Significant Developments in Southern Agriculture in the Decade of the 1970s And Emerging Policy Issues in the 1980s

Extract

There is considerable overlap between events of lasting significance in the 1970s and policy issues of the 1980s, perhaps because of an implicit requirement (in my own mind at least) that policy implications are a prerequisite to significance. At any rate, past developments in their full dimensions seem closely interwoven with future events.

Repeated invitations to Harold Breimyer to “look ahead” are evidence of our profession's view of his ranking in the trade of seers. Because, at best, we can only “see through a glass darkly,” it may be a futile effort to forecast developments beyond a two- or three-year horizon. Yet several of the unexpected events within our individual spheres of existence might have been spotted on the more distant horizon if we had really strained a bit to peer through the fog. Even knowing that the forecasting balance is tilted heavily on the side of events that cannot be foreseen, we feel it beneficial to keep peering ahead. I believe that is why, in spite of records that do not sparkle with accuracy, Breimyer continues to prophesy and we continue to listen.