I am a young millennial and I believe the future of our food lies in our hands.

The efforts we put into planting and growing our food today will have a positive impact in a future where food quality and safety is very much uncertain. I am so excited to share this guest post by Rebecca Crownover, partner at Lone Star Family Farms and founder of Texas Farm Girl, who is talking about the future of farming and how educating young generations about growing their own food is becoming so important. Please read on for her thoughts!

-Elizabeth

The Future of Farming: The Increasing Importance of Young Generations

Farming has changed so much since I worked on the farm for my grandfather during junior high and high school. The farm equipment alone has made big strides in efficiency and operating options. When I first drove a tractor 20 years ago, it had a radio that could only pick up one FM radio station and about two AM radio stations. The gears were hand-controlled. Everything was manual, including getting out and checking the plows or planters you were pulling behind the tractor. Thank goodness we had air-conditioned cabins then. Otherwise, I’m not sure driving a tractor would have been so cool.

Today, we have tractors and combines with satellite radio, push buttons to make the tractor go, GPS auto-steer and computer monitors that give you all the stats of your machine and whatever equipment you are pulling behind. Additionally, it all connects to the cloud. Now, a farmer can be anywhere in the world, as long as they have an internet connection, to get real-time stats of what their tractors are doing on the farm. Twenty years ago, I would have never guessed it to be this way.

With the fast-paced advancements and what is in the works, the future for agriculture is exciting. Exciting, but yet a bit scary at the same time.

The world population is expected to grow from 7-billion people today to over 9-billion people by year 2050. That is a large population growth, that is hard to put our arms around. The more the population grows, the more space that is taken up on our planet. Farmland is being converted to residential and commercial property on a daily basis, resulting in less arable land for farmers to produce more food for more people in the future. The farmer’s job will be critically essential in the coming years, more than ever, to meet future goals of food production.

Agriculture is the industry to be a part of for the future. Exciting technological advancements are being made, from farm equipment to seed production. There is so much room for opportunity for the youngsters of today to be innovative in the future growth of agriculture. The kids of today are much more advanced with technology and already a step ahead of where the rest of us were when I was growing up. It is going to take every bit of their knowledge and creative thinking to carry us into those later years.

Farming has become a distant thought in many kids’ minds today that do not grow up in farming communities. Many children of today think their food comes from the grocery store and do not realize the origination process and that it starts with the farmer. We all tend to take the farmer for granted when we have plenty of food available in our grocery stores. It is imperative that we keep children engaged in agriculture and the education of farming so that we can ensure they will carry on a legacy in agriculture that will continue to keep our grocery stores filled in the future.

About the Rebecca Crownover:

Working with her grandfather not only taught Rebecca Crownover about the hard work behind farming, but also taught her about overcoming obstacles in life. Tragedy struck her family in 2009 when her husband, a native Texan and farmer, passed away in an ATV accident. His passing inspired Rebecca’s award-winning children’s book, My Daddy Is In Heaven With Jesus.

Rebecca founded Texas Farm Girl, a brand that helps ignite a passion for agriculture in farming’s next generation, while teaching life lessons that she herself learned growing up on her PawPaw’s farm. Rebecca remains a business partner at Lone Star Family Farms with her in-laws to carry on her husband’s legacy and to continue her contribution to the farming business, an industry that has always been an important part of her life.

Photos: Rebecca Crownover, Unsplash