Dear Newsweek editors,
First of all as a fourth generation farmer from Kansas, I want to express a big, heartfelt thank you for printing the truth about the agriculture industry's importance in our economy in the article by Daniel Gross, "How pigs saved our bacon." (Which by the way, I love the title and it's play on words because it really is true.)
It's validating to me as a farmer and ag journalist, to know the main stream media is finally printing the truth about animal and crop agriculture and not a biased outlook or one that promotes the demise of the American farmer to the rise of foreign ag products.
As a farmer, my family's livelihood depends on the public perception of the beef cattle and crops we raise. If they see a false report in the news, it only makes our job of producing the nation's food and fiber more difficult.
As a way to supplement our farm income for our family, I work part-time out of our home as an ag editor for a local weekly newspaper. As an ag journalist, I demand accuracy and honesty when reporting ag news and I hold Newsweek and other main stream media to the same standard. I hope this article means there will be more pro-agriculture stories in the future from Newsweek.
Thank you once again for telling the true success story of how less than 2% of our nation's population who are involved in production agriculture supply the U.S. and the world with the safest, most abundant food supply in the world.
Sincerely,
Michael & Melanie Musselman
Clifton, KS farmers
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How Pigs Saved Our Bacon
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The combination of a weak dollar and growing prosperity around the globe is also boosting demand for American manufactured goods. For years, Baltimore-based Marlin Steel Wire Products struggled in the U.S. market against stiff competition from cheaper, Chinese-made products. But president Drew Greenblatt automated the factory line and abandoned the low-margin end of the wire-basket market—rack warmers for bagels, for example—to make more-expensive products like antimicrobial baskets for restaurant kitchens. Since the dollar began to decline two years ago, Marlin Steel has landed clients in Belgium, Canada, Mexico and Japan. Sales rose from $800,000 in 1998 to $3 million last year, and Greenblatt forecasts sales will rise by one third this year. "I was losing a hundred thousand dollars a year just a couple years ago, and now I'm shipping wire baskets to New Zealand," Greenblatt says.
As it scours the globe for orders, Marlin Steel has lots of company. Last year exports of manufactured goods rose 10.7 percent to $870 billion, driven by big-ticket sales of advanced equipment to developing markets. Boeing may have lost out on the big Air Force tanker contract. But in February, it sealed deals to sell planes to airlines in Malaysia, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates. Semiconductor exports to China more than tripled between 2002 and 2007, making China the top foreign market for the products. Total U.S. exports to rapidly modernizing India nearly doubled last year, from $9 billion in 2006 to $16.3 billion.
Of course, the United States still imports far more than it exports—the trade deficit dropped by 6.2 percent last year but still comes to $711.6 billion. And Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's/Economy.com, warns that slowing growth in Europe, Japan and Canada may dampen the export boom. Still, in the long term, exports should remain a key contributor to growth. And in the short term, they are helping to soothe nerves frayed by the continuing credit trauma. "It is not enough to stem the downdraft in housing," Zandi says. "But it is cushioning the blow."
With Karen Springen in Chicago, Stephen Glain in Washington and Temma Ehrenfeld in New York
© 2008
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