[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 103 (Friday, July 12, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1265-E1266]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E1265]]


    THE PRECISION AGRICULTURE RESEARCH, EDUCATION, AND INFORMATION 
                       DISSEMINATION ACT OF 1996

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. RON LEWIS

                              of kentucky

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 11, 1996

  Mr. LEWIS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce 
legislation, with my good friend and colleague from Idaho [Mr. Crapo] 
and other members of the House Agriculture Committee, a bill entitled 
``The Precision Agriculture Research, Education, and Information 
Dissemination Act of 1996.''
  Mr. Speaker, there is a revolution happening in farm country which 
many Members of Congress may not be aware of. This technological 
revolution taking place on farms across the Nation is already improving 
the environment, and changing the way our farmers and ranchers produce 
food and fiber. I'm speaking of precision agriculture.
  Today is an exciting time to be in production agriculture. This bill 
will compliment our recently passed farm bill and the new direction our 
Nations agricultural policy is taking. Farmers will be able to profit 
from expanding world markets and our country will reap the rewards of 
this increased trade. Mr. Speaker, my farmers are excited about what 
the 21st century holds for them. But it's vital that we help provide 
for research in areas like precision agriculture so that our farmers 
will continue to be the world's most efficient producers of food and 
fiber.


                     what is precision agriculture?

  Emerging technologies in production agriculture are changing and 
improving the way farmers product food and fiber in this country. New 
technologies such as global positioning satellites, digital field 
mapping, georeference information systems, grid soil sampling, variable 
rate seeding and input applications, portable electronic pest scouting, 
on-the-go yield monitoring, and computerized field history and 
recordkeeping are just a few of the next generation of tools that make 
up precision agriculture.
  These technologies allow farmers to address hundreds of variables in 
the field--like soil PH, nutrient levels, and crop yields--on a 3- to 
5-meter grid that used to cost far too much to calculate for each 
field. Today, these technologies can map these variables and data 
instantly as an applicator or combine drives across the field. In 
short, each farm field using precision technology becomes a research 
plot. And in the down-months or winter season, a farmer can use the 
data from the previous growing season and adjust dozens of important 
agronomic variables to maximize the efficient use of time, fuel, 
commercial inputs, water, seed rate, irrigation--the list goes on.
  These precision farming tools are helping farmers increase field 
productivity, improve input efficiency, protect the environment, 
maximize profitability, and create computerized field histories that 
may also help increase land values. Collectively, these and other 
emerging technologies are being used in a holistic, site-specific 
systems approach called precision agriculture. Progressive-minded 
farmers are already using these technologies. In a decade they may be 
as common on the farm as air-conditioned tractor cabs and cellular 
phones.

  Of course, this is not the first technological advancement to 
revolutionize American agriculture. Farming has evolved from horsepower 
to mechanized power, from chemical tools in the 1950's to these new 
electronic tools in the 1990's. American farmers in the next century 
will need these new technologies and all the other available tools at 
their disposal to compete in tomorrow's global marketplace. American 
farmers will, without hesitation, step up to the challenge to feed and 
serve the growing number of consumers whose very lives depend on our 
Nation's tremendous agricultural machine.


                  precision agriculture research bill

  This legislation my colleagues and I are introducing today is 
critical to production agriculture, to feed the world's growing 
population and to protect local and global environments.
  This legislation will renew our commitment to further increase the 
amount of food and fiber which can safely be produced per acre of 
farmland--not as an end in itself, but as a way of minimizing the 
economic and environmental costs of meeting global food and fiber 
needs.
  This legislation emphasizes research and education efforts that 
promote the adoption of precision agriculture technologies, systems and 
electronic tools. These tools will enhance human health and 
environmental protection, and are designed to increase long term, site 
specific and whole farm production efficiency, productivity and 
profitability.
  This legislation was crafted in consultation with a broad array of 
interested parties that support the legislation and the philosophy 
behind it. These groups include the Fertilizer Institute, Lockheed 
Martin, Experiment Station and Extension Service Directors, the 
National Center for Resources Innovations, and the Open Geographic 
Information Systems Consortium.
  But this legislation is written with the producer in mind. One of the 
biggest problems with any new technology is the education process, and 
gathering the information to implement the technology on their farms. 
One of my goals with this legislation is to assure that producers of 
all sizes are able to take advantage of precision agriculture 
technologies.


