Transcripts For CSPAN3 Secretary Sonny Perdue On Agriculture Outlook 20240713

The future of agriculture. This is a fitting theme for the secretary to announce something that we have been working on a usda called the agriculture innovation agenda. We are excited to share more with you this morning. I am joined in this room by many of you that are working to shape the future of our agricultural economy. It is important that we take stock, not only of where we are today but also of where we need to go to meet a growing Global Demand with rising standards of living in a time where producers are dealing with uncertainties in the farm economy and the conditions needed to farm, including the climate. Our chief economist, doctor rob johansson, will provide an indepth overview of the state of the farm economy. There is a lot to taken in 2019, it was certainly not a typical year. There were many factors influence in the economy including extreme weather, trade and policy changes an importing and exporting countries to name just a few. Following doctor jays top, the secretary will outline some of the amazing progress we have seen and should be talking about more in the agriculture sector. As i mentioned, he will also tee up with what we are calling on this call, to continue the trend of success that we have seen to meet the future challenges, including in doing our part to make sure that we are growing enough food to feed a population that is likely to grow to 9. 7 billion people by 2050, while at the same time conserving our Natural Resources for the future. That will be followed by a fire sight chat that the secretary will have with john hart knit, founder and ceo of as vijay g ventures. And investors focused on food and agriculture industries. Secretary purdue and doctor heart net will discuss the future of agriculture, challenges facing the sector and emerging solutions that could address them. Tomorrow, secretary purdue will be joined by his colleagues as ministers from argentina, canada and mexico, for a session titled feeding the world through innovation. They will discuss cooperative approaches to promote agriculture innovation and global trade as foundations of global food security. I recurring theme that you will hear through this conference is this, innovation. Innovation will be the key to sustaining the success of our sector. Here at usda, we are working to refrain this narrative on agriculture. Speaking of the future, i also want to acknowledge our through the University Students who are in attendance as participants in this years agriculture outlook form. They are here participating in usdas 2020 future leaders and Agriculture Program. Their attendance in this forum caps off a week long trip here to washington, d. C. The program selects 20 universities under graduates and ten graduate students based on essays on agriculture careers and challenges. The students major and agriculture related studies, including business, economics, communications, nutrition, food science and veterinary studies. Finalists are sub elected to universities, hispanic serving institutions and non land colleges of agriculture. The future leaders of Agriculture Program is supported by academic institutions, corporations and government institutions dedicated to promoting the education of the next generation of agriculture. This year, sponsoring an organization including the university of maryland and farm credit. This program is one of the many efforts that we have among usda, the 1862 land grand institutions, the 1890s historically black colleges and universities, the 1994 tribal land grant colleges and universities and hispanic serving universities. These partnerships could support Capacity Building initiatives and bolster education and Career Opportunities for students interested in a career in agriculture. I also want to acknowledge, as part of that, the ten graduate students that we have in attendance as part of the program. The Usdas Economic Research Service partner last year with the Farm Foundation to create a new Agriculture Scholars Program that takes these ten graduates level students of agriculture through a year long program of agriculture training. The objective is to inspire and train the next generation of agricultural lists interested in policy, commodity market analysis, agriculture finance and other applied fields of economics. Can we have all of our 2020 future leaders in Agriculture Programs attendees stand and lets give them a round of applause . Be sure to seek them out during the break because these are some of the sharp young minds that we wanted agriculture and i know you want as well. With that, i would like to say, here is our chief economist doctor robert johansson, who unveiled the departments outlook for u. S. Commodity markets and trade in 2020 and discussed the u. S. Farm income situation. Doctor johansson. applause thanks so much. Thank you everyone for joining us today. Thank you for those comments, mr. Deputy secretary, and of course welcome to the 96th annual agriculture forum. As the deputy just mentioned, we have a Great Program for you. Our theme this year as he just talked about, the innovation imperative. Of course, that has appropriate many ways, he just numerators some of them, i will just highlight two that are going to underline some of the comments and me today. First, 2019, it is year filled with uncertainty for agriculture in many ways and innovative responses were necessary by farmers to get through the year. Second, we know that innovation agriculture will continue to shape our future. What can we expect for 2020 . I know you are waiting with baited breath, so lets get to the numbers. Talk about three main themes today, 2020 is a big year for trade with our top agriculture partners and that is going to help sales and prices. Second, Crop Production should rebound from last year and we expect record crop, meat and dairy production. Third, the economy continues to show signs of stress, but there are other more hopeful signs. For example, low Interest Rates are reducing costs and straightening land bile use. Lets start with the global economy. In january, the imf projected slower Global Global economic growth. The downward revision from the pink to the dark red line on the slide there may not look like much but it equals a loss in buying potential of 1. 5 trillion dollars over that period. With almost all of that revision due to declines in growth an emerging economies such as india. Central banks from across the world have responded by collectively cutting Interest Rates 71 times across 49 different countries. Still, that being said, higher growth, higher Global Growth in 20 and 21 and 2022 is expected, which should increase our opportunities to sell abroad. Now those estimates by the imf did not account for the most recent outbreak of the coronavirus and china, which has been impacting much of chinese chinas economy. You can see here in january that the shanghai composite index fell by 10 in january, but the emergence of the coronavirus. It has since then started to recover. We are tracking this on many levels. Globally, we have observed significant obstructions we would expect less spending by chinese consumers. Particularly in the First Quarter. That may reduce the purchase of high value products such as meets. Private sectors forecast have lowered their estimates of chinas First Quarter gdp by as much as two percentage points. It is far too early to tell with the final impacts will be, but most of those forecasting operations expect the second quarter, third quarter, and Fourth Quarter in china to rebound. Any perceived risk of uncertainty often strengthens the u. S. Dollar. That is what we saw last year as a safe investment. Trade uncertainty and Interest Rate cuts kept the dollar strong in the first part of 2019, but over the second half of the year, the dollar depreciated against several currencies. We saw moderation zone tensions between u. S. And china. We saw a resolving uncertainty about brexit. We did see some Higher Oil Prices at the end of the second half of 2019, which supported both the australian and the canadian currencies. We also saw Interest Rate cuts, as i mentioned earlier, by some central banks, such as in russia which help support their currency. Incidentally, the coronavirus recently has led to an appreciating dollar that is now reflected in the slides. Despite the mixed economic signals heading into 2020, there has been an important progress in trade that i am sure we are going to talk about over the next two days. That is going to improve access for u. S. Agriculture in 2020 and beyond. Premade trade deals that will hear about today and tomorrow cover over half of u. S. Exports. The usmca will lower trade friction between our north American Trading partners and is expected to grow the u. S. Export market to more than 41 billion dollars in 2020. The japan u. S. Agreement will also help lower tariffs on more than seven billion dollars in u. S. Exports. More importantly, it will equalize Market Access for sector such as u. S. Beef and pork similar to those enjoyed right now by the eu australian, new zealand and canada into japan. They are large seven trillion dollar market. Phase one deal with china will boost sales to our main agriculture customer. However, there remains much more work to do such as Getting Better access to the nearly 1. 