This is just under one hour. Governor mead welcome. This is something we have a long look forward to. Its our understanding this is has had atime ag session, with nonmet not act members association. I want to thank scott for putting this together. Have great guests today. Let me start off a gun again a thinking governor bullock. Im chairman of the National Resources committee. Governor brown is the vicechairman. He wasnt able to make it. Please to have governor bullet here. Is the futurehis of food and agg the importance , to includestry innovative examples of sustainable practices. These meetings give us a great hear what other governors and states are doing, share those practices, and influence the national dialogue. m a fourthgeneration rancher im looking forward to going back to that case of being a rancher. About ag andk wyoming, im very proud of wyoming ag. It is our thirdlargest industry. We see many longterm family operations provide not only food, but open spaces, Wildlife Habitats, recreational opportunities, and great traditions. As a rancher and governor of wyoming, i think about where we are going in the future of ag innovation, products, Tech Advances to help ag, increasing trade. All these present great opportunities in the 21st century. Im surrounded by many family farmers today, and not only up on stage here, but many governors come from a nag background from an ag background and understand it deeply. Their advocates for ag. In addition to these ag advocates, we have a panelist that includes a thirdgeneration cow farmer from georgia, a North Carolina hog farmer, and the president of the alliance for sustainable ag. As we all know, farmers and ranchers and those who fish are just the first, rightfully so, known as the first conservationists. They rely on, look the same lands, waters year after year, generation after generation. We celebrate those who sustain the land in wyoming every year trade at the state fair, we honor Centennial Farms and ranches. These are ag businesses is owned and operated by the same families for 100 years or more. Markable,lies are with so much history and experience behind them, so much more ahead of them. Theyre the solid core of american agriculture. You cannot have 100yearold farm and ranch, one into its second century of operation, without commitment to the land and conservation. A centennial operation is a great sign of stewart good stewardship. Excuse me,n today our conversation is particularly timely, as Congress Begins to consider its 2018 bill which will provide stability for americas farmers and ranchers. I am pleased and will further starling, special assistant to the president on ag, robert snyder, president of filter market, the alliance for sustainable act, and zippy due ball, the president of the American Farm bureau federation. Uvall. I am pleased, governor bullock, you are here again, a friend and neighbor. I would appreciate any introductory comments from you. Governor bullock thanks so much, governor mead. Im not quite a fourthgeneration rancher like governor mead. Thats why he can shovel better than i can. [laughter] governor mead you are from montana, you do it very well. [laughter] montana, welock in have 2. 5 cattle for every human being. Thats not unique, in some ways. South dakota is 61. States across our country where we have more nearlytreatment on a has 60 million acres of land. Number two producer of barley and wheat. I think and act producing state, or anywhere across the state the 50 states, we appreciate good food. Farmers and ranchers raise some of the highest quality products loved byrld, products folks across the globe for decades. By 2050, 2050, the population is expected to grow by over 2 billion people. The demand for food is estimated to increase by 70100 from where we are today. Those statistics alone are pretty sobering. Couple that with the fact that the average age of farmers and ranchers in the u. S. Is nearly 60 years old. Its quickly apparent we have to do all that we can to ensure that more young people get involved in agriculture. Yet, like most producers would tell you, anywhere across the country, they would change over the past two decades. Climates forable the next generation. Im pleased in montana, we have programs like growth for agriculture, the grant program, funding project. It allows young folks to continue working in ag and introduce innovative ideas that approach old problems with new solutions. And, inject energy into many of. Ur Rural Communities we need to continually invest in those ideas and the people behind them. To invest Research Dollars to our projects, increasing productions. Its equally important win vessels dollars in progress projects, responsibly managing water quality, increasing soil health, reducing emissions, ensuring we are good stewards to the land week rely on. Farmers and ranchers are some of the biggest conservationists ive ever known. They understand that their legacy, one of the most important things we can do is ensure them that the next generation has the same opportunities reported to them as the previous afforded to them as the previous generations. Finally, the importance of the state and federal governments, as governor mead noted, its something that cannot be overstated. Whether through research or regulation, or a farm bill or other areas, its vitally important that that spirit of cooperation remains the cornerstone of that relationship. Thank you for including me. Thank you all for participating. Gov. Mead thank you, governor bullock. Good to have you here. Thank you for being here. Thank you all for being here. Its my honor to have great sterling, the president s advisor on ad, food assistance. It got to tell you, its nice having that decision, the deep background in ag that you do. Member whoformer 4h hails from a century family farm and was carolina senator tell us his chief of staff and former general counsel to the North Carolina department