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America’s farmers and ranchers need to begin considering some tough questions about the future of agriculture in the United States – ranging from income to demographics, according to American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman.

Speaking at the Arkansas State University Agribusiness Conference, Stallman said the issues facing American agriculture in the future may challenge farmers’ traditional views and "encourage us to envision a new frontier."

The focus of the 11th annual conference on the college campus in Jonesboro, Ark., was agricultural trade policy and its impact on producers, consumers and agribusiness. In addition to delivering the conference’s keynote address, Stallman, in a separate presentation, gave an overview of Farm Bureau policy related to world trade.

Stallman provided statistics and projections related to current and future farm numbers and farm income. He also outlined the impact of potential federal budget constraints on farming.

Stallman highlighted the work of a select task force of Farm Bureau members that is at the midpoint of a comprehensive two-year analysis about "what American agriculture might look like in 2019, and answering the question of what American agriculture needs to look like for farmers and ranchers to be productive and profitable at that time."

The keynote address focused on segments about government spending and the budget, globalization, technology and research, rural development, land prices and rental rates and societal expectations and disconnects. Each area leads to questions for the future, he noted. "If we are going to be successful for the long term, we need to be asking, and answering, more questions than I think we have in the past," Stallman said.

Globalization must be a major area of focus for the future. According to Stallman, current U.S. annual exports in grain and the grain equivalent needed to produce exported meat is equal to the total corn, soybean, wheat and bulk commodities production (including rice and cotton) of 75 million acres – the same amount of land harvested in Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee and Arkansas combined. Because of the importance of agricultural exports to America’s farmers, Stallman said the United States cannot allow itself to be falsely painted as the poster child for trade-distorting subsidies.

The economic safety nets in place as part of the 2002 farm bill are less trade-distorting than subsidy programs, tariffs and state trading enterprises of other developed and developing nations of the world, Stallman said.

In the upcoming Doha Round of World Trade Organization negotiations, "all types of trade-distorting subsidies must be put under the microscope," he added. "Market access must be addressed in a substantial manner as spelled out by the World Trade Organization agricultural framework agreement," Stallman said. Farm Bureau is challenging all countries of the world to use sound science in opening their borders to imports. Stallman said nonscientific-based barriers put up against crops enhanced through biotechnology must be overcome.