4 billion consumerist in india and our trading negotiators and administration president ial is working on that as we speak. Im going to put a slide on here and hopefully it works. It is the first time i have tried this. This show some of what we are expecting in trade and excited to see. This is a timeline of different economies at the size of the bubble reflects how much we are trading or how much u. S. Product they are purchasing from us. Their per capita gdp is along the ex access. There is a lot going on there. What we see . We saw three decades ago japan was our longest largest market at about eight billion. At that same time, our exports were concentrated mostly in the eu when canada. U. S. Exports at that time to china were less than one billion dollars and exports to india were only 240 Million Dollars. At the time, china had a gdp per capita of 700 dollars per person in india 600 dollars per person. This took a dramatic effect, we probably saw that in 1994. Canada mexico grew to 300 . In 1995, deputy oh officially commenced boosting marketing in 2001, china after the wto and u. S. Exports to try and expand almost hitting 26 billion dollars in 2014. U. S. Exports over the last past have decade have declined under increased foreign competition and in 2018, experts flow dramatically under the dispute with our Major Trading partners, bringing us to we will watch one more time and i will go to the next slide. [inaudible i just talked about all, this we can see china and yesterday, other china open to the global marketplace run for medically both and perhaps in the tpp as well as our exports in india yet to take off again highlighting the importance of getting into that market in the future where we today in 2020, u. S. Exports are forecast at 100 39. 5 billion dollars, thats up four billion from last year china were forecasting right now 14 billion for fiscal 2020 up from 10 million last year, that reflects Public Information available right now in phase one by the trade outlook for costs are based on the fiscal, here in this alpha also reflects and certainly that i mentioned earlier, top market in 2020 is currently speculating canada, forecasting 21. 5 billion. Mexico forecasts up to 19. 8 billion, you want japan slightly, down for fiscal 20, 20 again, just emphasize the calendar year phase one commitments, are not reflected in the fiscal year calculation, completely one question we get is word we expect the largest growth to be an important manned over the next ten years. Global demand for agricultural quantities especially emerging markets are expected to grow Global Exports prospect for additional u. S. Exports over the next ten years or strong growing at least 283. 6 billion dollars. Overall trade is projected to increase by 37 million tons of 17 big markets in mexico egypt and south america. Global starving trade is projected to increase by 36 million tons up 24 mostly in china bubbly trade is projected to increase by 30 million chance up 16 million africa, the middle east, and the world meat trade is expected to grow by not Million Metric Tons. Poultry up 28 , the fight 18 imports by 23 . All right lets turn to the 2020 crop and livestock sector, i know many of you are excited to see these, slides first lets recap though in 2019, what we saw and what drew a lot of attention and critiques, of u. S. Dea forecasts, as we all know 2019 was a very wet year, in much of america, spring planting delays, led to slow maturing corn and crops and now harvest what weather still hinder progress across wide areas of the corn, belted led to a surge and demand for growing capacity in some natural gas shortages, and price bikes occurred in many areas, in parts of north dakota and minnesota wisconsin, early heavy snowfall on top of what ground and it fieldwork early before the harvest was complete leaving significant acreage for harvesting as you know today. We are coming out with our early estimates for 2020 and this is what we had last year for corn in 2019. Our estimates are based at this time purely on supply demand fundamentals and price expectations, and we do assume porter unquote normal weather of course we know its fairly wet out there right now. The First Official estimates for the new crop here released in may and that reflects the planting intentions surveys that now skull released at the end of march in june last year we reduced our acreage and yields reflecting observed weather conditions at the end of june, nasa releases a gross report which was used in the july. Given the high corn prices and strong price signals at that time to plant corn is not surprising that farmers said they would play more corn and that was reflected in the july estimates. In August Nascar gang reporting monthly survey stayed at a clutch yield estimates coupled with administrative data and satellite information. As you all know in august service came in for producers noting fewer acres planted than expected but higher yields then have been forecast earlier overall the corn harm this was picked a 13. 9 billion bushels. Sadly above the july estimates significantly different from average trade estimate from many of you in the, room more than 600 million bushels. What do we see . Many farmers outside and outside analysts felt the usgs to most did not reflect the poor planting conditions that were seen on the ground in many states, but the estimates did reflect was what farmers were saying on their surveys coupled with satellite information as well as has been a straight of data from fsa and more of a. Market correction happened in august which the december features fallen by 50 cents a bushel for the frustrating farmers that were dealing with difficult planting conditions. One thing we heard this year is why doesnt the usda you settling information help them with their estimates of, course weve been using satellites for many years and weve been Getting Better each year as those status improve our ability to estimate Crop Production. You can see how improve satellite information improve usage of administrative data have help usda refine their estimates overtime, going back to the seventies, we havent seen a year when the corn Crop Forecast in august was more than 7. 5 off since 1995. And the deviation has been less than 5 over the past five years, again in the blue here is our estimates in august relative to the final in the orange, is the average trade estimate relative to the final. Lets look ahead now to 2020, big question out there is where we going to plant all of those . Acres are a major role crops corn sobering wheat cotton sorghum rice orlando its average nearly two to 57 million acres of the 2012 2014 period. Looking at the principal crop anchorage a bridge was down in 2019. By almost 16 million acres, which most of that coming from soybeans down 13 million relative to 2018. So again looking across the United States, we saw significant planting, prevent plant and unplanned today acres, in 2019 relative to 20, 18 so where were going to put those acres this year we would expect a good portion of those to go to court so points in 2020, lets look at what the price fundamentals are. We look at global stocks relative to use efforts to see what we think about upcoming demand for those commodities. And we can see strengthening in the stocks for pointed so it means relative to each advice we would expect larger returns piece of pieces commodities for corn and soybeans, similarly we expect growing Global Demand for various dies increasing animal proteins to continue to stimulate demands for grains and soybeans is not just the United States that are proving their output but brazil is optimizing their land as well utilizing double cropping, resulting and more soybean acres and a second crop or now is overtaken results for season. Crop Current Record production and brazil pegged at roughly four billion bushels of corn 4. 6 billion bushels of soybeans, in addition planting decisions will be affected by a number of other factors, such as expectations about trade and tariffs, prices compared with rising costs current prices price to a large u. S. Corn crop there been four here with those in addition we know that local demand and costs will drive regional plantings, for example we see that story into corn prices currently favors planting a more soybeans and upper midwest, compared to planting more cohen in the Eastern Court as well as the soybeans in part of the United States. On your anticipation of return to normal trade some growth in those markets boosted by trade agreements will project, it should be prices will rise, modestly up an echo ttc a bushel, this coming here. Supported by lower stocks supported to last years record, in contrast, corn is expected to decline, 25 cents to three dollars and 60 cents a bushel. With larger court acres and expected return we prices are expected up 35 cents to four dollars 90 cents a bushel reflecting low ending stocks. Cotton prices remain low. However Global Conditions in return to more normal train patterns remain a significant uncertainty to the market. Cropland area, last years coup hunting difficulties, as i mentioned resulted 13 million pure incurs of soybeans compared, which is equivalent to roughly 60 million bushel carrying out. That redaction supports increases subpoena courage to roughly 85 million acres. Up 12 corn areas expected to rise 4. 