Our farms have become extremely efficient, and more and more sustainable, because often better economics leads to better environmental outcomes as well. As we look out, having funding, good research, and innovation programs is going to be critical to getting productivity increases for the sake of productivity increases, but also critical to responding to new pressures, such as a carbon pricing mechanism, because it's going to be very hard for farmers to get any more efficiency improvements in the short term. There aren't many substitutes available. They are already maximizing their cost-effective use of inputs such as fertilizer and pesticides, and reducing water use. As we try to respond to these environmental challenges, we are going to have to have programs there to support farmers and to help them innovate even more to get more and more efficient.
On October 25th, 2016. See this statement in context.