"Food...For Thought!" Speech

As I prepared for this talk I thought, we live in a society where we have more than we can eat. And we take for granted the most economical, convenient, abundant food in the world! So how can I get anyones attention about food and its sources? Especially when Ill be talking to an audience that came to socialize and EAT A GOOD MEAL, and to folks who live in a society that has been eating pretty well for more than a century.

How well have we been eating and...for how long?

• weve been eating Hershey bars since 1900
• enjoyed hot dogs, hamburgers, popcorn and peanut butter since 1904
• in 1918 we canned our first tomatoes
• 1928 Velvetta cheese
• 1930 pre-sliced bread came along
• 1940 Dick and Mac McDonald opened their fast food hamburger store
• 1946 frozen french fries
• 1950 Kraft pre-sliced our cheese
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• 1954 Swanson froze our first TV dinners

Jumping ahead:

• 1965 Cool whip and Shake and Bake
• 1970 Hamburger Helper
• 1974 Light Beer--one of my personal favorites!
• 1977 NC State researchers developed a digestible milk called Sweet Acidophilus
• And just last year some college classmates of mine--young NC State Food Scientists--invented Jammm Singles-individually wrapped jam slices for easy application on toast.

Folks, all of us--myself included [pats stomach] are spoiled by the variety, convenience, abundance and price of our food!

So how can I bring home to you today the value of food, agriculture and agribusiness and the importance of protecting all three?

Let me begin by asking you to do me a favor. Close your eyes for a second and recall our last hurricane or the snow storm of January 2000. As you hurried down the isles of your grocery store fighting for that last loaf of bread or gallon of milk, Ill bet you--at least subconsciously-- appreciated food and how easily we can get our hands on it most of the time.

Ill ask you to remember that image, and while those storms are still on your radar screens, allow me to offer you some Food...For Thought!

My hope is that it will help you make important connections regarding food, the industries that bring it to you, and NC State Universitys College of Agriculture of Life Sciences.

Why Food For...Thought? The day has come when it would be in all of our best interests to have a better appreciation for food, agriculture and agribusiness.

A recent scientific survey on the attitudes of NC citizens and elected officials regarding agriculture and our College gave us some new insights.

The survey said most North Carolinians think favorably about farming and agriculture, but an alarming number of us and our elected officials fail to consider the origin of food beyond the grocery store. Most of us DO NOT connect agriculture and agribusiness with food.

Folks, food is grown by farmers, and farming is an occupation which has been declining in numbers here in the US since 1935.

• The top number in 1935 - was 6.8 million.
• Here in the new millennium there are less than 5 million folks on American farms - less than 2% of us farm

And times ARE tough:

• Of Americas 2 million farms, 75% generate minimal or negative incomes. Some 61 percent report an income of $20,000 or less
• AND farmers are scrutinized by the media, criticized by environmentalists, confronted with new and expensive governmental regulations.
• We remain one of the few industries in the world that cant control its own prices.
• Our industry is experiencing record market lows in prices as we find ourselves caught in the grips of one of the most challenging farm economies in the nations history!
• Last fall here in NC, Hurricane Floyd turned this already at- risk industry upside down.

Heres something else to chew on. Thanks to our survey we now know that North Carolinians believe that we pay a greater percentage of our expendable income on food than folks in any other country.

Folks we pay about 11% of our expendable income for food - the lowest percentage of any country in the world. Japan pays almost 18 %, India over 50%. To bring those numbers home...lets go shopping:

• a gallon of milk
• a dozen eggs
• a pound of cheddar cheese
• a 2-lb sirloin steak, and
• and a 2-lb bag of apples will cost you about $19.00 in the US.

Those same items in Tokyo, Japan will cost you $74.00, with your MVP or VIC cards!

Heres another way we can look at this: by February 9 of each year the average American family has made enough money to buy all the food well need for the entire year. But it takes us--on the average--until May 9 to earn enough to pay our taxes.

Friends, we spent more money on the cars we drive than we do on our annual food bill. We spend more money in this country annually on communications than we do on food. I have no statistics on how many accidents were caused by talking on cell phones as we drove here today, but regardless of the deal we got on our per minute rates...it wasnt as good a buy as todays luncheon.

