I have mentioned previously that I take my small role in agriculture seriously. I am focused on annual profitability and enjoyment, but you are mistaken if you think that we are just playing around.

I have driven close to 800,000 miles and worked under flashlights and headlights when normal people were sleeping. Hopefully, I aided other animal producers to markets and eventually people for close to 40 years.

Back in the early 1970s I read books that proved we were running out of food and there would be mass starvation in five years. These were educated agriculturalists. I was young and stupid. They were wrong. Now I am old and still not very smart, but I continue to hear the cry for production agriculture to "feed the world." It's past time for the tales and the fluff to cease.

I realize that approximately one-third of the people in the world will bed down hungry tonight and that close to 12,000 (mostly children) died today from starvation. I hate the very thought, but the truth is that starvation in the world has absolutely nothing to do with a shortage of food production. Figures indicate that those of us in production agriculture grew and harvested enough food last year to feed a world population twice the current level. Almost 50% of all food is thrown out or spoils. This includes beef.

There are a bunch of folks who need to get their stories straight. Truth is that many of these people are making big bucks with nonprofit organizations and a few global co-operations that continue to publish a message of food shortage. Some go so far as to say that they are supporting rural farming in underdeveloped countries. Truth is, they do not even support rural America.

Let's look at some facts:

It is past time for us to stop being led down the path of "saving the world" and "feeding the world." We will learn more (and I have learned much more) and start making positive improvements on our ranches, farms and our country when we study and learn what some of the world knows about improving the soil-plant-animal complex to improve on-farm profit and more.

The tail has been wagging the dog for too long. The cost has been the death of much of rural America. The propaganda has been spread throughout the world. The USDA and land-grant universities have been touted as the answer. Remember that ghettos and government housing projects were going to save the "less fortunate" a couple of generations back. Truth is that they made lots of contractors and outsiders rich at a high cost to those less fortunate.

I have a high esteem for people who volunteer their time, energy and resources to others both locally and abroad. But truth is we need to proceed with real caution! Promoters are often working to pick our pockets and they know their game.

The "big boys" and the "educated and enlightened" are teaching a doctrine and role of modern agriculture as feeding the world. That it is mostly foolish. Our mission trips likely need to stay close to headquarters and our learning trips will likely require some distant travel.