Guest Blog: Walking in Their Shoes

Today I've asked Jon Scholl, EPA's Counselor to the Administrator for Agricultural Policy, to talk about agriculture.

Thank you, Marcus, for sharing your blog with me! I consider it a real honor to be your first guest blogger.

As a kid growing up on the farm, I can remember an uncle whom we believed could fix anything with some bubble gum and baling wire. In retrospect, he probably could, as the farm my uncle operated then was relatively simple, the machines fairly basic, and the world was pretty far removed. Our concerns about the environment in those days were pretty much confined to keeping soil in place and knowing how to add enough manure at the right time and in the right place to make the farm more productive.

The agricultural environmental world is a lot more complicated today. Farms are bigger so the impact of one unfortunate mistake can be amplified. The tools we use – global positioning systems, synthetic fertilizers, crop scouting – are high tech, very sophisticated and can be very expensive. These tools allow us to be much more precise and productive in the work that we do at a time when we have become a lot more aware of the global impact of the work we do down on the farm.

Some things haven’t changed though, especially as they relate to how farmers view government regulation. I can understand the fear of being told how to farm by someone that doesn’t understand the day-to-day challenges you face. As if it isn’t enough to worry about whether it’s going to rain, or if a disease outbreak is going to ruin the market for your animals, or if your banker is going to see you through another year, it’s tough to think about the cost of government regulation being added to your operation for public gains that may contribute very little environmental improvement.

Recent publicity over the quality of food imported from other countries raises lots of concern among the public. It is fueling growing sensitivity over where food is grown. Actions aimed at protecting the environment must consider the effect upon the ability of farms and ranches to adapt and thrive lest we push food production out of the United States into other parts of the world.

We don’t live in a farm world anymore where bubble gum and baling wire can fix problems. Neither do we live in a regulatory world where more and more regulation can fix our problems. Doing so will either send food production overseas or fuel the growth of farms to a size where they can more effectively absorb costs. Neither of these are outcomes Americans who want their food to be grown close to home will like.