has precluded presenting a united front to state the 

 case to the Nation for western agricultural needs and 

 problems. 



Agriculture in the West has been forced into a 

 somewhat Faustian role in the sense that to maintain 

 a viable economic base and cultural identity, we have 

 called for industrial development which potentially has 

 the most deleterious effect on our agricultural strength 

 and stability While feeling victim to forces beyond our 

 control, we have been forced into a kind of "politics 

 of hysteria" in which commodity is pitted against com- 

 modity; rural citizen against urban citizen; state against 

 state; the states against the federal government; and 

 the private against the public sector 



This trend can be reversed but it will require new 

 approaches in confronting the problems. First, we 

 must confront the problems directly We must treat 

 the causes and not the symptoms. Economic growth 

 at any price to stimulate the economy to help keep 

 agriculture strong will ultimately weaken agriculture. 

 The real issue is what will be required to strengthen 

 and enhance agriculture? How much food will be 

 required in the coming decades'? Who can produce 

 what best? What markets can be developed? How 

 can those qualities unique to western agriculture be 

 enhanced? What relationships can be developed 

 among states and between the states and federal 

 government to make the West a full partner in national 

 policy as opposed to perceived victim? In short, there 

 is a need for a western agricultural policy; where are 

 we; where we want to be; and what we will need to 

 get there over the coming decades. Only if such 

 determination is made individually within states and in 

 the West as a region will we be able to sustain west- 

 ern agriculture as we know it. The most advanced 

 technology in the world will do no good if farmers 

 cannot afford to utilize it or if it alters the cultural 

 foundations that have kept farming and ranching inde- 

 pendent. Unilateral decisions made in Washington, 

 D.C., to declare the development of energy potential 

 on the public lands to be a priority will not be effective 

 if that development takes place at the expense of our 

 capacity to produce the necessary food and fiber to 

 maintain ourselves as a nation. Each decision must be 

 made in the context of its effect on another and that 

 cannot be done without a true assessment of needs 

 and goals. Decisions on how we manage our forests 

 and wildlife have an effect on agricultural production 

 just as where and how we mine or drill for oil and 

 minerals. More than any other region in the nation, 



agriculture in the West is a major component of our 

 concept of multiple use of natural resource manage- 

 ment and more than any other time in our history that 

 management must take into account projected 

 national needs for those products that enable us to 

 sustain life. 



There are specific things which can begin to take 

 place if agriculture production and technology are to 

 keep pace with national and world needs First, the 

 producers of individual commodities must become 

 more united in articulating western agricultural needs, 

 whether in the development of new markets or in the 

 management of natural resources. 



Second, state governments and their respective 

 departments of agriculture must become more policy 

 oriented. In those states where agriculture is a domi- 

 nant force in the economy, determination must be 

 made as to what will be required within states to sus- 

 tain that economy Few states in the West have that 

 capacity at present. 



Third, state governments must strive to develop a 

 partnership role with the federal government in the 

 management of our natural resources Only through 

 such a decision making process can the unique quali- 

 ties of the West to produce food and fiber realize their 

 full potential to benefit an entire nation. 



Fourth, the West must begin to act in concert as a 

 region on agricultural and natural resource issues 

 Certain individual commodities have begun to do so, 

 but no interstate association of governments, nor any 

 group representing western agriculture in general, has 

 developed any component to deal with agricultural 

 needs shared in common by the region — and this in 

 a region where agriculture is the foundation of most 

 state economies. 



It agricultural technology, production, and income 

 are to keep pace with one another in the western 

 United States, we must preserve and maintain agricul- 

 ture as an independent force But no longer can we 

 operate that force within a vacuum. A vehicle must 

 be created whereby our basic needs for food and 

 fiber are determined in a context which enables those 

 needs to be met to the fullest potential. 



44 