And yes, there are NO FREE LUNCHES but the price is RIGHT! Heres what farmers are paid for food that may well be on todays menu:

• pork - 31 cents per lb.
• chicken - 36 cents per lb.
• corn - $2.15 per bushel--thats $2.15 for 50 pounds
• potatoes - $5.65 per hundred weight
• milk - $1.16 per gallon
• beef - 54 cents per pound to the farmer

Most NC citizens arent aware of how important agriculture and our commodities are to the states economy and job market.

Agriculture and Agribusiness - food, fiber and forestry - is North Carolinas Number one industry! The latest statistics show the total contribution to the states economy from Agriculture and the Food industries was

• $35 billion annually - over one-fifth of the states income
• Twenty two and one half percent - or $48.8 billion of the states $217 billion gross state product

And this means JOBS!

• The industry employs--780,000 of NCs 3.6 million workforce.

We were surprised, and certainly disappointed, to learn that 59% of the citizens of the state - and an alarming 14% of our elected officials - were not aware that NC States College of Agriculture and Life Sciences even existed.

For more than a Century the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has been Agriculture and Agribusinesss best friend, supporting the industry through our teaching, and research and delivering "Tomorrows Science and Technology...Today!" to industry and citizens through the NC Cooperative Extension Service.

Our 22 departments offer diverse disciplines ranging from:

• agriculture resource economics and agronomy
• to horticulture, toxicology and zoology.

We are the third highest ranked agricultural college nationally in number of undergraduates. We are unique because we are one of 6 Colleges of Agriculture that includes the life sciences - a diversity of disciplines that includes: From biochemistry and entomology to genetics and plant pathology

Our four-year and graduate programs produce thousands of young men and women who go on to become medical doctors, veterinarians, educators, scientists, leaders in business, industry and government. For example:

• Governor Bob Scott and his father Governor Kerr Scott
• Governor Jim Hunt
• Commissioner Jim Graham
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• Dr. Jerry Punch, physician and ABC and ESPNs racecar analyst
• Dr. T. Ming Chu, discoverer of the PSA assay test which has saved thousands of men from Prostate Cancer.
• Steve Ryrich (Rearick), an heart surgeon HERE IN ASHEVILLE-- won 2 gold medals in the 68 Olympics as a swimmer
• CEOs Wendell Murphey of Murphey Farms and Carroll Joyner, the Founder of the Golden Corral restaurant chain.
• Educators and scientists such as:
• Wanda Collins, the Deputy Director General of Research for the International Potato Center in Lima Peru. Wanda has 3 degrees from our College.

Ive been told that we have graduates of our College right here, who are - with great modesty and no fanfare - quietly raising the average IQ of this Rotary Club by 100s of points!

Our College has excellence in research.

The total annual budget of our College for research alone is $80 million. Now, hopefully Ill surprise no one when I say that the country has the safest food supply in the world.

How many of you were aware that North Carolina's fisheries industry typically ranks number one or two on the East Coast?

Many of the marine scientists who support this vital fisheries industry can be found in the College's Department of Zoology, where we do scientific research that helps the industry properly manage this multi-million dollar business.

And of course our College has a history of supporting the traditional agriculture and agribusiness industries through innovative scientific breakthroughs that include:

• A new system for improving the shelf life and quality of eggs in the shell, developed by the Colleges researchers will ultimately bring you fresher eggs.
• a pasteurization process for cucumber pickles, which now accounts for over 40 percent of commercially processed cucumbers in the United States
• a country ham curing process credited with developing the multi-million industry in North Carolina
• the Mountain Pride tomato, (Developed here at the Mountain Horticultural Research Station in Fletcher) represents 75 percent of the states commercial tomato acreage - which means millions more to our states economy

One important example: our genetic research fuses the life sciences and agriculture, carrying out basic gene expressions that our crop scientists test in the field. The aim is to identify the most productive placement of an influential gene on the chromosome. What does that mean? Well, for instance, in corn the result can be a plant that is more disease resistant, heat resistant, and one that can adapt better to a certain type of soil.

