Pub. 8 2018 Issue 3

11 MINING FOCUS land required to grow 100 bushels of corn in three separate years: • In 1945, 100 bushels of corn required 14 hours of work and two acres of land. • In 1987, the same amount of corn took three hours of work and only a little more than an acre of land. • Twenty years later, in 2007, it was possible to grow 100 bushels of corn on less than an acre of land. The U.S. interest in farming meant that during World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II, people had more food than they would have otherwise. During the hardest years, many people did not have much money. But what they did have, if they were on a farm or knew how to grow food, was food on the table for themselves and their families. The farming situation began to change after the end of World War II, when the number of U.S. farms began to decline in the years between 1950 and 1997. A smaller number of farmers could grow more food, freeing people to leave their farms and find work elsewhere, doing something other than growing food. Many people took the invitation to what they thought would be a better and easier life. There were 5.4 million U.S. farms in 1950. By 1997, only 1.9 million farms were left. Of course, large farms are not the only story. People also have an interest in small-scale farming and backyard farming. This is a good thing — food security is always a good thing, especially when the food comes from your own backyard or a small farm within your community — but there is no doubt that the heavy lifting of large- scale food production is being done by a small number of people within the U.S. And they need all the help they can get from Today, the number of U.S. farmers who farm for a living is less than two percent, and the number of people living in rural areas has gone down to 17 percent. One farmer can now feed 140 people. That increased productivity is the result of several factors, such as commercial fertilizers, hybrid seeds, and mechanization. It has never been more important for farming to be efficient, which means a greater reliance on other industries that support it. One of those industries is mining. Mining provides the metal for farming equipment. It also provides fertilizers. Both are essential to any farm past the Stone Age. Many people, particularly in parts of the world where the ground is rich with untapped resources, have come to believe that the best way to build the future is to work on helping farmers, manufacturers, andminers all work cooperatively together. This is not just a Utopian dream. In Australia and Africa, companies are actively creating situations where mines are located next to or below farms, with excellent results. Equal attention is being focused on local manufacturing efforts. (If you’ve ever had to struggle with differences in language and culture while working with or for a company that has moved many of its jobs overseas, you already know that there has been a significant downside to the loss of manufacturing jobs within the U.S.) The idea is to stop demonizing industrieswhere employees are just trying to provide for their families, and instead acknowledge that those industries are an important part of the U.S. economic picture. Is it important to farm, manufacture, and mine in responsible ways? The answer is obviously yes. Anything that can be done to use our resources more wisely is clearly in the long-term best interest of everyone on the planet. But adversarial relationships between industries need to be put in the past. Working together cooperatively and responsibly can result in people having what they need: food to eat, meaningful work to do, and the safety to decide what else they want to accomplish during this short life. The experiments going on in Australia and Africa are exciting ones that show just how it is possible for these industries to work together. It’s time to make similar efforts in the U.S. X