California agriculture is poised to match the growing demands of the world's booming population and expanding wealth, concluded AgAlert editor Ching Lee in her story about the California Ag Summit last week at UC Davis.
Asking where agriculture is heading requires considering the forces that are driving both the supply side and the demand side, said Daniel Sumner, director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center.
As people's incomes go up, they tend to demand more dairy and meat products. California leads in U.S. dairy production, Sumner noted, and other agricultural sectors are linked to dairy, such as alfalfa and other feed crops. Demand for grains usually goes up with people's income, as more of those commodities are used to feed livestock, he said.
The challenge facing agriculture is trying to feed more people in a world that is richer and more urban on basically the same land area with less water, said Alex McCalla, professor emeritus at the UC Davis Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
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As a population's wealth rises, so does the demand for products produced in animal agriculture industries.