John R. Block
GALESBURG, Il — Today's doom and gloom headlines often make us forget the amazing advances our nation has made over the past three decades — none more so than in the internationally vital agricultural sector.
When I left my post as the nation's 21st Secretary of Agriculture in 1986, for instance, the average crop yield per acre in the United States was 33.3 bushels per acre for soybeans and 119.4 bushels per acre for corn. As of last year, thanks to the onset of almost revolutionary seed technologies, those yields rose to 39.7 bushels per acre for soybeans and 153.9 acres for corn.
