“The name of the game is production and efficiency, doing more with less.” People get mad when chicken prices go up, she said. But for farmers who have tried to do anything more humane, sustainable or climate friendly, “it always ends up coming out of the consumers’ pockets,” Terri said. Their Cooley Farms in Roberta, Ga., doesn’t have much connection to all the talk about climate change mitigation, though there’s no question the operation is feeling the pressures, including from changing disease patterns that threaten their chickens with a new virulent strain of avian flu. The chickens have been sold on contract to Perdue Farms since 2004. ![]() Along with his parents, Larry and Terri, he raises cattle, grows hay and oversees 16 broiler houses with a total capacity of 500,000 chickens and an annual production of 6 million birds. ![]() Tradition is also at the core of the work done by Leighton Cooley, a fourth-generation conventional poultry farmer. Agriculture Department study, only 3 percent of farmers, ranchers and landowners are using available carbon credit programs that pay them to remove carbon dioxide from the air and sequester it in the soil, in part because of limited return on investment and high transaction costs.Ĭooley Farms (Roberta, Ga.) - Cooley Farms raises about 500,000 broilers a year for Perdue Farms. It’s no wonder that some say the best way to farm is the way it’s always been done, doubling down on techniques and values that have served them for years. Many Americans, including people in rural, conservative communities, see the focus on climate change as another costly distraction cooked up by politicians in Washington - even as almost 40 percent of the Lower 48 states continue to be in drought, according to the U.S. One need only to look at state fairs across the country that draw thousands every summer to see young 4-H members compete with their beloved hand-raised calves to marvel at massive pumpkins and sculptures made of local butter and to feast on fried delights that reflect productivity, abundance and joy. The crossbred calves at this farm show greater feed efficiency, meaning it takes fewer calories of feed to fatten them up so they reach their optimum weight more quickly, and the farm lowers its environmental footprint.Īmerican agriculture is steeped in tradition and identity. Lonestar Calf Ranch (Hereford, Tex.) - Workers scoop a mixture of soy, corn and alfalfa to feed cattle. Meanwhile, the prices of fertilizers and pesticides have steeply increased in the past few years, as have labor and transportation. Agricultural policy has gotten caught up in culture wars that have snarled other aspects of American life.įood inflation has shoppers anxious and quick to blame producers for high prices. Vast cattle feedlots, chickens crowded in cages and heavy use of chemicals have come under criticism from environmental advocates and consumers. ![]() Drought, floods and other extreme weather have challenged many of the traditional ways, causing yields to fall. In recent years, however, the demands on farmers have grown more complex. farm acreage by more than 140 million and the number of American farms fell from a peak of 6.8 million in 1935 to just over 2 million today. That happened even as development pressures reduced total U.S. These exhortations worked: Total farm output nearly tripled between 19. In the 1970s, Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz encapsulated the mission by urging them to plant “from fencerow to fencerow” and to “get big or get out.” ![]() For more than half a century, American farmers have had a clear mandate: Grow more.
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