3 million acres to 94 million following last years plant, supported by new crop prices that are relatively fairly rubble to court we take automakers are down with more acres with rice, lets turn to meat and dairy production 2020 production were made will send other record 100 8. 8 billion pounds. Before the action will increase about 1 portable 4. 5 and willow production up about 4 . Thank reciprocation over the past ten years has been accompanied by increasing shares in production export. With more than 25 of our poor production expected to be exported, and nearly 20 of dairy to be exported. Ill just note of course, weve got record dairy production as well in the red there and more than 220 Million Pounds expected for 2020. Im going to let you take a look at the slide really fast. Police typical fee, theres a lot going on here, his tries to encapsulate what is going on with his sworn fever in one slide. Theres a lot going. On i can even use the pointer on this one so what are we seeing weve seen significant decline support production, china in particular hawk protection in 2019 down 195 million head and we expect reduction of another 80 million in 2020. Attorneys for prices have strike 250 to 200 to what they were a year ago. You can see in 2019, most exporting countries particularly the eu. Increase their pork exports to china chinas dramatically increase their imports globally with purchases from the u. S. Up 100 and 50 from 2018 face one deal in place, we would expect a larger portion to come from the u. S. In 2020 but lets look at the loss of China Consumption and supplies its far larger than all of global trade in pork, will take some time to resolve so again dropping trying to consumptions ignition, 15. 8 billion metric tons total trade 4 million metric teds us another seven gets you only 2 11 so we have a significant hold, air in proteins, that is going to be filled with other proteins, such as be, poultry, and again, higher exports of pork coming from the United States. What are prices showing . Despite record levels of the production, prices are expected to close unchanged or 2020. Slightly up, Strong Demand for pork domestically and internationally expected to support increase prices, roller prices are expected to come under pressure from tyler production levels, instead of going down slightly but fairly unchanged, milk prices are expected to strengthen slightly in 2020 as well. Lets look a little bit closer, weve heard a lot about that in the news over the past. Here we know that u. S. Milk production is expected to grow by 13 over the next ten years. But prices, milk prices, are only expected to increase about 5 . As with other sectors growth and production, have been through increased daines and animal fish and see with steady increases however dairy remains a sector experiencing significant structural reform, and the number of licenses have been following us production has been increasing. Recent usda mass sentenced shows how the distribution of dairy farming operations has been changing from one with many small dairy farms, to one with fewer but much larger operations. Now more than half of u. S. Dairy cows are being milked in operations with the thousand or more cows, five times higher than you saw 20 years ago. The reason for this is apparent in this chart showing the cost of production for dairy farms across the United States. The church shows that the majority of dairy operations, have caused production that are greater than the whole price. But the majority of milk production is occurring on operations with cost higher in the all male. Price based on this we would expect to see continued consolidation in the dairy sector. Lets turn now to the form economy, and foreign policies, we know that u. S. Farmers as a mentioned face numbers of natural disasters from 2019. And u. S. State responded with all the tools, available to making timely payments to loss claims and providence churns policies and utilizing up and say Disaster Assistance program. Sufficient to those tools, u. S. Temperament to the wildfire, hurricane incidentally program plus, using the funding provided by congress, with plus provided payments in addition to insurance produces natural disasters 2018 and 19. Stepping back, course this is something that i typically showed the beginning of this presentation. We look at sentiment and farmers over the past year, relative to where we were in february of last year we. We can see that by a large most of these industries that we track weather, thats the corn price Consumer Sentiment from michigan. The ad barometer from the cma, survey the rolled mainstream serviced and i created the dow jones industrial, or the Housing Market are all up relative to this time last year. But certainly, formal sentiment was volatile over this period. It may form sentiment fell, did your increasing trade tensions. It was the lowest overall a barometer index, insufferable of 2016. In june, the barometer rose with the announcement of the new program for 2019. In july the price of corn rows with the knowledge of widespread, prevent plant and so did the overall mueller, whoever in august as we just talked about with more corners unexpected and winter Commodity Prices sentiment fell in december, the prospects of improved trade relations and sentiment about the future continue to improve and january there was a large boost of austin winds them as the face with china with some of the u. S. Is the new record for the egg barometer index, indicating that farmers are very optimistic about the next six, months its two or two for postal income more than 90 of farmers in america are family farm so farmhouse hurt ankara is a good benchmark to look at when thinking about the health and family farm we can see the overall family farm housecoat income stretches from negative 8000 to more than 300,000 with a median roughly at 72,000 dollars as typically found to be above the medium u. S. Household income however this illustrates there are still roughly 50 of farms out there that do not earn positive returns and we also know that more than 50 of u. S. Farms have primary principal operators that are either retired, or a list another job as their primary occupation low Commodity Prices in recent years have weighed on farm income. Yet, for a place he has rebounded, solutions to artistic steam, in part, particularly last, year that was due to lie levels of government payments. In 2020 we expect that form income to rise slightly for 3. 6 26. 7 billion dollars with higher cash receipts, we also expect more Farm Program Payments and lower indemnities on whether even though costs will be rising we will talk about that at the end here. Usually when we think of disaster payments we think normally were talking about interested thats what were showing here. But in this case Crop Insurance still covers the bulk of most losses due to weather, but we saw in particular an increase in prevent plant last year more than four billion dollars. We and wet plus along with a top up for that prevent plant, social up in the 2017 and 18 and 19 numbers, wig has been important but again this portrays the importance of the Insurance Program to providing that basic safety net for farm producers, similarly. The 14. 5 billion dollars in an f he payments the 2019 program will be paid out 2019 and 2020 you can see here how those Program Payments were targeted to the states most affected by the tariffs, with lapd exceeding 500 Million Dollars in aid, States Running from texas to north dakota and over to indiana, the picture of the states there on the right, showing trade that is affected by tariffs, and picture on the left or Program Payments are expected. For this year form get is forecasted for a 25 billion dollars of 265 unrealistic, debt 161 billion in on real estate debt. Overall the forearm is speaking from the early 1980s. Equity is forecast to decrease very slightly it point some percent in 2020. While dad is anticipated to increase slightly. By 0. 5 . That puts the debt to asset ratio for the farm sector at 30. 