Hat Chat

The annual gathering of farm broadcasters in Kansas City is part trade association meeting, part PR event, part family reunion, and part three day eating and drinking contest. I have been attending this meeting every year for the past 27 years. During all of that time it has been held at the same hotel, the Westin Crown Center. So walking into the Westin is like slipping on an old pair of shoes, it just fells comfortable. The doorman, even knows most of us by our first names.

Two things all farm broadcasters share is a passion for agriculture and a love to talk. So put over 100 of us together in the same place and we talk and talk and talk about agriculture. Add to that some of the top leaders in agriculture and agri-business, and you get a lot of hot air. All that talking works up an appetite and there are plenty of big meal functions to satisfy. All that talking makes one thirsty and there is plenty of free beer to be had.

There is plenty of news too. Top ag officials from the government, farm organizations, and ag companies are on hand to talk on the air and on the record. News from this event is spread all over the country as networks and radio stations broadcast live from the news center.

HAT found several Hoosiers and former Hoosiers at the meeting. Karen Fear an Indiana farmer on the USB was on hand to promote soy products and checkoff programs. Jim Bower from Bower Trading in Lafayette was there to talk about the markets. Chris Novak from NPPC, (formerly of Indiana Soybean), was there. Julie Douglas from Purdue Ag Communications was also in attendance.

You have already heard and read some of the news material Andy Eubank and I gathered at the meeting, and over the next few weeks there will be more.

P.S.
I promised to let you know how the Verizon phone worked. It did fine, handling the riggers of travel and working in airports and hotel banquette rooms. The battery lasted the whole trip with no re-charge. The Vcast feature allowed me to catch up on news while sitting at the airport. It also provided an alternative from Operah, who was on the TV in the gate area.

Indiana Lt. Governor Becky Skillman is also the Indiana Secretary of Agriculture, and she is ready and eager to begin her second term in office. Skillman told HAT that continuing the growth in the Hoosier farm economy will be one of her top priorities for the next 4 years.

Here is the complete and unedited interview.

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On Monday, Indiana Farm Bureau will announce their new Director of Communications. Andrew Dietrick, long time Director of Communication for the Indiana Statewide Association of Rural Electric Coops and most recently with the Dept of Transportation, will assume the post recently vacated by Lew Middleton.

Farm Bureau leadership is seeking a new direction for the organizations communications programs. Dietrick will chart this new direction and bring a number of new technologies to Farm Bureau’s efforts.

All of us at Hoosier Ag Today look forward to working with Andy and helping his staff to tell the story of Indiana agriculture and Indiana Farm Bureau.

It was quick and decisive. Just three minutes after the polls closed, the media called the race for Indiana Governor. The Mitch Daniels/Becky Skillman team will be returning to the Statehouse. Four years ago, it was the farm and rural vote that made the difference. This time the Daniels win was a much broader based win. Even the primarily democratic Marion County went to Mitch Daniels.

During this campaign, the agricultural issues were different than 4 years ago. Taxes were the issue that concerned farmers the most. While most supported the growth in the Hoosier agriculture economy, many saw their property tax bills skyrocket and felt the Governor’s reform of the property tax system was unfair to agriculture. Even Indiana Farm Bureau refused to endorse Daniels for re-election.

The second term of Governor Daniels may be less friendly to agriculture than his first term. While there will still be strong support for growth in the livestock, hardwood, and renewable energy sectors, the property tax issue will continue to divide Daniels and the farm community.

The Governor’s property tax measure, which passed the General Assembly last session, calls for a change in the Indiana constitution. That measure will be up for ratification before the legislature this session. Indiana Farm Bureau has serious reservations about this plan and may launch a campaign to defeat the proposal.

As John McCain prepares to visit the Hoosier state Monday afternoon, the reaction from the ag community continues to pour in from the statement made last week by Barack Obama about agriculture.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty on ABC’s Good Morning America: Obama Not Offering “Positive Vision” for Iowa Farmers. BILL WEIR: “People want to follow hopeful, optimistic, civil, decent leaders. Are those qualities what has him so far ahead in the polls, do you think? And how would you relate those qualities to the McCain campaign?” GOV. TIM PAWLENTY: “Well, I think whether its Barack Obama or anyone else, people want to see a hopeful, positive vision for the future of the country, but that’s not what Barack Obama’s been offering. For example, here in Iowa, he said recently to Joel Klein of Time magazine, that agriculture is to blame for the nation’s health problems partly, including diabetes and heart disease and others. You can imagine what Iowa farmers are going to think of that.” WEIR: “Well, I think he was talking about corn syrup in soda and fast food. That’s a little bit out of context. I won’t ask –” GOV. PAWLENTY: “But Bill, farmers don’t grow soda, they grow corn.” (ABC’s “Good Morning America,” 11/1/08)

