PROJECTION '70

[Music] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] if you are an average american you ate your way through fifteen hundred pounds three quarters of a ton of groceries in the last 365 days this cost you 17 percent of your income the lowest food cost in the world in 1967 26 cents of every dollar you earned went for food in the early 1900s it was 40 cents as recently as 25 years ago you had a choice of about 1 000 different items on your grocer shelves today you can choose from ten thousand items and brands half of which weren't there ten years ago and will not be there ten years from now because so much of the food you buy has been freeze dried homogenized sterilized emulsified stabilized pressurized and advertised 61 cents of your food dollar went for distribution and processing the other 39 cents paid for producing the food in the first place and getting it to the farm gate down to the farm everything has changed in 1950 there were six million farms in the country there are three million now the acreage farmed has stayed the same but the average size of the individual farm has gone from 225 to 377 acres only one percent of the nation's farms are big enough to produce 100 000 or more dollars of annual income but that one percent accounts for 25 of the nation's agricultural output the greatest change has occurred in the output of the farmer himself compared to 1950 today he produces three times the food for every man-hour of work corn yields per acre have more than doubled cotton yield has doubled wheat yield has increased from 16 and a half bushels per acre to 28 and a half milk production per cow has doubled in beef cattle the ratio of beef produced to feed consumed has improved 33 the poultry industry has made the most spectacular advances where it formally took 12 pounds of feed to raise a two and a half pound chicken in 16 weeks it now takes seven pounds of feed to raise a three and a half pound chicken in eight weeks this is the result of years of research and painstaking genetic improvements that have produced a strain of birds with broad breasts thick thighs gentle dispositions birds that mature rapidly and are born with natural resistance to disease because there are such chickens available today the broiler industry is big business it mass produces some 3 billion birds a year poultry feed itself a highly scientific product evolved by years of research is a precisely controlled blend of grains nutrients vitamins antibiotics and trace elements the formulation is so complex and critical the blend of ingredients is controlled by computers eight weeks from hatchery to market grain to meat ratio two to one [Music] chicken once the symbol of ultimate luxury of the american diet now rivals hamburger in popularity and beats it in price [Music] much of the credit for developing the super birds as indeed for advancing all phases of modern agriculture must go to scientists and programs of the agricultural research service a division of the united states department of agriculture despite past triumphs the search to develop new super species continues by crossing chickens quails and pheasants the objective is to produce entirely new kinds of birds by transferring genes from one species to another it doesn't happen in nature but dr patricia sarvela of the agricultural research service makes it happen well for example we have here the japanese quail it produces eggs in about five to six weeks and matures in about four weeks the dark cornish chicken produces eggs in about six to seven months by cross breeding we would like to combine the characteristics of the good market quality of the chicken with the early maturity of the quail plant breeders have made tremendous strides in transferring genes from one species into another in this chicken quail hybrid we have an old bird and we have five young birds that were produced this year you can see there is some variation in the characteristics of the color care and feeding of the fale hybrids is rather critical we start off by feeding them glucose eight times a day then egg yolk and then game bird food the wild birds have natural resistance to disease that we would like to impart to domestic birds here we have a chicken pheasant hybrid it has possibilities of producing this disease resistance to usda research scientists modifying nature to accommodate the convenience of man is a routine accomplishment take the ancient task of shearing sheep animal scientists have found a way to make shearing easier on both the man and the animal it's done by giving a relatively harmless chemical to the sheep by mouth or injection about 10 to 12 days before deflecting is to take place the chemical stops growth in the wool follicle just temporarily but long enough to weaken each strand of wool so that it can be pulled off the sheep easily by anybody by hand or take the case of the mechanical tomato harvester in 1964 when foreign nationals were no longer permitted to come into the united states to help with crop harvesting a labor crisis developed that threatened to [ __ ] the billion and a half dollar tomato industry to save it plant breeders and agricultural engineers stepped up their efforts to develop a mechanical harvester and a tomato that could be picked by it by 1966 the tomato harvester had replaced the equivalent of three and a half million man hours of labor annually this meant the tomato itself had to be entirely redesigned it had to be able to withstand considerable jostling in the machine it had to separate from the stalk easily and cleanly and since the harvester clips the plant below the soil line most of the tomatoes had to ripen at once instead of over a period of time as tomatoes have done since the days of the incas and of course the fruit had to have good flavor color and taste today the mechanical tomato is here the same tailoring of the plant to accommodate to the machine has stepped up the harvest and kept down the prices of such important vegetable crops as celery lettuce spinach and many others sour cherries were on their way to extinction until a mechanical picker reduced labor cost to the point where the crop could be marketed economically there is considerable evidence that were in for some dramatic changes in the 70s in the matter of plants and crop yields yields several times normal have been achieved in this usda agricultural research laboratory plant scientists and engineers have long known that we could stimulate plant growth by three or four factors such as the carbon dioxide temperature light and relative humidity in these chambers we are studying all of these factors simultaneously to obtain maximum plant growth vegetable and ornamental plants