                          usda research reform

  The agriculture research process has continued to reward investments 
in science and technology. Recent research breakthroughs include 
conservation tillage, hybrid rice, twinning in cattle, pest-resistant 
soybeans, precision farming, and biotechnology. These findings are 
providing new ways to increase agricultural production efficiency, 
productivity and profitability, control pests, increase our 
agricultural exports, and feed the world's growing population.
  Members of the Committee on Agriculture have a very important 
question to consider in the near future: Is this country's traditional 
agricultural research system prepared for the challenges the next 
century will bring? Let's be honest--with budget constraints, 
overlapping authorities and competition between ARS, extension and 
competitive grant recipients, we must very carefully address that 
question.
  I look forward to this legislation becoming part of the reforms and 
reauthorization of the research title of the farm bill. I'm a strong 
supporter of our research and extension programs, and believe they must 
remain an important source of information for farmers and ranchers. Our 
precision agriculture research bill will help the research and 
extension communities take American food and fiber producers into the 
next century.


                     world hunger and environments

  Modern agriculture has demonstrated its unique value as mankind's 
most powerful weapon against human hunger. Since 1950, modern 
agriculture has helped triple the output of the world's best croplands, 
sharply reduce soil erosion per ton of food, forestall severe shortages 
of agricultural water, and preserve millions of square miles of 
wildlife habitat that would otherwise have been converted to food 
production. So modern agriculture has played and will continue to play 
an important role in environmental preservation.
  The world has virtually no other strategy as cost effective as modern 
agriculture for protecting human lives from famine, and wild-lands from 
the expansion of low-yield, environmentally hazardous farming systems. 
In short, politically correct agriculture will not feed the vast 
majority of the world's population. Organic farming and 1950's style 
so-called low input agriculture, will not feed the next century's 
growing population.
  The overwhelming majority of American and world consumers are fed by 
conventional farmers and livestock producers. These farmers employ the 
latest technologies to improve production efficiencies. At the same 
time, they strive for maximum crop yields and livestock production in 
the daily struggle to produce more food for more people with fewer 
natural and financial resources. Increased production and new products 
must be the hallmarks words of American agriculture in the 21st 
century.

  We don't have to look far to understand that new technologies and 
advances in production agriculture will play a critical role in the 
next century--and that production agricultural research will have to 
keep pace. The increasing human population throughout the world, as 
well as the rising wealth and improving diets of persons in developing 
countries, are driving a major surge in world food requirements.
  The United Nations estimates the world's population could climb from 
5.6 billion people last year to more than 9.8 billion people by the 
year 2050. The planet's population is projected to grow by about 85 
million people a year for two or three decades. Ninety percent

[[Page E1266]]

of that will occur in the Third world, doubling demand for food there 
by the 2025.
  High-yield agriculture has already proven to be an environmental 
success by increasing food production from the safest, most productive, 
most environmentally sound crop lands. The first and foremost issue of 
long-term agricultural stainability is preventing the plow-down of the 
world's remaining wildlands for low-yield production. High-yield modern 
conventional agriculture is the most critical factor in preserving 
millions of square miles of wildlands from the plow. In contrast, low-
yield organic farming on a global scale could cost between 20 and 30 
million square miles of wildlife--not to mention millions of lives--by 
the year 2040.
  Local environments must also be protected. New precision technologies 
will further reduce soil erosion and water quality impairment by 
applying agricultural inputs in an efficient, precise and site-specific 
manner that will help reduce unwanted runoff and improve surface and 
ground water quality.
  States like Kentucky have been working to address water quality and 
other environmental concerns within the agricultural community. This 
legislation will help producers reach that next level of environmental 
protection. State efforts like Kentucky's water quality plan, along 
with funding and policies of the new farm bill and precision 
agriculture technologies, will help provide a safe and clean 
environment for many generations in the future.
  Mr. Speaker, it is my hope that the proposals contained in this bill 
will be used by the Committee on Agriculture as we reform and 
reauthorize the research programs in the future.

                          ____________________