of ag. Please join me in welcoming ray starling. We look forward to your opening remarks. Ray thank you. [applause] thank you for both of you governors. We are really excited about this panel as well, the fact that you had the foresight to have this conversation. We sometimes feel in the ag sector when we are talking to our stakeholders that we are sometimes the last conversation thats get that gets to be had. Looks like here, we are one of the first. We look forward to this continuing to be a dialogue. He mentioned keywords in your remarks, or ships, economic activity, handing the keys to the next generation. These are all topics we talk about frequently. Today, youve asked us to talk about trends, things we see in regard to the future of food and agriculture. Our remarks might be nontraditional, because when you expect to talkou about farm bill and policy pot generally. Working inout an policy, and one of the ,uestions i have notwithstanding the beauty of your home states, the fact the fact that you have Beautiful National parks there, we find ourselves here in this ballroom with no windows. We were all in agreement that the next time we did this, we will but you almost us. Lets but commit to that right up front. My firstes a general, point is there is a general that there should not be, that if we are doing anything in our economy or society the same way, if we are selling or buying something the same way we were doing it to generation ago, th en matt that methodology is ripe for disruption. Thats happening at an accelerated pace that we dont talk about much, and that is in a retail sales space. One of the trends that im watching is, we seem conduct consolidation and that fate space, the methodology change in the way food is marketed. Think we are about to be in a new era in regards to, we see retailers like amazon and walmart changing the way theyre selling food, looking to sell food online, shipping food, things of the nature. In the United States annually, about one dollars is spent on food. 21 2 of retail attachments people are buying food to prepare, the other people are buying perp food thats already prepared. Thats on this side of the recession. Ive been in d. C. Long enough to find all of the bojangles around town. Now that ive relocated them, we will put the Retail Services backup. Now, we will be in a different food, regarding how to buy over the next couple of days. I think that is Something Interesting around town. The second point i want to make for conversation is, we have always had an Agricultural Policy that had policy is regional, meaning that that the federal level, with regard to how we negotiate farm bill ,andag and policies different regions of the country bring different needs to the table, and different thoughts about how our policies should work. I thought, and id be interested gentlemans thoughts later not right now, id like to finish my own thirst first [laughter]. I thought that was beginning to the debates inht food and ag policy were more production methodology, where you have a sincere policy about organic versus conventional, different styles of production. I see now as we are getting back into the writing of a farm bill that seems like our fight over ag policy is going to continue to be regional, i just flagged that. Thats worth talking about. We can do that more later. Thirdly, one of my big personal challenges. I worry. Im a lawyer by trade, so i worry i feel like for a living. Nothing worse be more than worrying and looking round nothing worries me more than worrying and looking around, thinking people should be worried, and they are not worried. That makes me more worried. The few things i want to flag that i hope we are all worrying about and going to talk about more, and that list is really about for items one. Insurance longer, but the things ourink about are landgrant University System and its longevity. Its the main way we do ag research in the public sector. Its also been for several generations now the main place we disseminate week our research. It began to have more private folks involved, consulting directly with farmers, but i think that system faces challenges that are beyond the funding questions. Theres always funding issues, from the questions when it comes to the landgrant system. I think there are challenges that, that we need to be paying attention to. Number two, longterm views about how we support our farmers at the federal level. In the last farmville, i think everybody would agree that a migration of funds out of title programs,rect subsidy more into Crop Insurance and other tools, the safety net. My concern is if we dont continue to tell stories about how those are reported, that, that their legacy is going to be lessened in terms of their longevity. The third is threats that are frankly posed by the way we trade. Saying, threats posed by trading partners who are trading strategically and selfishly. In some ways, you cannot blame them for that at the same time, we have placed an emphasis and are a world leader in treating freely pick trading freely. If there are people trading selfishly and strategically, we are tried in trying to trade fairly. Last but not least, the world of data, and what it brings to the farmer himself. Really ripe for disruption about input costs, production, what their land is capable of doing. Thats going to be exciting to watch. My 22ndt said, advertisement about the administrations agricultural priorities, there are really four. We can come back to these over and over again. They are my touchstone, in terms of how i use my time at the white house. At the top of that list is expanding ag trade. Second is dealing with labor challenges in a culture. Isrd is reform, fourth making sure that agriculture in were rolled america are included in our conversations about infrastructure. Gov. Mead thank you very much for being here. Thanks for your comments, ray. Governor bullock, i will turn it over to you for the next introduction. Gov. Bullock thank you, ray. Its my great pleasure to introduce robert snyder. The president of the lines of Sustainable Agriculture since 2014. The alliance is comprised of members representing all facets of the u. S. Agricultural supply chain. Members employ more than 5 million people, representing combined revenues of over 1. 