While soil losses, aquifer depletion, and nutrient over-applications have been slowed through the application of technologies and the financial support and incentives provided by public policy, increasing commodity demands and climate stresses pose new threats. The sector’s capacity to meet these new demands, while maintaining and improving its record of sustaining natural resources, depends critically on the further development and diffusion of innovations in farm inputs, farm production, food marketing, and public policy. Further developments along these lines will be crucial. However, investments in science, which have played a primary role in supporting past productivity growth, continue to provide the largest opportunities, and challenges, for meeting future demands for agricultural products.