Being part of the Young Farmer and Rancher program is more then an experience it is an adventure. For the next two years, I have the opportunity to be part of the American Farm Bureau Federation Young Farmer and Rancher committee. Two weeks ago, all of the new committee members got together at the AFBF office in Washington D.C. for orientation. This was a time for the new members to build friendships and to learn about the opportunities we will have over the next two years.

During this three day orientation (or adventure), we had the chance to participate in media training. For me, this was the high light of the three days. The training we received was top notch. I fill that I am better prepared to tell my story about agriculture. A personal goal I have for the next two years is to reach out and make myself available to schools and other organizations that want to or need to know the story of agriculture.

There has been a lot of talk lately about the increase in the cost of food. From the last quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2008, prices increased 8% according to Farm Bureau's informal marketbasket survey. However, the producers of this food have not been getting any of that increase. Read an excerpt from the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues The Rural Blog, which references Farm Bureau's survey.

Several days ago I had the chance to judge the some Arizona FFA Proficiency Awards. One of those awards was in the area of agricultural education. I was impressed to see some of the applicants volunteering their time to teach young children, as well as their peers, about agriculture through programs such as Ag in the Classroom.

Today there are many books in our schools that contain misleading information relating to agriculture. Consequently, telling agriculture’s story to the public has become increasingly important. Additionally, developing tomorrow’s agricultural advocates and leaders is critical.

The FFA program provides numerous opportunities to rural and urban youth in our nation, from public speaking to technical training in animal and plant science. My spirit is renewed each time I interact with FFA members, in seeing their enthusiasm for agriculture and the positive manner in which they conduct themselves. Go blue and gold!

The other day I recieved an email from a person that was telling me the dangers of using antibiotics to treat livestock. He said that we have overused anitbiotics to the point that they won't work on viruses. Now, did everyone catch that? Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections, not viruses. I am sure that he had read or heard this somewhere and didn't really know what he was talking about, but just trying to repeat it to me to sound informed.

This is a great example of how important is for us to educate consumers and take opportunities to tell our story.

This past weekend was Maine Maple Sunday for the State of Maine. It was a chance for sugarmakers across the state to open up their sugarhouses and for people to sample some of the sweetest syrup in Maine.

Since it was Easter this year the board of directors at the sugarhouse (my wife and grandmother) decided it would be a good idea to be open on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday we started off with an pancake and egg breakfast and a bbq for lunch. My father, Steven, made our famous homemade vanilla ice cream and maple syrup and each person could get a sample when they visited.

Sunday we had a bbq sponsored by the North Baldwin Fire Auxilary and they also sponsored a maple cooking contest. The Low Tide String Band played a few tunes and got people dancing a jig to keep warm on the windy March day. The Easter Bunny stopped by and left off some eggs for the kids to find.

Overall people had a great time. Luckily when I was giving tours of the evaporator room (when I gave my grandfather a break) not many people asked where we put the sugar in. We never add any sugar to the sap. Its all natural from the maple trees. Here is a link to our feature story on the show "207."

Here is the link: http://www.wcsh6.com/life/lifestyle/207/video/default.aspx. Go to the second one down under Maine Maple Sunday and you can see a pic of my daughter Emma Joy (she was the one yawning).

If you go to this site, it will have a list of all of the open sugarhouses: http://www.getrealmaine.com/visit/maine_maple_sunday.html.

Here is a link to the sugarmakers association that I helped establish in 2002, The Southern Maine Maple Sugarmakers Association.

I THINK THAT IT IS REALLY GREAT TO SEE YOUNG FARMERS SHARING THEIR VIEWS ON THE WEB SITE. THE COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT DID AN EXCELLENT JOB WITH THE POSTING OF OUR THOUGHTS. HATS OFF TO ALL THAT WAS INVOLVED. I THINK IT IS ALSO GREAT THAT OUR ORGINIZATION ALLOWS YOUNG FARMERS TO SHARE THEIR OPINIONS ON PROBLEMS THAT WE ARE FACING IN TODAYS WORLD.

This evening I was invited by the Truman University Collegiate Farm Bureau to sit on a panel regarding animal welfare issues and the impact on the environment from CAFO's. I had the honor of sitting on this panel with a life long farmer from Marion County, Ralph Grisbaum. Ralph and I listened intently while we heard comments from an environmental professor from Truman and a retired economics professor as they shared their views on agriculture and how farmers should produce food to feed this country.

It was interesting to hear them talk about the many things they felt farmers were doing to harm the environment, like spraying manure in the air. Ralph and I quickly informed the audience that farmers INJECT their nutrients into the soil after we have tested the soil and nutrient. We explained to the crowd how farmers are the original environmentalist and how we take great pride in caring for our environment and animals.

