news-record.com

The November issue of Progressive Farmer magazine reports that world food production must increase dramatically to meet future demands of an increasing population. Improving efficiency and sustainable farming practices can only provide a partial solution.

However, eroding our nation’s farmland and natural capital by speculative, antiquated economic growth policies that continue to build new roads lined with treeless, paved business sites and hoping jobs will come while abandoned industrial and commercial sites multiply is unsustainable.

Following this economic strategy, North Carolina leads the nation in the loss of productive farmland. Ironically, thanks to its farmers, this state has nine classifications of food products that rank in the top 10 nationally, and agribusiness is the state’s largest and steadiest economic contributor.

The bounty of N.C. farmers’ harvests can no longer be taken for granted if current economic development policies continue.

Traditional holiday foods, many produced in North Carolina, hopefully will remind consumers and government officials that productive, fertile farmland benefits everyone each time he or she eats and breathes.

Slowly suffocating the state’s most important economic sector by trading cornfields for Dell fields and putting us out of work is not the answer.

Jimmy Morgan
Colfax