Commentary Magazine’s Jennifer Rubin: Obama’s Rural “Condescension” Slips Out. “In loose moments, Obama’s lack of understanding of and condescension toward rural and small-town America always slips out. And really, is his point that if farmers grew less food, Americans would be thinner? The mind reels.” (Jennifer Rubin, “Obama to Farmers: Stop Growing Food,” Commentary Magazine Contentions blog,” http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/rubin/40941, 11/1/08)

Bemidji (MN) Pioneer: Sen. Grassley: “It Is Ludicrous to Blame Farmers for Obesity.” “‘It is ludicrous to blame farmers for obesity and pollution,’ Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, told reporters during a Friday conference call. ‘I think he really doesn’t understand agriculture.’” (Don Davis and Scott Wente, “CAMPAIGN NOTEBOOK: Obama comments upset GOP farmers,” Bemidji Pioneer, 11/1/08)

St. Paul Pioneer Press: Sen. Grassley: Obama “Doesn’t Have a Very Good Foundation.” “In a conference call arranged by the McCain campaign, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, called it ‘ludicrous to blame farmers for obesity and pollution.’ Said Grassley: ‘It shows that Sen. Obama doesn’t have a very good foundation in American agriculture.’” (Tom Webb, “McCain faults Obama’s comments on farming,” St. Paul Pioneer Press, 11/1/08)

St. Paul Pioneer Press: Sen. Grassley: Obama Gets Ag Ideas From “Professor At Cal-Berkeley.” “(P)eople in agriculture need to know that if Sen. Obama is going to get his ideas on agriculture from a professor at Cal-Berkeley, they should think twice about what they are voting for.” (Tom Webb, “McCain faults Obama’s comments on farming,” St. Paul Pioneer Press, 11/1/08)

Barack Obama Blames Farming For Some of The Nation’s Leading Health Problems, Including Obesity And Heart Disease, In A Recent Interview. “Obama - citing an article by Michael Pollan, an author and outspoken critic of U.S. farm policy - told Time magazine that agriculture is partly responsible for the explosion in our health care costs because they’re contributing to type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease, obesity, all the things that are driving our huge explosion in health care costs.’” (Philip Brasher, “Obama links health issues to farming, then backs off,” Des Moines Register, 10/31/08)

Barack Obama Attacks Farmers for “Contributing More Greenhouse Gases Than Our Transportation Sector.” “Obama also said in the Time interview that farming, enabled by cheap energy, “actually is contributing more greenhouse gases than our transportation sector.” (Philip Brasher, “Candidates’ plans on energy may cost Iowans; sum varies,” Des Moines Register, 10/31/08)

Barack Obama’s Remarks “In Conflict” With Previous Remarks “But Ron Litterer, a Greene farmer who is chairman of the National Corn Growers Association, said Obama’s comments in the Time interview were ‘in conflict with what he’s been saying about agriculture, no question about it.’” (Philip Brasher, “Candidates’ plans on energy may cost Iowans; sum varies,” Des Moines Register, 10/31/08)

John McCain Has Proposed To Exempt Farms From The Emissions Caps In His Cap And Trade Proposal. “McCain would exempt farms from emission limits, a crucial issue for livestock producers.” (Philip Brasher, “Candidates’ plans on energy may cost Iowans; sum varies,” Des Moines Register, 10/31/08)

Barack Obama Has Not Proposed Exempting Agriculture From His Emissions Caps. “Obama hasn’t taken a position yet. A spokeswoman said Obama Enhanced Coverage would take into account political considerations as well as the impact on the economy and agriculture.” (Philip Brasher, “Candidates’ plans on energy may cost Iowans; sum varies,” Des Moines Register, 10/31/08)

Barack Obama Quotes Radical Berkeley Professor Who Advocates Restructuring. “Pollan, who teaches journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, has long criticized the wide-scale cultivation of corn for use as livestock feed. He contends that it would be better for the environment and human health to fatten livestock on grass.” (Philip Brasher, “Obama links health issues to farming, then backs off,” Des Moines Register, 10/31/08)