grown under control environment conditions are far advanced to those grown under greenhouse conditions there are examples of two lettuce plants 25 days old this plant was grown in the growth chamber under co2 enriched atmospheres elevated light high temperatures fertilized four to six times a day under control humidity this plant was grown in the greenhouse also fertilized four to six times a day it was grown under normal co2 temperatures were cooler and the light was less the daylights for both were 16 hours in earlier experiments lettuce plants started in the greenhouse for 10 days and then moved to the growth chamber for 15 days weighed 15 times as much as those grown in conventional greenhouse conditions here's some other results this pink cascade petunia plant was grown for 18 days in the growth chamber and then moved to the greenhouse and flowered in five weeks this plant was maintained in the greenhouse for five weeks it normally takes a petunia nine to ten weeks to flower so we're shortening its growing time by half our recent studies indicate that even more rapid growth and development can be achieved by planting the seeds directly in the growth chamber this allows the young seedlings a shorter growing period allows for scheduling of the production and we can produce superior seedlings growing areas similar to this are already in use commercially and the potential is tremendous for the food production in the future in wayne county ohio near worcester a grand scale experiment by goodyear and the cleveland greenhouse vegetable growers association suggests that major developments are ahead in controlling environments for plants and perhaps people this giant plastic building 100 by 428 by 20 feet high encloses an acre of land the structure is erected in a few minutes and is supported by blowers that maintain air pressure inside at about one tenth of one percent higher than atmospheric pressure because the building is free of obstructions standard mechanized farm equipment can be used inside temperature humidity and carbon dioxide content can be controlled so that year-round farming as well as greatly improved yields become big scale possibilities for the future goodyear's scientists see no reason why vast areas of land couldn't be put under cover by this system including trees buildings parks shopping centers and indeed whole cities whether man grows his food under cover or out of doors he will continue to share the fruits of his labor with the insect pests that plagued him since the dawn of civilization [Music] we spend some 700 million dollars a year to wage eternal war on insects if we didn't food prices would probably go up 50 to 75 percent and the quality would be unacceptable by today's standards insects are man's greatest competitor for the food that we can produce there are thousands of kinds of insects that attack crops livestock or even food and storage our purpose is try to find ways of reducing losses by these thousands of insect pests at the present time we're depending almost entirely on the use of chemicals to control these insects perhaps 80 to 90 percent of the insect problems are being met today by the use of chemical insecticides but we hope we can develop other methods that can be used to replace chemicals if necessary or to supplement the use of chemicals with the commonly used insecticides such as ddt becoming less effective and less acceptable because of residues in food and in the environment how will we fare in the insect wars of the 70s dr nippling came up with what has been called by his peers one of the great original ideas of the 20th century his idea sterilize the males of an insect species and release them to compete with fertile insects and thereby destroy their own kind the great breakthrough came with the victory over an insect pest that had been killing wild and domestic animals and even humans since pioneer times the parasite known as the screwworm here's years of study and research went into the development but the idea was simplicity itself the procedure raised screw worms in specially equipped laboratories by the millions sterilize them by exposing them to gamma rays [Music] release them over infested areas to cause infertile matings and thus eventually eliminate the native population in two years the department of agriculture and cooperating livestock agencies in florida and other south coastal states won a total victory the southeastern states were free from the scourge of the screw worm fly cost to the program 10 million total savings to date some 200 million another expensive pest yielding to biological control is the alfalfa weevil not only are usda scientists breeding varieties of alfalfa that resist attacked by the weeple but they have also imported and released some of his natural enemies from europe these are tiny wasp-like insects which lay their eggs in alfalfa weevil larvae or adults and thus destroy them the wasps are otherwise friendly and harmless another insect control method lures males of a species with a chemical that acts as a sex attractant and collects the pests in traps where they can be disposed of [Music] and another method provides insects with food that is filling but contains no nourishment so they starve to death on full stomachs [Music] newest weapon in the war on insects and indeed a significant development in agriculture today is the rapidly emerging science of remote sensing which means getting information about things from a distance you see radiation generated by the atomic and molecular activity of matter streams from every object in the universe and it varies according to the condition of the object for example each soil condition every plant and every body of water has unique and measurable reflectance conditions in remote sensing we measure reflectance under various conditions at various altitudes at ground level and with different films and sensors when we put this all together we establish a kind of basic ground truth the normal circumstance after that we can identify variations from normal by comparing films analyzing the data and by making computer readouts here is an ordinary aerial photograph of a test site for the space agency's earth resources program note the drab brown color of the foliage which would seem to indicate that much of it was dead now we have changed to infrared film which tells a different story the pink and red areas are living things the green areas are dead vegetation note the gradations in color to the remote sensors they indicate clearly different kinds of trees soil conditions degrees of water pollution the presence of insects and diseases and other vital information here's a stand of monterey cypress seen from