6 that is still low that is certainly the highs weve seen since 2003, and the other had both Interest Rates and inflation are expected to remain low, in 2020 which is kept at financing manageable, and which is also help maintain equity through higher Farmland Values those overall values can mask areas of vulnerability, for senate forms a very highly ravaged ballot seats that debt tests every step of several percent, has been slowly rising for several sectors including corn soybeans and hawks. Overall the number of crop forms and highly or very high thats above point for data set ratio, its about one and 12 and thats remained constant. Overtime number of livestock dairy farms, and highly were fairly highly ravaged financial situations and sitting at about one and 16 right now, the end fairly constant overtime. Weve seen a lot about bankruptcys, i would put some slides together on that the overall bankruptcy rate has remained low. Below three forms for 10,000 over the past nine years while its increased, youre over year by 24 the rate is still low historically. What is helping with that again. Hoisting Race Relations a marine low. Helps maintain Farmland Values. When you look at some social hard than average bankruptcy rates such as georgia and nebraska and north dakota. 2019. Other such as maine, which again in florida where bankruptcy leads a bit lower than the average. By large most states if you are the two bankruptcies per 10,000 farms in line with a historic average, in the red line here on average below the red line that would mean that in 2019 you had higher bankruptcies in the state have higher bankruptcies than the ten year average if your brother of the lower bankruptcies of the ten year average. Overall going into 2020 the basic outlook for many forums that better than it did last year. If expectations of better, trade expectations a better weather. And continued low Interest Rates. Nevertheless, the farm Balance Sheet remains tight reforms without significant land equity, total costs including land generally exceeded exceed expected revenues in many regions with cash flow difficult for soybeans and wheat in particular. Of course is bound she does not include government, payments so our pale sea is not included in here, the 2019 tranche three payments from a fear not included in here, but this just underlines in many places farmers that are renting land, are going to have a difficult time showing cash flow. You on your land its a different story of course because the highest costs here, farmers that do have significant land equity or in better shape. Going into 2020. Let me put some summary slides together here first of, all grown traditions is a plant out point to wards improve outlook in 2020, trade deals are expected to approve our access, to Trading Opportunities abroad, and return to more normal trade with our, Major Trading partners with lower friction should lower costs and improve returns that could not make fundamentals are stable, Interest Rates remain low, that will keep borrowing costs down. Equity remains high, relative to debt. We have stable land values. Weather conditions are likely to be better of course thats hard to forecast, going into the new year. We do know theres a lot of rain out there theres a lot of wetness, precipitation weve seen over the last couple of weeks and months. But again we would expect that conditions will be better than the historic conditions we saw last year and that should improve outlook, for corn and soybean crops as well as other commodities, we do see courted serbian up likely for 2019 based on signals we are seeing right now, lifestyle sector is poised for continued growth, with record production, in beef pork poultry, growing export access for meat exports reflecting the trade one hayes with china, the u. S. Japan agreement, and continue Global Income growth in 2020, and 2021, International Competition in crop and livestock production is enhanced particularly, with our countries to the shelf, in brazil we continue to see cord serbian expansion and production u. S. Agricultural productivity remains remarkably strong thats something were going to hear about over the next couple days a continued investment in technology, the key to maintaining and feeding the global population. What are our expectations for the next ten . Years production across the u. S. Should reach 612 Million Metric Tons over the next ten, years east of the main commodities, were talking about, today thats up about 10 , from this time, from current thats on the same amount, or slightly less. Increasing to ensure decent livelihoods for four more. Pierce help us meet Global Security challenges, and manage scarce Natural Resources. We know the markets are. Competitive strive to be efficient, they have shown time and time again their resilience and ability to compete. We know that more people have improved accents, to food in the coming years this food prices fall and economic growth, and purchasing power, yet must work remains. The number of people who are food and secure in 2018, had risen to 820 million, roughly 10 of the global population. U. S. Producers and u. S. Innovators have a vital role to play in respond to that demand. You see the number of undernourished is moving in the wrong direction. Here if we are to meet our un target of zero hunger by 2030. So matching is produces and innovators are a vital role to play. To challenges facing agriculture such as loaded land, water and natural disasters. Now its my pleasure, to introduce, usdas 34 secretary of agricultural, or sunny purdue. But we speaking today about usdas agenda and sit down with his guest to talk about who is welcome secretary purdue good morning,. Welcome wherever you, one looks like we have a full house here today. Delighted to have you to the 96th annual agricultural admiral out look of summit. Raise your hand if you are here for the first one. Some you might have made it to the first, one were happy to have you here today, our thing this year is the innovation impair. Shaping the future of agriculture. We are delighted to have you here. The story today. Were going to talk. About a non think weve told a story and what were going to be doing over the next year is sharing where weve been. As far as the footprint of where we want to go, and that is going to include and agricultural success story, but in an, jennifer all yukoner soon to join after regional, once were gonna go one, by one if you go to take, notes will help more Going Forward, a success, story of what we have, a farmers are pretty good able producing, theyre just not good about telling what theyve done, most of them are kind of quiet, and really dont talk a lot about whats, happen this is the, facts the story of the last 90 years. Increase productivity with fewer, resources thats what the story is here what does that mean that. Way it means if we look a trade on the last couple of years. We offer export. More importantly. We kept food prices low and reliably will for the American Consumer family, thats almost anywhere, really anywhere in the world, weve got some facts to back that up. Heres what the story of american agriculturals bid is, producing more with fewer, inputs and weve seen just over the past 70, years yourself but its almost tripled here, three times up their inputs of only increased by 50 , annually you can see, here the line of total agricultural output, and what our economists said, the total factor productivity for agriculture has been wonderful in that way, of measuring the inputs versus the outputs, versus the implodes, if you see down here, a thing and puts, there its been a great story and the measures, the indicator of the agricultural centered, how its, been and to come over in the past 70, years we really havent done that, how fully done that, this is the, key innovation is made this possible, we know the farmers are great innovators, they are great entrepreneurs, theyre great at ingenuity and much of the equipment we see, for the majors today started inform somewhere, you know that farmers are looking for a better way to do whatever they needed to, do they designed things, they welded and belted, they innovated their way to success. Farmers arent always the biggest advocates through their own successes, they tend to stay behind the farm gate, and do what they need to do in order to become better on what they are doing, the support to illustrate the, truth its really important as we go, to go forward in doing, that we understand that the United States, model of private sector, innovation in our science based regulatory approach, encourages farmers, to adapt the latest technology slater. Thats what we want to, do you see the productivity increases here, from technological advances there. We see all the way back to 1929, the tractors, here in all the various types of things, irrigation, robotic milking, satellites for position agriculture, biotech issue, all the kind of, things innovation is, driven Technological Innovations have helped that record places 400 improving agricultural productivity over these, years as what we want to continue to do, that weve got to focus more, on aligning those kind of things, embracing innovative technologies, allows farmers to become more, efficient all timidly improving their bottom, line keeps the cost low and productivity, high even in the dairy, sector which is been under quite a bit of stress you could see their productivity gains over the last several years. 