without merit. It indicates that agricultural cooperatives, and others as well, have access to powerful techniques, genetic manipulations, and other scientific achievements which can yield a superior grain product for the world market and may even increase production substantially.In addition, as the previous section on "meta-groups" indicated, Americans have an advantage comprised of marketing skills and large, unified support for grain exports which consists of public and private sector forces. This combination of marketing skill, relatively harmonious goals across many diverse groups, and scientific, technical advances in the agricultural scenes gives the U.S. almost overwhelming power to successfully export agricultural products. V. Conclusions: Sustainability and Agriculture's Future Brown and Halweil (1998) observe that grain production and grain exports are limited by the hard facts of natural limitations:In the United States, where the cropland base is essentially fixed, growth in the grain harvest is limited to the rise in land productivity. With this rise now barely keeping up with the growth in U.S. population, there is no growth in exportable supplies. Agricultural sustainability in grain production therefore, is something of a given. It is not a negotiable matter since the amount of land is fixed. As Brown and Halweil note, only increased land yield can in crease production. Wilken's analysis of the effect of modern production levels and techniques on soil "health" is essential. Many effects on soil are presented here and there throughout the article and they mixed with the causes of such effects. They include: degradation, blocking of soil formation, erosion, microbial destruction, compacting, high production levels, natural causes such as insufficient rain or too much rain, tilling, fertilizers, drainage, wind erosion, filed waste removal, and what may be the most important: greed.The two most interesting points made we...
