Farmers, epitomized by the assertions of Wiard Groeneveld and Don Bailey in “County farmers plead case to urban neighbors” (news story, Nov. 30), are predestined for destruction under current oppression.
The American farmers and ranchers, almost without exception, are the world’s best stewards of the land. Not only have they effectively preserved the land, they have made it more productive than any comparable agricultural land on earth. This is not an idle assertion, because the productivity of every major crop and the output of every species of food animal in the United States exceeds that of any country or any comparable area in the world.
It is indeed time for government agencies (federal, state and county) to discontinue regulations that impinge on the stewardship of the American farmer and rancher. There is no longer reason for incapable official environmentalists, growth management bureaucrats and self-styled fisheries protectors to impose obstacles on the efficient and effective land use patterns of today’s landowners.
In the face of world human population increases of more than 84 million persons per year, the management and preservation of farmland is absolutely essential. The United States is the only area that can come close to the prevention of widespread famine and malnutrition. And we cannot succeed if the atrocious obstacles of government continue to impede effective land management while we allow fertile land to be sacrificed to commercial and urban development, or even worse, to classify productive land as bird and wildlife sanctuaries or “wetlands.”
Camano Island
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