90 years ago, we had this many cows, and now we have 60 less cows, with guess what . Twice as much milk, and thats one of the, reasons theres so much theyve been so productive, weve been over producing, really to keeping these cost low for pursue mers, while the livelihood of theirs has been under, stress interesting thing over, here at the same, time we hear a lot about methane admissions from cattle and dairy cattle, matt initials berkow and amal, over 50 as were Going Forward there. We see all, so we noble position, digitization of agriculture, and adoption a position agricultural technologies, farmers again to improve productivity, i remember when i went to the farm show, in 2017, i saw all the technology. Theyre ripping that soil, in the fall replacing about half of the nutrients there that were typically done. And the spring coming back and placing that seed with a 20 bushel per acre increase thats the type of increases its driving the innovation thats driving the technological advances, here decisionmaking, digitization i was telling john the best farmers have use this great ai on top of their shoulders for many years including making the best decision what were dead just tiding that even the ones moving forward for american agriculture, does that mean less imports using water, sensor technology. For the future 60 i cant compete,. Were going to keep reminding people of the axis, the reliable, affordable, connectivity rural america, not only in the farmsteads but also in the field for this corrective precision agriculture, to really take place, were going to have to have that, i think its one of the most transformative things we can do from an infrastructure perspective, that really matters in american agricultural as we go forward. We need to continue doing, that not only have we done a great job productivity wise, but farmers are doing a much better job from a conservation perspective, thats the felicity live on the, land they are small enough to know they dont want to poison that, land for future generations, anyone they talk to that goal is to pass atlanta long to the next generation, i remember very clearly my father, telling me son, i got a responsibility whether we own it or rent is still even better than we found thats what farmers are doing today. As we see i think again this is important, since 19, 80 farmland has increased over 49 million, anchors forest lands increased over 20 million acres. Contributes to the Green House Gas issues, farmers are doing a much better job because they realize that helps or productivity, rather than having topsoil eroded, they are doing a great job, 45 recline in solar motion from 82 to 2012, including water and winter motion declined by 45 , thats real conservation efforts that i think with Water Technology we can even do better. Knowing what cover crops, and conservation pillage, now he is wildly on many major, crops still not universally what we hope to do, tell the data and the facts, for people farmers will these crowded technologies, to make a difference in that way. We, the good news is essentially what the story of american our culture, is doing much much more, with much much, less thats what we want to talk, about moving forward, we know obviously with all the successes weve had, the row is gonna be challenges and read about them in the, press screen about him from consumers, and others about the challenges Going Forward. The challenges of the world population, most people would tell you that the population is expected to be about nine point, seven to ten billion people by 2050, thats a lot of hungry mouths out there to feed, we may know that our usda, since we began, is to do right and feed everyone. That is a challenge. There are challenges again, how are we going to feed everyone, while doing . Right as the sustainability gold, that will talk about a few, minutes the challenge of feeding everyone, almost ten billion people, while doing right, and the environment and our social goals as we go forward. We did a, we want to announce a new innovation agenda, Going Forward, its, because thats whats going to drive the successes. Agricultural innovation agenda. The real question is, how are we going to do it . Apartment while effort, programs and research, provide all farmers with the tools they need to be successful in a position, as a legal in the global effort. Recognize our role, to support farmers of all sizes, we see some very innovative sizes, creating different things, i was a michigan a few weeks ago this young man was 32 years ago and left a high tech well paying job, was operating on three, acres guess where he was going . To go for the wedding, industry flowers all over the, world in that, way weve got a lot of innovation a lot of creativity out there, we challenged ourselves to set goals and prioritize innovation and hold yourselves accountable, you see, a goal is to stimulate innovation of america agriculture. Decreasing do more the less, increasing u. S. Agricultural production by 40 , while we reduced our contribution to the footprint, by half in 2050, we think thats attainable, its a straight goal it should, be we think we can get, theyre heres what were going to do stimulate innovation so american agriculture can work towards a sure goal from a creasing Agricultural Production by 40 , cutting the cultural footprint in half by 2050, is going to take all of us to do, that is going to take a lineup to do, that between the public and private, sector thats how we define doing right and feeding, everyone as we go forward. How will we get . There how will we get there. Were going to get their strategically by working together, by doing innovative, create a private sector, or from the farmer on the ground to our Great Research public and private, entities here were going to do research. Were going to align programs, metrics and data, and were going to have a school board. This is what we want to do, in for ways Going Forward. Research. Our plans are to develop a u. S. Innovation strategy, that a lines in secret isis, public and private sector research, communicate with one each other on what were, doing what we need to go, one of the questions we need to answer, as far as where we can help to achieve these goals, Going Forward, weve got so many things differently, digitalized a, shun prescriptive intervention, systems based on farm management, many many kinds of things, its amazing out, there ive got a chance to travel really all over the country, and all over the world and look at whats happening out here, simple things not simple interesting things, light speck technology, regarding influence on, plants and the kind of opportunities that weve never imagined before, research is part of that key want to align our programs, as our customer facing opportunities, with both fsa, dealing with farmers, and are, ces, dealing with our producers out here, and these form groups, were gonna line the work of this research, and deliver, it here cooperation with the extension surface, communication, tactics across the globe, along the work of our customer facing agencies, so we can integrate, those innovative technologies, practices into our programs, as you will, know many times, government regulations, flag technologies, they lag what is really happening out there in the, world we want to be ahead of, that we want to be certainly a shoulder to shoulder, lying to a regulatory perspective, acknowledging the changes are taking place, so we can lead rather than hinder many times the private sector is hindered by the technologies available, because of how the regulatory structure is, our our goal is to align those move out the industries that move out, improve the coordination here, between our research and our program, so we can fasttrack the implementation of that cutting edge technology. Into the hands of our producers, everywhere we want to go. Thats important as well. And then, we are going to measure, we have to measure metrics and that are important, in the usda, isnt a great place to do that. And we need to do it in a way that preserves privacy, we know farmers are very private about their individual data. We need to guard this data, the usda is to help the private sector, and accumulating the data, and also making sure that we preserve that data, and used it for the right, way as we go forward, moving out, creating a review of productivity, conservation, data analyzing the production, to make the best decision Going Forward, if you dont imagine, having the data, weve got a lot of very clear priorities, that are going to come, here a lot of obey, data and agricultural if usda, theres a lot of data sets, theyre trying to make those more publicly visible, here graphic technology, for dashboards, everyone can have access to, that make better decisions as they go forward, and im from the old school, if you dont have a scoreboard, you dont keep score, you just, practice we cannot afford just to, practice going, forward if youre going to do, right and feed, everyone you better keep, score in that area, we are looking pretty good here by 2050 to stay 90, nine hunger zero, thats what we, want thats where we want to be in 2050, we want to smack come, we want food, waste food, lost you know this is about that, just think about it if we can reduce food loss and