Another misconception shared by our co-panelist was that farmers use antibiotics on a daily basis to promote growth. Our animals don’t carry health insurance and antibiotics are VERY expensive. We only use antibiotics when necessary to improve the quality of life for our animals.

Ralph and I spent three hours countering misconceptions about our industry. The one thing we, the panelist, all had in common was our desire to never have our food imported, our differences fell on how to achieve this goal. These professors were well intentioned but having never lived on a farm, they have fallen victim to the misconceptions being spread about our industry. While Ralph and I know we didn’t change everyone’s mind tonight, we know we made some of the attendees question the information they have been exposed to previously.

Today watching the news, I have been seeing a lot of horrible images from the flooding going on across Missouri, Ohio and several other states. We have a lot of Farm Bureau friends in all of these states, and we hope that you are all safe and doing well. Those of us in agriculture know how Mother Nature likes to show us who's in charge. While Mother Nature can destroy our property, she can never break the spirit of the America's farmers and ranchers.

We all probably know pasta is one of America’s favorite foods, but did you know last year, 1.3 million pounds of pasta were sold in American grocery stores. If you lined up 1.3 million pounds of 16 oz. spaghetti packages, it could circle the Earth’s equator almost nine times!

If you would like to learn more fun food facts and about National Ag Day visit the links below!

• National Ag Day Links

Join others in honoring agriculture for providing safe, abundant and affordable products, a strong economy, a source of renewable energy, and a world of job opportunities.

As I sit in my office at 2 a.m. and ponder the future of the agriculture industry and especially the future of our family’s farming operation, I can’t help but turn around and look down the hall and wonder the future holds for both of my young children. Am I making the right decisions for them? Will they even want to continue the same business that my family has been involved with for over 100 years? I do know that each generation must plan for the next generation with as much thought and detail as possible.

I can say that I am very proud of what my ancestors have accomplished, and what they have allowed me to accomplish. I can say that animal agriculture has been very good to our family, as I can count 15+ members of our extended family that are making a living from agriculture and the pig business.

Several million dollars worth of land and buildings have been acquired and built over the years by these families and several hundred thousand dollars of property taxes have been paid to support our ever growing county. Not to mention numerous employees and their families that are supported by these family farms.

The time comes every so often a family businesses must expand to allow for the current generation and those little ones safely snug in their beds tonight. Animal agriculture has always been an important part of our family and it appears it will be for some time to come. Unfortunately our business has come under fire in recent times, partly because there are a few “bad eggs”, but a bigger part is because I don’t think the public understands that agriculture has had to undergo the same type of changes as the local hardware store.

You may remember Pickett’s hardware or Smith’s hardware store’s. As the world changes the family owned stores have gone the way of Home Depot and Wal-mart. I will not deny that family farms have had to some degree grow and change similar to the way Wal-mart has. World wide influences have changed the way everyone does business today, I am sure you have witnessed many changes like this at your place of employment.

Farming has not been immune to change. An average size grain farm will grow about 2500 acres of crops and the average pig farm will market 20,000 pigs per year. With these changes have come many concerns. Since the family owners can’t perform all the work by themselves anymore we must have an extremely good workforce.

Instead of heading out in the morning to plow the “back 40” like my grandpa did, we now find ourselves making sure we have trained our employees how to best care for the animals, are we doing everything we possibly can do to make sure the animals are healthy, comfortable, have constant fresh air, a good supply of water and feed. And what about the crops, we are analyzing soil samples, GPS maps, tissue samples, working with spreadsheets trying to figure out how to grow enough food for the world while using just just the exact amount of fertilizer and herbicide, are we doing a good job controlling soil erosion?

You see no matter what people say, farmers are environmentalists and we’re getting pretty good at it. No-till crops and use of biotechnology have GREATLY reduced the amount of fertilizer and herbicide we now use. From our pigs we have learned the best way to use manure, which is an organic fertilizer, instead of relying so heavily on commercial fertilizer to grow the corn that feeds our pigs that in turn produce the manure that we use to grow another corn crop to feed our pigs with.

If that’s not the definition of the circle of life, I guess don’t know what it is. Pretty neat if you ask me.

Good morning. Today we are having new committee orientation in Washington, DC. It is exciting to see the new members in action. We as a farming organization enjoy building relationships and this is an excellent way to do this. We are each taking valuable time away from the two most important things to us, our families and our farms. The reason for this is very important, we are learning how others around the nation face many of the same challenges. In order to continue to clothe and feed the most powerful nation ourselves we all need to work together.

This is awesome! Having a great time in D.C.

My family and I had the pleasure of attending the New York Young Farmer & Rancher Leadership Conference this past weekend. What a great conference “Laugh, Learn, and Lead” we sure did that. It was nice to met new young farmers and here about there farming operations and what there challenges are. It was also great to catch up with friends we hadn’t seen in years.

