“It’s something that’s kind of in your blood,” Thon said.

“I worked on a farm all through school and I decided to do agriculture — I come from a farming family.”

Thon is a member of a new generation that is planning on going into the constantly changing world of agriculture.

“We farm completely different than we used to — I could write a whole book on how agriculture has changed in two years,” Thon said.

“It’s not Old MacDonald on the farm with a pitchfork. It’s a science and a business.”

Learning curve

The most prevalent change and obstacle to this new generation of farmers is the lack of information the public knows about farming, Thon said.

“The biggest thing changing in agriculture is people are farther removed from the farm and they don’t understand why we do what we do and how we do it,” he said.

According to the data from the 2000 Census, about 220 million people, or about 79 percent, of the U.S. population lives in urban areas. The remaining 21 percent, or about 59 million people, live in rural areas.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2007 Census of Agriculture, the number of farms has increased by about 75,000, or about 3.6 percent, from 2002 to 2007, bringing the total number to about 2.2 million. Even as this number increased, the total land devoted to farms decreased by about 1.7 percent, or about 16 million acres, to about 920 million acres.

Kevin Turner, an MSU alumnus and herdsman at MSU’s Swine Teaching and Research Center, said at one time, most people knew someone who owned or worked on a farm.

“(People are) so far removed from family farms — 20, 25, 50 years ago, anyone you talked to would have some link to agriculture, whether it be to a grandparent having cows and chickens,” Turner said. “It’s not that way anymore, consumers are just so naive about what it takes to get food on their dinner table.”

This disconnect leads to “an extreme lack of communication,” Thon said.

“As farmers, we do things such as ones that are economically beneficial for farmers and preserves the land,” he said.

“We grew up on that land, we drink that water and eat that food as well. We’re not going to do anything to put us in danger, let alone anyone else.”

Peer pressure

Social scrutiny has become much more intense on farms in recent years, Jeffrey Armstrong, dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, said.

“The thing that changes dramatically and continues to change is students have to understand and appreciate and problem solve the fact that society cares more and more about how food is produced and how the earth is treated,” Armstrong said. “It’s not as simple as all we have to do is educate people in agriculture and everything will be OK. There are things that we need to change and need to be based on solid science.”

Armstrong said those currently in agriculture and students planning on going into farming need to realize how changes in societal values affect agriculture.

Going hi-tech

Technology also is allowing farms to be more efficient; farmers can use computers to apply things such as seeds and fertilizer at specific rates to maximize productivity and avoid waste, Thon said.

Jody Pollok-Newsom, executive director of the Michigan Corn Marketing Program, said technology not only affects the way agriculture is conducted but also how crops are utilized.

“This year, there were about 1.8 billion bushels of (field) corn left over — that’s getting us into plastics, clothing and carpeting,” she said.

“For the young people coming out, they’re really looking for what those next market trends and opportunities are.”

Growing concerns

The world population is expected to grow to about 9 billion people by 2050, a 47 percent jump from a population of 6.1 billion in 2000, according to data from the United Nations.

A growth in population of such a large magnitude will require increasing amounts of food — something Thon said he is concerned about given increasing regulations and scrutiny. He said people also should be concerned with the trend of importing more food from other countries.

“If we import everything we will be a sitting duck,” he said. “People don’t realize how important our food supply is.”

In recent years, concerns about food safety have led to many people seeking out locally grown food. Thon said although these farms have their place, they aren’t enough to feed a burgeoning population.

“(Small farms) have a niche market, but they’re not going to feed the world,” he said. “In order to feed 9.6 billion people we need the efficiency larger farms can provide — they run more efficiently without compromising animal health — unhealthy doesn’t make sense.”

Looking forward

In order to keep up with changes in technology, values and goals in agriculture, Armstrong said MSU faculty constantly review what they teach.

“Sustainability is being discussed more across courses. … (There are) courses in animal science that discuss how we use animals and the interface in society,” he said. “We need to do more and look at majors across our departments in a broader and more holistic way.”

Turner said although not everyone is perfect, the majority of farmers have a passion for their profession, and that people need to experience farming to understand.

“You really have to get out here. This is our livelihood; it’s what we love to do,” Turner said.

“Sure, there are still going to bad apples, but as a whole, farmers do what they do the way they do it because it’s morally and ethically the right way to do it.”