food, waste all the way from what we leave there, to the consumers plate, what were leaving, there its amazing, we are so blessed in this country to have an ample supply, food weve taken for granted, frankly, folks were just wasteful about, it we could not afford to do that, if were going to have the moral imperative, of doing right and feeding everyone across this world, weve got to make this part of the discussion already developing champions to deal with, us in the various sectors, of convention, areas and resources, another, places and were going to bring, our retailers into this and make this, a goal for all of us, certainly, we want to do more with, less we believe the agriculture can be part of the, solution question rather than admitting, carbon techniques we know that, work and our cms already has, plans and goals, and gymnast ration,s a secret, stretching the good news about this is what we sequester carbon, it improves all health which improves productivity, farmers win by doing, right and they win by sequestering carbon, using the techniques that helped to keep the carbon in the soil, improving the productivity of the souls as, well certainly from a Water Quality perspective, we know and a lot of places, weve allowed nutrients to escape our fields, were doing a better job there, we can do even better and our goal is to reduce that, new trim runoff, off of our fields and farms by 30 by 2050, and then again we think farming can be a real contributor to the air quality through our ethanol and biofuels industry, we think we can do more, in that way by creating a better environment for renewable fuels, hopefully moving forward with goals a 15 of our Transportation Fuel moving to that. These are all important, goals were gonna have a school board that keeps track, were not in a way to the buzz around zero, zero because you know, that its progressive, were going to have a really annual types of trends of where we are providing data to the, industry and to the, world to know that we are serious about, this and serious about making these goals. By collecting more timely information, that is useful to our customers, i think we can ensure that we are putting points on the scoreboard, and making these kind of scores good as we go forward. Because why . We want to win big, look at their, its really important to, win thats what we want to, do as we go forward, in winning for the world, and doing right and feeding everyone, as we go forward. You, know the challenges are, meeting the food fiber fuel feed, and environmental demands of the future, its going to require some challenges, its going to require all the things you talk, about innovation is the key, a finding public and private sector, the real question is, will you join us . Will you commit yourself out, there you are very, secretary your sphere of influence, to do the right thing of u. S. Agricultural innovation agenda . This is our mission, will you accept . Now, i would like to invite to the stage someone who has accepted that mission, and it is john hartman, he was quite an innovator an investor here, and is gonna talk, were going to have a chat, a far side chat here, about the kind of innovation, hes a futurist and so many ways and hes done a lot of things, i want to be joined up on the stage, about the in formation about what is shaping the future of agriculture. As indicated john has accepted that challenge of Mission Impossible of do more with less. John. I feel i should have come out of the ceiling on a rope. You missed the rope, we were quite sure if it was secure, we dont you, falling nonetheless, youre an innovative, but i frankly, i read your bio and is Pretty Amazing, what youve been involved in, i told john earlier, i dont know if you remember the palm. Pilot john was one of the early innovators, in that area, the palm pilot, and handspring, and he was just delighted, i didnt know i was a palm pilot user, as we went forward, his leverage those kind of technological skills, and become interested in the food sector as well, knowing how important it is, so, john appreciate you making the, trip to really talk about the private, sector and the Public Sector, as we go, forward youre the founder and ceo vestigey, the technology investment, firm founded thrive, which we have the opportunity to visit with the last, year in california, a leaning at innovation, food, Innovation Ecosystem comprised of the top food and technology systems, using that digitization that we talked about for doing more with less and very innovative kind of ways. I know thats kind of your bio, but what do you really do john . Well ive been in Silicon Valley for 22, years you might notice they dont have a Silicon Valley accent, or a california accent, im originally from, ireland i want to get my agriculture credentials that, earlier i dont want to be accused here, eight 9 10 years of age or gop forced, tractor appealed hay, in ireland, and i walked on a dairy witness about 14 or 15, my early years horticulture, this rogue on by big values. In Silicon Valley, a at an opportunity to be there, for basically the reds pollution of the smartphone, i think a party in the room here today has a smartphone, its changed our lives, in the nineties that didnt exist, we had to kind of project forward, to say will this, how will this happen . We looked at some of the key trends in terms of productivity, and how that was going to protect forward, to having costs down, and getting the computer to fit in your palm, we invented the smartphone, and created about a five billion dollar business. From that, over but nine years, as kind of the big part of my background. About ten years, ago at set up as fiji ventures, to accelerate, companys having been the ceo, having the seal the set of companies, companies dont happen early, hungry, Team Building a manufacturing, operations distribution, so we took the approach to build an accelerator, a break he mentors around those companies, to have the help, them drive forward, birthing and getting them weaned is the challenge. I think thats kind of my early days, and i got into the agricultural world, a big by accident, Everybody Loves Silicon Valley, we are just land in the, world leader in the fresh, food especially, crops even noes to the country all a you came here, last year, and it was phenomenal for you to come down, walk the fields, and we with Technology Companies in Silicon Valley, even though we are in our apart, we werent communicating as best you, should and really trying to kind of a line that, is a big part of why we started to do this. That really leaves my next question, you heard the along the goal, today do more with, last using innovation and technology to get there. Talk to me, talk to us a bit about how that aligns with what youve already, seen in the private sector, in aligning with the Public Sector, these audacious goals a feeding ten billion people by 2050. First of all, hes goals, i think theyre, bold around vicious, but is something that we need, its probably the most important industry on the, planet harsh every, family and every life, on this planet, so this is probably the most Important Mission for all of us. Alignments with entrepreneurs, my experience has been, they can really change the, world they can bring new technologies together, they can disrupt it, is trees and you look at some of the sequence of events over the last 20 years, others entertainment or what have you how use information this is all coming from individuals and entrepreneurs, we actually done, that but the world of agriculture, or is not straightforward its complex, Industries Complex pricing, and i think having these goals, really set the bar really aligning the industry, aligning entrepreneurs, aligning innovators, with problems, and understanding how theyre going to solve those problems, and use the technology and innovation to solve these problems, this is something that we did, california, we brought people from Silicon Valley, up to Silicon Valley, and sat down to talk to the innovators, about the problems that they have, around labor, food safety, Water Quality, water, scarcity etc, think the key, thing is to naval innovation, and to unleash innovation, youve got to directed and focus it on the problems that your most feeling the pain, i think that would help drive a lot of innovation coming forward. I think thats a big change of what we have recognized, weve got to ask the right questions, to solve the Biggest Challenges of agriculture, and what i would like to hear, your honest impressionable of, is that, how does usda to a better job as a neutral arbiter, of not picking winners and losers, but facilitating the private sector research, with where we need to go, in that were helping to synergy, eyes and synchronize, both the production challenges that here, what are the best producers, asking, of helping to align the research of both the public and the private, what world you see the usda playing in that . I think its obviously a very critical role, in terms of its a lot of innovation out, there i think over the last five or ten years, farmers are saying