U.S. plays key role in global food chain

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U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar touched on topics from disarmament with the former Soviet Union to the need to increase food production for a growing world population Tuesday during a luncheon at Harre Union on the Valparaiso University campus.

About 200 business, community and education leaders attended the event, which was sponsored by the Greater Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce. Lugar appeared earlier in the day at Albanese Confectionary in Hobart to discuss the sugar program, which he said is inflating the cost of sugar.

Lugar, R-Indiana, noted that Indiana’s agricultural industry is strong; a recent Purdue University student revealed that farmland has increased 20 percent in value per acre.

In the last three years, the price of corn, wheat and soybeans — staples for the state’s ag industry — have doubled, despite some price fluctuations.

While Indiana farmers are producing more — Lugar said when he was growing up on a Marion County farm, yields were 40 to 60 bushels per acre and that has increased to 140 to 160 bushels — that’s not the case in the rest of the world.

With the populations of China and India burgeoning, there’s a greater need than ever for increased food production. China, “without ethical considerations,” is using tens of thousands of acres of land in Africa to feed its population, while the people of Africa struggle for food.

Egypt also imports 60 percent of its wheat from the U.S. at a time when wheat prices are doubling and the nation faces political unrest.

“We are not going to be able to feed the world, but we have enormous opportunities here in Indiana,” he said.

While this country sometimes abounds with pessimism about the future, Lugar said it’s “important to remember that the world depends on us, literally,” for things like keeping the high seas safe for international trade.

Taking a few questions from the audience, Lugar addressed how to enhance manufacturing in the United States.

“We need to reduce overregulation on manufacturing and, at least in the short run, offer tax incentives,” he said.

Valparaiso Mayor Jon Costas wanted to know how to resolve the national debt.

“By having several years in which deficits are reduced until we are back to a balanced budget. We couldn’t solve it in two or three years, but we could make gains, especially with growth and a decline in unemployment,” Lugar said.

Sun Times