It is painfully obvious that we live in an increasingly global economy. The same holds true in the political realm as well. Whether we want to admit it or not, policies that are put into play halfway around the globe have an impact on our lives, our markets, our choices, and our responses. Nowhere is this more obvious than in agriculture.
Since the beginning of agriculture trade, we all have seen opportunities rise and fall due to natural forces and man -made policies. That remains the same, but in this day and age, what happens in one corner of the world impacts the rest of the world like never before. The reasons are evident Instant communication from anywhere to anywhere on the planet drives the desire for more information and the more information we have the more informed our choices should be. Technology has increased the speed of information to the point it is literally instant. Technology has also enhanced our ability to produce and distribute products at levels never even considered in the past. We as agriculturists in the World, have serious challenges that affect each of us in our own sectors and on individual operations. My experiences have shown me that no matter where a producer produces on the globe, we face similar challenges, we have similar worries and we have many similar aspirations. The upside is that we live in an era of unprecedented potential in Agriculture throughout the World. The opportunities that will be created over the next decade, let alone the next century are to my mind almost unfathomable.
I intend to explore a broad range of agriculture, food, and natural resource related topics that are global in nature and reach. My goal is to bring my two and a half decades of global agriculture and natural resources experience to bear in order to bring you new perspective and different insight on topics that affect us all in this realm. My hope in this weekly column is to provoke interest and thought in areas you may not think of on a normal day to day basis and to shed light on things big and small that will have impact at the producer, community, national and international levels. Look forward to the adventure!
