. He used Norway as a good example. “Norway
was cutoff from shipping lanes during the war, and the people
suffered. Farm land is like gold in Norway,” he explains. “If
our people had to go hungry we would have an altogether different
set of farming policies in this country,” he explains.
Stemme pointed out that the U.S. spends about 10 to 11 percent
of its disposable income on food production, while countries
such as Taiwan and Japan will spend in the neighborhood of 50
percent or higher. “There’s just no land for farming there,”
says Stemme.
Stemme, who deals primarily in soybeans, says Missouri currently
has more than five million acres just for soybean crop production.
Meanwhile, major manufacturers in Illinois continue contributing
to better farming and higher yields. Caterpillar makes farming
instruments for world-wide use at its Peoria based operation,
while Moline-based John Deere tractor has farming implements
that are in demand all over the world.
Many regionally-based companies have a hand in feeding the nation
and the world. Monsanto is growing genetically-engineered crops,
while the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center is finding ways
to increase the food chain through plant development. Companies
such as Cargill, Bunge Corp. and Archer-Daniels Midland (based
in Decatur, Ill.) are milling and moving agricultural products
from the farms to the mills to overseas and domestic markets.
Brett Begemann, executive vice president, International Commercial
Division of Monsanto, who heads their international business,
says his company plays a pivotal role for Midwestern and world
farming.
“Because of its location, St. Louis is within 500 miles radius
of much of U.S. agriculture. As such, it is rightly becoming
a plant and life sciences hub. Technological developments in
the life sciences emanating from the Danforth Center, the Nidus
Center, area universities and Monsanto will benefit agriculture,
not only in the U.S. but around the world,” says Begemann.
Monsanto’s goals are continuous, helping the family farm provide
for the world global economy. “Farmers of all sizes want to
maintain and increase the yield of their crops. Many of the
new technologies being developed by Monsanto are scale neutral;
that is, these products help farmers, regardless of size and
improve productivity. Monsanto will continue to invest in technology
to help farmers of all sizes increase yield and be more productive,”
he says.
Future considerations for Monsanto are part of their present
goals. Begemann further explains. “We are only beginning to
see the ways that technology can improve agriculture. Farmers
will continue to seek innovative technology, and Monsanto will
continue to invest in research to find ways to meet their needs.
With these combined efforts, we are confident agriculture will
feed a growing population needing more and better food, while
also helping address a growing need for energy,” concludes the
vice president.
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Going
Global
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By
Jim Baer
Ten years ago, on a dreary and rainy afternoon, Leonard
Guarraia, a retired Monsanto executive, past president of
the American Soy Bean Association and an international U.S.
trade representative approached RCGA’s Dick Fleming to create
the World Agricultural Forum (WAF). Guarraia told Fleming
he didn’t have an office, a staff or any financing for the
project. Fleming said not to worry.
Within time, the WAF has established itself as the consummate
neutrally-positioned broker to create discussion groups
for better feeding the world’s malnourished and undernourished.
“Farming and agriculture are the most complex, least understood
and most important activities for all our nations,” says
Guarraia, CEO of the Forum. Guarraia says advancing the
agenda is based pretty much around trade reform and optimizing
the best use of water by farmers. “Balancing conflicting
forces who debate the merits of food versus fuel is our
biggest challenge,” says the CEO.
Guarraia, who retired from a lengthy and successful career
in agriculture, (director of public policy for Monsanto
1983 to 95) wants to concentrate on feeding villages around
the world that have populations of 250 persons or less.
The WAF has picked up steam, thanks to significant grants
from world-wide organizations. The Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation in Seattle recently awarded the St. Louis-based
WAF a $250,000 grant that was effective January 1. Additionally,
the WAF received a $100,000 W.K. Kellogg Foundation (Battle
Creek, Mich.) grant for its international non-government
(NGO) advisory council. The non-profit forum has annual
revenues of about $500,000 per year.
The newest addition to the Forum is its president Ray Cesca,
who hails from the Chicago area.
Cesca, president of the Illinois-based consulting firm Global
Alliance for Economic Advancement (GAEA), was an international
director for world trade for the McDonald’s Corporation.
He has been with the WAF since its inception, serving then
in the capacity as lecturer and keynote speaker.
Cesca’s lone goal is to reduce poverty and hunger world-wide.
“We need to change the old business model. We need a new
face on an age old profession (farming),” he aptly notes.
“Our goal is developing an action-plan for developing nations
and find a neutral forum whereby we can discuss these crucial
issues,” says the new president.
“Someone has to be a ‘change-master’. Someone has to shake
things up, that’s our vision and our goal,” says Cesca.
“We need new models of bio-foods and bio-energy,” he predicts.
Guarraria concurred with the new goals. “We’ve now been
at this for ten years. We’ve talked often about the issues,
Now, we need to determine measurable results,” predicted
the CEO.
As Cesca pointed out: “Farming is still a noble profession.
Farmers need new strategies and they need vision, knowing
they’re feeding people of the world. Agriculture plays such
a key role in the global economy and that’s what we are
all about,” says Cesca.
Yes, the Midwest represents the breadbasket of the world
and everyone from personnel at the WAF and farm bureaus
to scientists at Monsanto and the Danforth Center to shippers
at ADM, Cargill and Bunge to farmers in the field play a
vital role in the food production chain.
We will continue feeding the people of the world and the
dedicated workers of the region can stand proudly, knowing
they are all playing vital roles in making this happen. |
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