Secretary Ann Veneman

     When most people hear the words 'high-tech business,' they think of things like computers, the Internet, and electronics. But agriculture is as high-tech as any industry thriving in America today.

     What's more, agriculture is used to the pressures and rewards of evolving technology, and has proven remarkably adaptable.

     U.S. agriculture at the start of the last century was a labor- and horse-intensive business. First machines, and later, advances in the life sciences, transformed the nation's farms, increasing efficiency and outputs while lowering costs.

     Today, at the start of a new century, another technological revolution is taking place. Not only are new technologies transforming food processing and marketing, but they also hold the promise of further lowering farm production costs, improving the environment, and creating vast new food and non-food markets for producers.

     Many parts of our country are hotbeds of cutting-edge technology. For instance, in the Delta area of Mississippi, Bt cotton is helping to reduce producers' production costs and use of pesticides.

     Another great example is the Ag2020 project, an industry/government partnership that includes USDA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Cotton Council, the National Corn Growers Association, the United Soybean Board, and the National Association of Wheat Growers.

     Ag2020 is bringing farmers and researchers together to find innovative ways to use precision technologies to help lower production costs, improve yields, protect the environment, and reduce economic risks. Grower associations, working with USDA and NASA, develop and test new technologies, validate their usefulness through on-farm trials, and then disseminate results to their members.

     Some of the most fascinating work has been the collaboration with NASA to use and develop airborne and satellite imagery and remote sensing technologies.

     Technology such as hyper-spectral imaging can assist farmers in deciding when and where to apply fertilizer, herbicides, and pesticides, and in making earlier predictions of yield and quality.

     These are just some examples of how technology is helping American agriculture compete in the global marketplace. American agriculture has always enjoyed the home-field advantage of access to the strongest high-tech economy.

     We'll need to continuing pressing that advantage in the years to come.