more, sensors more applications more data more solutions, it is just so much confusion out there in terms of being able to understand, what is the best technology should be using, try to solve some challenges, there i think guidance and education, and putting a roadmap out there, for farmers, to really kind of understand, and see what are the top technologies that they can apply, we just did our top 50, we evaluate a three and a half thousand startups and over 90 countries around the world. Do i want to take a little time and in exchange what thrive is in the competitive acts spectacle thrive, almost in an agricultural food protection type of thing. We set up thrive really to, as an accelerator, to accelerate innovation to solve problems of the agriculture sector. Also work with Major Companies like pointy. Aerofarms who are really kind of scaling on the control the environment agriculture. Sector and working with entrepreneurs on one side, and that the same side were working with farmers. So we are working with western growers, two and half thousand, working with the likes a lot of likes, in midwest, really to understand the challenges of the farmer, working about three and a half thousand startups and entrepreneurs, are sitting in the middle where addressing programs to address the problems with the farmers, and bringing the community together. Seven years ago we found that the tech forms media, you came to visit that last. Here are the whole idea about that was, the challenge was to bring the ecosystem together, bring farmers, researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs, Technology Companies, so we should get after these, problems is a combination of the foundation of what we are doing, the ecosystem of bringing that together and then putting programs in place. Programs around accelerate technology, identifying problems of the farmer investing behind those as well, we work very closely and carefully with the industry to identify these challenges. What sounds like you, earlier already doing what i challenge all of us today to, do is to align the public in the private sector. You go to farmers, you go to take the maximum vectors. Max is technology, and innovators, entrepreneurs and finding solutions to that, thats what i hope really to add the usda as a Public Sector partner of facilitating more of that. Do you specific recommendations on how we can engage, as you know youre not the only one, and theres a lot of interest in Silicon Valley in the food said crude now. A lot of interest, and theres almost like after the technology revolution, they kind of discovered that the food industry, and the Food Supply Chain, really needs focus. I think once investors in Silicon Valley Companies Look at the center, the agrifood sector and the Food Supply Chain is an eight trillion dollar industry, when you look at some of those graphs they talk about in terms of population, going to 10 million, people but also changing consumers, 50 of the Current Population is generation z, they are changing the way they are consuming anything food. At the same time he of the challenges on water skier city, that gap, its hard to keep doing what youre doing, he kind of focus on the innovation area, we have to get the entrepreneurs align with the problems, how we did that was we put a challenge out entrepreneurs, sent a big gun eric challenge and saying hey, being presplit activity, saying robotics innovation is gonna make, impacted chinese asian and data is gonna make this impact, kind of breaking down, the aspects of putting a challenge out to 5000 entrepreneurs, around the world, and getting them to come up with the ideas and innovation, and then pitch live on stage, five years ago, we brought entrepreneurs from around the world and the western rowers, whose group like, this and the sharks on the stage, performers asking the tough questions in terms, of what is this gonna cost me . Housing and improve my yield is really kind of putting the entrepreneur and the former together, and its rushing those challenges, those programs, i think can be very very impactful. I think we need to go to the industry, with his challenges that you set the bar, and go out is not the industry tonight, states but worldwide. There are hundreds around the world here, like israel, you visited never lands, earlier this year. I just came back from austria yesterday, you look at countries can number, still have all the same challenges, theyre innovating as, well how can we collaborate with those countries as well . Really get some of the best of the best, i think there is a combination of the global aspect, aligning the problems, and focusing on, these i love what youve done, here having a, scorecard having it right up, there transparent with regard to this is the bar we are going, for youre going to hold a team accountable for this, this is the roadmap, and never gonna measure this year by ear and ceo were performing, i dont play american, football but i play soccer and, rugby he can on the field but if you dont score a goal youre not, winning and weve got to score those goals, so i think having that kind of transparent view, i think its going to be very very important,. What he describes for segmenting the focus of research, i dont have time to get into it this morning, thats a jacket we want to do with our usda Agricultural Research service, is to identify the challenges in, problem sort of the limitations here in dealing with those things in various setting years, i know doctor hudsons will you do more, as our industry in a hole about that to do that as we go forward, so we look for that is a great, strategy and i hope you dont mind us copying that role. I know probably whats on the mind, in my mind, mind to many people out here, we want you to give us a peek into the future, the front row or see to some of these types of industries. That are just developing are sprouting out of the ground, or whether theyre going good, tell us what you see, tell us what is the future of some of the exciting things that you think are gonna help me some of these goals . I looked in a couple of, why its obviously were looking at entrepreneurs, and see technology, to Venture Capital is investing into the, future workers eventually capital going, and placing the best for the future. In terms of technology, we do the now assistant where all these dollars are going in terms of entry, capital obviously bio sciences theyre gonna continue to drive the way in terms of, doing more with, plus agriculture is going to step up and a really big way, bring investment petrol environment agriculture is a billion dollars already gone into this as a pattern for the private sector panders like aerofarms they braced 600 Million Dollars theyre no longer and startups these companies are scaling there, growing leafy greens are testing out here is today and i see this is being a really interesting supplement to the challenge that we have i dont see control environment vertical farms as a competitive force a juicy supplementing what we are doing but i see it is kind of a key path Going Forward i also see that in terms of the supply chain itself. Putting forms in the Distribution Center of vertical farms i think is definitely going to be taking place the next few years. Robotics automation instant a major role what were doing today. I think investment into this space again and all the same level as it should be. Hes a born area where we can drive Automated Vehicles theres nobody on the vehicle. And theyre actually driving urging the waiting and seeding and driving the solutions there i think thats what youre going to start seeing is companies i think you had Silicon Valley a Company Called farm wise and food Labor Technology is east of the technologies already exists. I didnt realize that this is where the companies that you would help to accelerate there. When we were in their Salinas Valley and these two guys showed me this machine where theyll put many i believe it was cabbage there many seats in the row and then you had labour come through their thin out the most unproductive in a space there to leave hardy plants there at a regular space. Will this machine autonomously went on the road and had optics there that would choose the most healthy looking seedling that i come up there, inject some nutrients into that and unfortunately for those weaklings it put them out of their misery so that was what i saw autonomously saving i think about a crew of 25 doing a ten or five times faster. That is a great example that i saw right there. Of what innovation. Sensor technology, Aqua Technology can, do autonomously driven it was Pretty Amazing. One of the other things you probably know, they are dropping robotics to pick strawberries, hes going to be Pretty Amazing to see that kind of scale today. The other one is data tied as one of the issues that hes out there data without ai in analytics is useless. At the same, time its a challenge in terms of the trust and sharing that information, so i think its going to pay a key role in terms of the future, secretary i would say one thing that one we are in the smartphone