Survey Said:

We were disappointed to learn from those surveyed that most North Carolinians can not identify or correctly define the Colleges Cooperative Extension program.

Quite simply, Cooperative Extension is the agency that has been delivering NC States and North Carolina A&Ts research to North Carolina citizens for more than 85 years. Extension engages citizens in all 100 counties and on the Cherokee reservation with programs that include:

• 4-H Youth Development
• farm management
• family nutrition and health services
• environmental compliance
• and agriculture production.

You feel very positive about the quality of the food you eat and yet you are concerned about the environment.

Folks, the swine industry isnt just big news in North Carolina, its big business. The market value of NC hogs and pigs in 1999 was $1.3 billion, and that was in a year when prices dropped to new lows - again, 1970 prices. The cash value of pigs marketed in NC in 1998 a year earlier was $2.1 billion. We dont deny that this industry comes with its challenges - we read about the controversy - but sometimes miss the positives.

There are currently more than fifty research projects on-going in our College addressing environmental issues associated with the swine industry. A recent $4 million federal grant was awarded to the Colleges Animal and Poultry Waste Management Center to develop and implement innovative technologies to improve the air quality, water quality and environmental impact of animal agriculture.

Perhaps I can bring our environmental projects home to you this way. The boundaries of our campus arent limited to Raleigh. For example, our environmental scientists are working here in Western NC.

West: At Long Creek in Gaston County were helping dairy farmers reduce impacts on streams

West: On the North Toe River in Avery County were helping Christmas tree growers reduce impacts on water quality

But back to our survey.

North Carolina Citizens want to buy North Carolina grown products over food shipped from outside the state.

If we want to continue to have the most economical, safest home grown food in the future then Id suggest that you do all you can to support your local farmers.

• North Carolina ranks nationally 1^st in turkey production and in sweet potatoes
• 2^nd in hog and pig production, calves, cucumbers for pickles and strawberries
• 4^th in peanuts, blueberries and broilers
• Those sweet potatoes? There are 36,000 acres grown in NC annually, producing 604 million pounds- or $58 million of our states economy.
• And to name just a few North Carolina food brands  folks, youll recognize these home-grown products all over the country - Tysons Chicken, Texas Pete, and Carolina Cured Hams.

But right now, Id like to introduce you to two home-grown products - undergraduates in our College who come from family farms here in western North Carolina. They proudly represent not only NC State and our College, but farms that impact our lives. Diane and Joe, their parents [and generations before them, have helped make NC one of the top agricultural states in the nation.

According to my parents and grandparents, until their generations fought or lost friends in wars, then the concept of war wasnt real to them. Until they, and many

of you, lined up for gasoline in the 70s, I would suspect that concept of a fuel shortage wasnt real to many people.

Well, the concept of an uncertain future for agriculture and agribusiness wasnt real to me until recent years while traveling the US as National VP for Future Farmers of America. I saw first hand in over 35 states a declining industry  an industry:

• facing price control
• criticism by environmentalists
• new and expensive governmental regulations
• and the devastation of Hurricane Floyd, which turned an already at-risk industry upside down.

I listened to and looked into the faces of the folks who are being forced to leave the occupation they love at the rate of thousands per year. And that, my friends, is why we should all be concerned about food, farming and agriculture.

You know, one of the first times that I spoke publicly, an older gentleman approached me as I stepped off the podium, stuck out his hand and - just as I was expecting a compliment - said, "AND YOUR POINT WAS?"

So forgive me if I close by being blunt. My point is this - the reason were here today, is we want you to join us by taking ownership in the continuation of this wonderful food supply that we have; we want you to share our message. Take what you have heard here today about the importance of food, farming and the future of agriculture to your friends, your neighbors and your local elected officials.

This attractive brochure which will be handed out should help you make our point. And when you pass this brochure to your friends, be sure to share this Food...For Thought! - thinking appropriately about food makes good business sense--it is crucial to North Carolinas future and the future generations of our nation, state and this community. Thank You!