above as it would appear to the eye everything normal and healthy note however a fungus infection already has a good start indicated by the green areas here's an infrared picture of pollution the pale blue area is silt washed into the gulf of mexico from the rio grande river after a hurricane soon to come remote sensing pictures from an experimental earth resources research satellite this infrared picture was taken over the imperial valley of california at an altitude of 129 miles as part of the apollo 9 earth resources survey experiment there is no question that remote sensing opens a new era in agricultural research that can have vast implications for the 70s in the worldwide struggle to provide the 55 grams of mixed proteins a day the average human being needs to survive we can look for some dramatic breakthroughs in the seventies this is one of them these animals have been raised on an exclusive diet of petroproteins most of the major oil companies have research and development programs underway in this exciting field the company that pioneered it is british petroleum whose subsidiary bp oil corporation was merged into ohio january first nineteen seventy it was in nineteen fifty seven that bp research scientists looking for a way to dispose of wax found that certain microorganisms would feed on it and during the fermentation process converted to protein over the years they have developed this process and are now practicing it on a commercial scale the british petroleum plant at lavera france starts with a feedstock of petroleum taken from the first distillation process applied to crude oil after it enters the refinery it is continuously mixed with yeast microorganisms nutrients from mineral salts oxygen from the air nitrogen from ammonia and fed into fermentation units under precisely controlled conditions the microorganisms feed on the wax content of the petroleum multiplying rapidly to form a yeast cream in the second stage of the process the yeast cells are removed from the gas oil in a centrifuge the protein is passed on for further purification while the gas oil is returned to the refinery much improved for having had the wax removed in its final purified form the protein emerges as a yellow odorless powder which is highly digestible and contains many vitamins feeding experiments around the world for years and over many generations leave no doubt that petrol proteins are excellent food for cattle sheep pigs poultry any of our food animals possibly for man himself these and other tests will continue until all authorities are satisfied that petrol proteins are safe nutritious economical and will fill an important role in world nutrition using the best techniques for growing and harvesting the necessary microorganisms a small fraction four or five percent of our crude oil production could theoretically provide enough protein to feed all the people in the world and sustain them on a good nutritional level in the meantime new methods of utilizing our present protein sources are bringing a category of new foods to the market the principal vegetable protein source is the soybean for the reason that nutritionally it most closely resembles meat proteins there just isn't enough protein food available from conventional sources such as meat or eggs to meet world requirements and since protein is one of man's most important nutritional needs new sources must be developed here at worthington foods as a division of miles laboratories we are stepping up the production of foods for today and are placing top priority on the development of foods for tomorrow one reason is that animals just are not efficient protein converters for example a steer fed 100 pounds of vegetable protein will yield just 10 pounds of meat protein and pigs aren't much better when you bypass the animal however feed the vegetable protein directly to the subject there is no waste to simulate the texture of meat the protein that has been isolated from the bean is first extruded through spinnerets containing thousands of holes it emerges as fibers each three thousandths of an inch in diameter at this stage the protein fibers are without color or flavor physically comparable to cooked spaghetti before any seasoning has been added combined with binders fillers and new flavors from today's technology these soy proteins can be put together to simulate almost anything on the ordinary menu hot dog anyone bacon sausage drumstick hamburger turkey roll ham the versatile vegetable proteins also our economical extenders for meat poultry and seafood preparations they are thrifty improvers in soups gravies cereals dairy products of all kinds including ice cream and cheese meanwhile in the processing of our old standby conventional foods the wave of the future seems clear more sources more versatility better prepared for storage instant retrieval for serving with emphasis on nourishment and flavor and down on the farm the future challenges the imagination a version of the farm to be has behind it the authority and prestige of the united states atomic energy commission we're working on the concept that we refer to as the newplex a giant agricultural and industrial complex built around nuclear reactors the energy is used to produce in addition to electricity fresh water fertilizer and food to give you an idea of the size we see the nuplex built to sustain one hundred thousand farmers laborers and their families that operation should be enough to feed two and a half million people at a daily intake of twenty four hundred calories similar nuplexes might recycle wastes and use new resources to manufacture their products thus influencing industry the development of urban centers and our total environment a serious look at the year 2000 by distinguished agricultural scientists and engineers sponsored by the ford motor company saw the farm of the future raising fast growing plants in computer computer-controlled environments under huge plastic domes in the high-rise cattle barn each animal lives and grows on his own personal computer program the food he eats the water he drinks the air he breathes will be measured and managed the standard farm tractor will probably be powered electrically in the air-conditioned cab the farmer can maneuver himself around for better visibility carry his lunch in the refrigerator through a cup of coffee or check the progress of operations elsewhere on a tv set in some operations he'll choose to use his helicopter hovercraft the successor to the pickup truck [Music] today one man working the land provides food and fibers for 42 who are then free to work in the arts and sciences and productive systems which create the better worlds of tomorrow [Music] you