It would be more than a decade ago now that I listened to speaker Dr. Lowell Catlett, a futurist and economist from New Mexico State University.
It was one of those presentations which left a rather last mark with a then much younger journalist.
Catlett tagged his presentation, 'The Future is So Bright You're Going to Need Shades'. That was heady stuff coming from anyone in an era in farming not many years removed from tractor caravans slowing highway traffic in support of calls for more money to save farms, and neighbours rallying to farmgate protests to prevent foreclosure auctions.
Catlett saw a brighter future for farming based in large part on biotechnology. He foresaw technology adding attributes to many farm crops which would create exciting, higher value markets.
Certainly we have seen some of that occur. Biotech canola has certainly changed that sector in terms of production, and opened some markets, but that is only a tip of the iceberg Catlett.
The futurist talked about the potential to completely push the boundaries of biotechnology. While many might cringe at the thought, Catlett spoke of the possibility of goats altered on the genetic level in order to have what would essentially be cheetah skin. The endangered big cats were hunted to near extinction for their fur skins, and farmers could cash in on that demand without further threatening the cats.
That may scare some, and excite some, but at that time it was a rather amazing vision of the possibilities, and even today while remaining more science fiction than fact, the growth of biotech science suggests it could still be reality, probably sooner that we expect.
Perhaps less Frankenstein-esque than cheetah-goats is the idea farm crops can be utilized in ways not related to feeding people or livestock.
Here in Saskatchewan farmers are aware of some of those efforts. A few years ago agriculture publications covered efforts to use oats in the make-up sector.
More recently a University of Saskatchewan associate professor at the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition; Ed Krol, has been looking at the potential of using flavonoids found in apples, onions and various other plants in sunscreen.
The idea of components within farm crops having higher value that the whole grain for food is hardly a new thought, but as populations continue to balloon it becomes a scarier concept as food pressures are only going to grow until the world somehow comes to grips with how to put the brakes on population expansion.
No one wants to begrudge farmers markets which pay more, but whether it's Catlett's goats, or apples for sunscreen, it could take food out of the reach of more people. The poorest of the world already struggle to afford food and that situation could easily worsen if farm produce heads to non-traditional, non-food markets.
Catlett's vision and the research taking place today are going to eventually foster a very interesting debate, the value of food for all.
