Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Efficient American Farmers Help Protect Wildlife Habitat

If American farmers and ranchers weren't so efficient and productive, they would have to plow up an additional 10 million square miles of wildlife habitat to raise the same amount of food that they raise presently, says Dr. Tom Troxel, livestock specialist for the Cooperative Extension Service, University of Arkansas.

"In other words, high-yield farming helps protect about 10 million square miles of wildlife habitat," Troxel said. The estimate was given by the National Beef Cattle Association.

High-yield farming and ranching is made possible, Troxel said, through science-based agriculture. This kind of agriculture requires no more land today than it did in the 1960s, even though farmers are feeding twice as many people, and feeding them a far better diet, Troxel said.

He said a study by Cornell University found that if the New York state dairy industry produced milk the way it did in the 1960s, farmers would need another 1.9 million acres (nine times the area of New York City) to produce the same amount of milk it does today. Troxel said that land would come from what is now wildlife habitat.