LIANE HANSEN, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Liane Hansen.
Twenty-ten was a tough year for the American economy. There was some growth and some jobs were created but not nearly enough to keep up with continuing high rates of unemployment. However, there was at least one economic bright spot last year - agriculture.
To explain, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack is in the studio at Iowa Public Radio in Des Moines. Welcome back to the program. Thanks for taking time out of your holiday.
Secretary TOM VILSACK (Department of Agriculture): It's great to be with you.
HANSEN: Start, if you will, with a summary of what 2010 was like for the U.S. agricultural industry.
Sec. VILSACK: Well, it was a good year for farmers. Thirty-four percent increase in net farm income, driven in large part because we had a very good year in terms of ag exports. We often talk about in the economy about a trade deficit with other countries but in agriculture, the United States of America has a trade surplus.
We anticipate and expect that it'll probably be in the neighborhood of $41 billion more agricultural products that we sell to the rest of world than we purchase from the rest of the world. And each billion dollars of agricultural sales generates somewhere between eight and nine thousand jobs, so it's not only helping farm income, but it's also increasing employment opportunities.
HANSEN: Why was there growth there when so many other sectors were struggling?
Sec. VILSACK: Well, a couple of reasons, I think. First of all, the American brand - American agriculture is well respected around the world, and certainly we provide quality. We're seeing emerging middle classes in countries like China and India, so there is a growing market for what we grow and raise.
There's - I think, also the United States Department of Agriculture is taking a much more strategic look at ag's exports. We're essentially looking at each country individually, as opposed to basically treating all countries the same. There are various places on the market continuum, if you will. There are fragile markets like in Afghanistan, where you're not likely to do much trade but you could potentially in the long run develop a relationship where trade may take place.
There are closed markets like in India where you're working to break down barriers. There are emerging markets like China where you're looking at this large middle class. And then there are mature markets like a Japan, where you are working to make sure that you can compete with the rest of the world.
Each market, each country has a different focus. And when you utilize your resources in a very targeted way, you have more success.
HANSEN: What products are you talking about?
Sec. VILSACK: Well, we've had obviously a substantial amount of soybeans sold to China. China is now the number one purchaser of Americans soybeans. In fact, they purchase about one-half of all the soybeans that are sold on the world market. Corn, obviously, is also part of it. But wheat, hogs, poultry - there's a whole wide variety of products, fruits and vegetables, that we are also involved in selling. Just about everything we raise, we're in a position to export.
HANSEN: I'm speaking with the Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.
Secretary Vilsack, you paint a pretty rosy picture but a number of farmers are still struggling. I mean, it's been hard, bad weather from over the past year. Other folks are just having a tough time because the economy is so poor. Is your prognosis as rosy for these American farmers in 2011?
Sec. VILSACK: Well, I think it's important for listeners to understand that there are really in a sense three different types of farmers in America today. If you take a look at farming as it's defined by the USDA, which is 2.2 million people who are in this business, about 1.3 million of those 2.2 million are what would often be referred to as hobby farmers. These are people that have a small acreage in the back of a rural homestead. They may have been orchard. They may sell items at a farmers market. They may sell more than a thousand dollars worth of product, and based on the definition they are farmers.
These are the folks who do not make money from farming. They likely lose money but they have off-farm income, probably pretty good off-farm income, and so its obviously a tax write-off opportunity.
Then there are about 600,000 folks who sell less than $250,000 in sales. They would be midsized operations. They are the folks who struggle. They are the folks who need off-farm income. They are the folks who need conservation programs because they have land that may be not as productive as some other farming operations. They struggle and USDA has to be there to help them.
And then there are roughly 300,000 folks who basically produce 85 percent of what we consume and what we export. They did pretty well in this economy. And we need to continue to focus on them, because they produce most of what we consume and they're also the ones who are generating the exports that, in turn, generate the jobs.
So there is a divergence and USDA has to be responsive in a sense to all three groups of farmers, because all of them populate rural care areas of the country. The rural unemployment rate is going down at a faster rate then the general unemployment rate nationally. And one of the reasons is because the president is very focused on trying to create opportunities in all parts of the country, and we're using our resources to do so.
HANSEN: The Farm Bill is up for renewal in 2012. Members of Congress and a lot of interest groups are already working on it. What do you want to see in the new bill?
Sec. VILSACK: Well, one thing I think we need to be concerned about in America is how many people are actually going to be able to farm and how we replace those who are retiring and those who pass away.
Over 30 percent of our farmers are over the age of 65. The average age of the farmer in America is 57 today. We had a 30 percent increase in the number of farmers over the age of 75 and a 20 percent decrease in the number of farmers under the age of 25.
So as we fashion a new Farm Bill, one focus has got to be: How do we make sure that young people have an opportunity to get into the farming business. This is a capital intensive business. It requires a great deal of credit. If you're going to do it in any size, it requires access to markets. It's very sophisticated in terms of marketing. The technology can be expensive.
So we have to begin to discuss ways in which we can encourage younger people, the next generation, to be interested in and create the opportunity for them to be farmers. And that's farmers of commercial size, but also the small and medium sized operations.
HANSEN: Tom Vilsack is the head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He joined us from Iowa Public Radio in Des Moines. Secretary Vilsack, thank you so much for taking time away from your holiday.
Sec. VILSACK: You bet. Have a great New Year.
HANSEN: You, too.