Pollan Says Higher Meat Prices A Good Thing. “Pollan acknowledged that his ideas would raise meat prices: ‘You will need to make the case that paying the real cost of meat, and therefore eating less of it, is a good thing for our health, for the environment, for our dwindling reserves of fresh water and for the welfare of the animals,’ he wrote.” (Philip Brasher, “Obama links health issues to farming, then backs off,” Des Moines Register, 10/31/08)

Indianapolis residents may have experienced slower than normal cell phone connections the past few days. That may be because 50,000 FFA members, in town for the 81st National Convention, were all using their cell phones, all at the same time. Calling, or texting, or sending photos, the cell phone is now part of “official dress”. While I walked around the Career Show everywhere I looked there was a person on a cell phone.

Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer made an appearance at the National FFA Convention on Friday. He spoke to the Friday session and then went over to the Career show. He signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will help promote ag education. That was the official reason he came to FFA. I think there could be another reason, to hang out with cute FFA girls. I had the chance to conduct a one-on-one interview with Schafer.

Listen to my interview with Ed Schafer.

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Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer made an appearance at the FFA convention in Indianapolis on Friday. He continued his strong push for renewable fuels, telling the FFA,that they are the generation that will make the dream of renewable fuel a reality, “We need the kind of innovation that has always pushed the frontiers of American agriculture, and it is your generation that will fully develop this area.” Schafer called on the young people to push hard for this innovation, “We have got to pick up the pace.”

Hear the speech by Agraiculture Secretary Ed Schafer to the FFA

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The first thing you notice when entering the show is the size. As far as the eye can see in the cavernous exhibit halls are exhibits; large and small. The second thing you notice is the noise. Each one of those thousands of exhibits is exhaling sound, several decibels above that of a jet engine. This mixture of music, mechanical noise, and human speech, blends into a cacophony that quickly overwhelms the senses. What is even more amazing is that none of the 25,000 or so young people jammed into the aisles are not bothered by this and are able to hold regular conversations.

All the major truck manufacturers were there with gleaming new trucks, the dream of any country boy. These displays usually had country music playing, vey loudly. The Ford exhibit had games for the young ladies to play while the guys were drooling over the trucks. The Dodge display had a make believe campfire with bean bag rock chairs for some simulated outdoor relaxing. Toyota had a truck perched about 6 feet in the air with horrific noise coming from it. A sign read Tundra Thunder. I did not stick around long enough to find out what this was all about.

Another display had the game you normally see at the midway. This is the one you use a large heavy hammer to propel a steel ball up a pole to ring a bell at the top. As I watched several young men swung the hammer but did not ring the bell. Then a young lady in skirt and heels grasp the hammer and sent the ball flying to the top. The back of her FFA jacket said Texas. Yes, those Texas gals are something.

The grand prize, however, goes to the US Army. They had army equipment around, which always attracts guys, and young solders in camo, which always attracts girls. In addition they were giving away an i-pod every hour, (yes our tax dollars at work). The i-pods went to those who could do the most pushups. As I watched dozens of young men whipped off those Blue and Gold jackets to try their luck. The record while I was there was 130.

My final stop was the FFA Shopping Mall. Located at the back of the hall, this area contained every kind of temptation that a FFA member could want. Any item that the letters FFA could be put on was for sale. There were also enough T-shirts to cloth the entire population of China. And on those T-shirts are printed a galaxy of quirky, silly, profound, and sometime just plain strange sayings. If by some remote chance you can not find just the right shirt with just the right thing silk screamed ontoit, there is a booth that will make custom shirts for you. In addition there are cowboy hats and mountains of western where including a large variety of boots.

Speaking of footwear I saw more than a few young ladies who had it with heels on concrete and were wondering the show barefoot. The only sign of a credit crises I saw at the Career Show or the Circle Center Mall next door, was the crisis that occurred when someone credit card was maxed out.

Members of the Shenandoah FFA chapter are fired up for their visit to National Convention. They will be competing in the National Ag Issues contest. Read about it at Hoosiers Prepare for National FFA Convention. During a pre-convention event their enthusiasm boiled over and they climbed a CountryMark fuel truck that was delivering all American gasoline to fuel 55 Toyota vehicles that will be used during the convention. CountryMark is a major sponsor of the FFA day of Service.