AFBF: American Consumers Trust Farmers And Their Sustainable Practices

A recently released survey conducted by the American Farm Bureau suggests that a majority of Americans believe farmers and ranchers are feeding the world in a sustainable way. Sustainability is an important topic to many Americans in 2020. John Newton, chief economist for the Farm Bureau, says their recent survey found a majority of Americans trust farmers to use sustainable practices.

“More than half the adults, 58%, rate the sustainability practices of farmers positively. We have broad agreement on that from a majority of adults across demographic groups that trust farmers.”

Newton added nine in ten adults trust farmers, which is 4% higher than the last survey that AFBF took in June. Newton said while farmers can always improve their sustainability, the poll shows that Americans don’t think farmers should have to bear the cost of doing so by themselves.

“I think they recognize that climate smart technology adoption is a public good. Seven in ten adults say that government incentives to encourage farmers to adopt additional sustainable Ag practices would be effective in improving environmental sustainability in agriculture.”

Newton also said Americans understand farms must be economically sustainable as well as environmentally sustainable. Noting that four in five adults understand the importance of feeding the world, and then they also understand the importance of farmers being able to pass their farm down to future generations and keeping that farm in the family.

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