industry. What apple announce they were coming into the iphone it was 2007, with technology was around for ten years beforehand, when the internet started, technology was around for 20 years, i dont think its something is going to be event to the next couple of years, its going to be the big breakthrough i think its going to be adoption of the technology, i think again this is where the u. S. State could help farmers adopt some of this technology, also feeling some of the big players that are sitting on the sidelines today goal amazon and microsoft they are starting to embrace this space and i think once they come in and it will really kind of put that point in merit terms of this productivity,. You talked about something i want to go back to for a second because traditional agricultural traditional producers sometimes here this gee whiz futuristic kind of thing and it may feel threatened. You mentioned very specifically, this will be an evolution there and its going to be complementary not replacing. It wont disrupt to the point through the adoption of these techniques, most people moved to this not going to disrupt their livelihood aside from helping them become better. Its going to become complimentary, rather than, desecrating. Yes i think if we look at that vertical farming. Why doesnt any form or here have their own vertical farm . Why cant they run their farm in a supply chain as well thinker gonna see this chain obviously theres a couple of early players like air forms and think theyre really going to set the bar is that become something that other farmers can deploy themselves in a supply chain . I think it can be. With a local source, saying the Consumers Want today and knowing where that came from, how its grown certainly is part of it, the thing i mentioned my presentation was i love your advice and counsel on how usda from a regulatory perspective, can be aligned. They dont necessarily we cannot believe the technological revolution, there but how can we make sure that regulations dont inhibit or hold it back in that way, its a challenge here usda in d. C. To make sure Regulatory Environment president s very interested in fact i think the deRegulatory Environment that hes created as almost been as much of the economic boom that we are seeing here as the tax policy so people want to, no entrepreneurs want to, know that youre not going to hold me back, a five great invention, how do we do a better job aligning usda regulatory issues with that . One of the things are dealing with right now is new breeding techniques. How do we do that in animals in that way . This is, its a very complicated challenge, i think regulation will slow down innovation, it will slow down the flow, and the rate of what we are trying to do, at the same time you need regulation, is significant data out there, on peoples businesses. And farmers need to be sure about whats going to be down with their information in terms of privacy, i think that theres definitely a role here to make sure that theres regulation, at the same time this data could make us much more productive, it is actually interpreted and analyze, and that balance is very important, i think one of the areas that i would say moving on in terms of how to drive some of the innovation. Is why cant we set up super farms in a couple of key locations across the United States . And start to lead the world and build clusters of excellence weather since Silicon Valley around digital and automation whether Pete Research triangle or various different locations, the support for me to identify these new technologies are those control environment automation, bad technology, but set up areas of excellence. This is where we can lead not just only resource for superfarm so we can bring entrepreneurs from all over the world put their technologies and place and demonstrate to us that this is going to reduce the cost is going to increase productivity and we can lead the world here so i think theres an opportunity for us to kind of crazy reforms that can really demonstrate this, and obviously connectivity is a big issue in a major challenge for the industry, its very hard to enable Technology Without conductivity, police ago my kids wouldve Power Outages in california with the fires, my kids came to me they didnt realize that the lights were off they didnt realize the power was off not in the realize was there was no wifi so if you think about how board that is in terms of every world environment i think this to me in terms of admission this is the Biggest Mission if we want to enable and light of the farms and take one hand from behind the back of the farmers we have to drive that connectivity and also maybe by having super forms we can kind of showcase 5g at some of these areas and show with the best of innovation can do think these can be areas that we can achieve this Going Forward. Thank you just given usda great ideas certainly if we can put 5g in our nfl stadium, we can put it in our super forms, i know that i did visit in north dakota, a Government Program at a career in microsoft. They were creating a smart Farm Environment theyre, by doing many of the things you were talking about. I love the terminology, superfarm, i love for usda to be facilitating that, going to congress and saying, lets create some demonstration pots out here, for the future, because those ideas are coming out of Silicon Valley, they need to be proven in the field. Thats, right as you say edges came back from australia, and the victorian government were driving hard in terms of ten activity, locations, their theyve created an Initiative Like this, they didnt call it a super, for the whole ideas to pounding the farm of the future. That has, i think you look at canada today, if kind of come up with the super clusters, then around next Generation Foods and protein, next generation in terms of data, next generation in automation and robotics. I think we need to lead, were leading already but i think we need to be careful that we dont get complacent. I think having this kind of a focus, in terms of having these clusters, aligned with challenges that are going out to the industry worldwide. To say solve this problem, increased productivity by 40 . Reduce our footprint by 50 , and breaking that, out putting the challenge out there, to every entrepreneur. Bringing them over here, putting them on our super, farms see super forms demonstrate the future. Bring that right across the United States, mid, waste west coast. And the ecosystem we have in the United States is very fertile for that. Weve got obviously private sector research, public such a research, were talking about trying to a lot, weve got entrepreneurial innovators, and demonstrations for that. But we also have an Extension Service that relent run university, its very good at getting the best ideas, in the most productive ideas, out to a wide Cross Section of people. Its like we are talking today, we know the things that can produce sole a whole health, cover crops in this kind of thing, so we dont have universal adoption. Thats what we need to get, the best ideas of how soil health, i happen to believe soil health may be one of those Quantum Leaps that we see, so understand more of the biology thats going on in the soil itself, from a product to, video we gain a lot of tune attics, will continue to do genetics. Improvements, i think soil health is also a huge component. Absolutely, some home of the technologies already, theyre two young girls and stand for university, senator completely, their for years, Old Companies growing and, scaling theyre really focused on this, area and there driving the whole area, on soil, health howell can accompany like, that scale, how can we get that adoption of technology, into the fields across the u. S. John youve challenged, us we want to go up to thrive, by feeding, everyone doing well, were doing, right i think youre contrary, youre delighted to be focused in the food sector, helping us to accomplish some of these bold goals that we have, i will look forward to continuing relationship, we want to invite you to hold the usda accountable, if you see things that can enable and facilitate the technological advances to help us get, here we hope you feel free to help us do better. Thank you very much, secretary its an honor to be here, i know in my last ten years, i spent much more time in this industry, ive been humbled by the end, history and ive been passionate about this industry and is truly i look at our children and our families this is it in history thats, going to make a difference in our world to our health. , and also to our families. Its nothing more important than this industry. Thats why im really, here and motivated to make it. Happened well i think the producers in the audience, all be very proud to hear you say, that youve been humbled by the challenge in the purview complexities, that makes somebody like you this on the cutting edge of innovation, make us feel better out here. Its, d. C. Manufacturing a smartphone, its different to do food and bring the most complex, selection in the world. Its not easy. Thank you