5 trillion. Umm, im not sure that even governor mead could outfarmer this guy [laughter] rob liveshe fact that on a family farm started in west 1789, if i understand correctly. Please welcome rod snyder. [applause] rod snyder i appreciate the introduction. The to have this topic on agenda. So critical at this moment. Folks in the room have probably heard of the white house, farm euro. The me tell you about field to market. We are the largest Multistakeholder Alliance in u. S. The two working on the sustainability of commodity crop production. We have nearly 140 members from across the supply chain that includes the farm bureau, as well as Food Companies, agribusiness companies, environmental groups, universities as well. Aroundormed 10 years ago this question we were formed 10 years ago around this question about what does agriculture look like in terms of sustainability, and what do like, andrends look how will Consumer Preferences potentially drive impact on the way back at the farm gate, in terms of expectations of how we grow our food . We notice consumers were asking lots of questions about where and how their food was produced. They wanted to see greater transparency. Companies in particular are looking at a demographic of their buying choices and preferences. They are responding by pivoting their brands in such a way so that they are more transparent and focused on sustainability. Several Major Companies in the food chain have made very public goals. General mills, they are looking at the 28 reduction at omissions across this budget for 2025. Cocacola has a water neutrality goal. They want to see a replenishing using. Water they are these companies cant reach these kinds of goals and targets on they are back with farmers. Is theart of the impact result on the farm. In the last two years, Many Companies have begun to partner with them in a more intentional and collaborative way to help drive improvements in support farmers in this journey. Thats a little bit different than the last century, the main conversation around conservation sustainability was through the bill. Lle the farm this has been a critical piece of how we tackle environmental challenges on private land. Its the largest investment in private Land Conservation in the United States, and pledges 444 million acres of land, larger than all the land managed by wildlife, blm, the department of the interior. Significant. Most consumers to recognize that. Is for that now. Were seeing private Sector Companies get involved in regional conversation programs, which brings public and private dollars to the table to help farmers around issues of water quality, omissions, and Wildlife Habitats some companies. Involved have been active in that space land olakes working with, the conservatives in conservation in indiana. This is an opportunity that i think the whole Industry Needs to Pay Attention to. Its bringing that needed transparency the customers want to see to the supply chain in a that could be disruptive. The last thing element and building will mention, building on comments ray mentioned, it may not look like it did 2030 years ago, but theres tremendous expertise at the state level. Weve seen Food Companies turning to land grants not only for research, but also for the extension service, to the work with farmers on the ground, to help advance environment targets theyve been setting. Right now, weve got General Mills working with kansas eight around wheat. Kansas state around wheat. Thats a great way to close, and i look forward to the questions. Gov. Bullock thank you very much, its my pleasure to introduced introduce zippy duvall, the president of the American Farm bureau generation. Zippy is a thirdgeneration farmer from georgia. For those of you can see, cut this wonderful tie on with cows on it. Is it be used to be in the dairy business. Now, hes in the beef cattle business. I want to you to answer if those are dairy or beef cows. Thats your first question, zippy. [laughter] very pleased to have you here. Appreciate your organizations great work. Zippy, welcome. [applause] zippy well, thank you governor. Angusare beef cows, black cows. Thats what i have back on my farm. I grew up wanting to be of be a beef cow farmer. When i got of the h2 going to the farming business, there wasnt a whole lot of money to be made when i got into the farming business, there wasnt a whole lot of money to be made. This is my 32nd here growing poultry. 750,000 rollers a year. Its what we consider small. We will try to still be doing that. Ive been to all the states in my first few years as president of the American Farm bureau. That was one of my goals i set out to do. I went to every state. A lot of states, i got to meet the governors of the state. To first off state say thank you to the great hospitality of the people in your state. Agriculture across this country is unbelievable, and has educated me to a level to where i want to be a good president for all of them. That was my intent. I heard people talk about sustainability, and when you talk about sustainability, normally you think about environmentalist sustainability. On a farm, it means so much more. Truly, agriculture, the men and women of agriculture own that word \ agriculture started. In the garden of eden, and we would sustain ourselves all these years. We will continue to do that , but it gets more and more difficult every year. I thought it would be three years of sustainability. One is economic sustainability, generational sustainability, environmental sustainability. When you Start Talking about economi