U.S. Agricultural Outlook Update and Projections for the West to 1985 and 2000

U.S. agriculture is the envy of the world. The abundance and quality of food and the low per-centage of income consumers spend for food are obvious measures putting U.S. agriculture at the forefront. In the 1960's, the world in general and Amer-icans in particular grew complacent about food supplies. Althouth this complacency was not shared by millions who have never enjoyed adequate diets and live on the margin of inadequate food supplies, the bountiful capacity of high technology agricul-ture in developed countries and the green revolution in developing countries led to a global surplus psychology. And indeed, world grain production, the foundation of the world food supply, rose almost every year from 1960 through 1972, inter-rupted only by poor crops in the USSR in 1961 and 1963 and the great Indian drought of 1965-66. And this steady growth occurred despite produc-tion control programs in the United States [Hath-away, 1975]. But the winds of change can blow swiftly across agriculture. Food abundance is based on our great natural resources but has become increasingly un-natural as greater energy, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation water inputs are used i