One of the speakers was Jolene Brown, a Certified Speaking Professional from West Branch, Iowa: www.JoleneBrown.com. Through humor, hope, and helpful ideas her messages provided us with ideas to put into action and something good to talk about once we returned home to our farming operations. “The Top 10 Stupid Things Families Do to Break up Their Business” What an eye-opening breakout session. We talked about in-laws and out-laws, off-site family and estates, daily communications and important meetings. From conversations to contracts, from assumptions to clarification, and how to save fighting’s on the way to the funeral home. She was sponsored by Farm Family Insurance with a grant from the Farm Credit Northeast Ag Enhancement program.

Another speaker I had the privilege to hear was Farm Bureaus own Matt Scramlin, Director of Leadership Development. “The United Front: Speaking With One Voice” A great choir sings the same song, at the same tempo, in the same key. How about Farm Bureau? Are we speaking the same message with the same voice or is someone off key? Speaking with a unified voice is essential to our progress. This workshop focused on how to be perceived as reasonable as well as knowledgeable, tips for staying on message, and what to do when faced with conflicts in personal interest.

Excellent job New York Young Farmers and Ranchers! I encourage anyone who can to attend the 2009 conference: www.nyfb.org.

My 10 year old daughter is reading a book called "The Naked Mole-Rat Letters" by Mary Amato for school. I decided to read the book myself to see what my daughter was learining.

I was shocked when I read the following sentences on page 94:

"I certainly agree that kids, naked mole-rats, and all creatures should be treated with respect and dignity. I am a vegetarian because I don't like the way that animals are treated by large-scale agribusiness companies."

I was disappointed to see this author attacking agriculture and providing false information about modern agriculture practices to young children. Many kids who read this book will not have a connection to agriculture and will not know that the above lines are false. They will not know that farmers treat their animals with respect and dignity, and that modern technology enables farmers to protect our animals and keep them safe, comfortable and well cared for.

My daughter and I discussed this part of the book, and she understood this author had been misinformed about agriculture. I didn't realize one of my daughter's "Reading Counts" books, which are required reading points, would be spreading misconceptions about agriculture. We need more programs in our schools like Accurate Ag Books to provide the truth to our children about agriculture. Take a moment to ensure our children are learning the truth about agriculture and visit their schools, encourage their teachers to visit http://www.ageducate.org/ and use the information provided to help educate our kids about agriculture.

I had the opportunity to speak to a Kiwanis Club in Sioux Falls, SD, today. I spoke to them about how our farm uses technology to run our business.

I enjoyed seeing the expressions of awe on their faces as I told them how we use auto guidence, grid soil sampling, yield mapping, nutrient testing in manure samples, and flow meters in maure applicaiton when producing corn and soybeans. All these are things that most of us in production agriculture have taken for granted.

I also made a point to stress how we take care of our animals to ensure they remain healthy and productive, and how we take care of our land to ensure it is available for our children to farm in the future.

I think I truely made an impact on how these individuals view agriculture. I also more fully realize the importance of us as producers taking the time to tell people in urban areas how we conduct our businesses.

There has been a lot of talk lately about NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) from the Presidential candidates. Many people do not realize the benefits of NAFTA or the many myths clouding the facts around NAFTA.

NAFTA has achieved its core goals of expanding trade and investment between the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Since 1993, trade among the NAFTA nations has more than tripled, from $297 billion to $930 billion. Business investment in the U.S. has risen by 117% since 1993.

And, NAFTA has not cost the U.S. jobs. In fact, U.S. employment rose from 110.8 million people in 1993 to 137.6 million in 2007. This is a 24% increase. The average unemployment rate was 5.1% from 1994 – 2007, compared to 7.1 percent from 1980 – 1993.

U.S. manufacturing output rose by 58% between 1993 and 2006, as compared to 42% between 1980 and 1993. Manufacturing exports in 2007 reached an all time high with a value of $982 billion.

Canada and Mexico accounted for 37% of the total growth of U.S. agricultural exports since 1993. And the total U.S. agricultural exports destined for Canada and Mexico has grown from 22% in 1993 to 30% in 2007. NAFTA access is most crucial for agriculture.

So the next time you hear someone talk about NAFTA, make sure they realize the important role it plays not only in agriculture, but the entire U.S. economy.

A lady told me the other day that "most farmers don't have a clue what the average family is going through today with higher fuel prices." She believed with the high price of corn, soybeans, and wheat, most farmers were living on ‘cloud 9’ and had no clue what it was like to be on a fixed income and experience increased expenses.

I explained to this lady that while her fuel costs were increasing, so were the farmer’s, and the farmer has to use fuel to transport their commodities to market. I went on to tell her farmers and ranchers can not pass this expense on to the next guy because they don't price their own commodities. I also told her not only were increased fuel prices hurting farmers, but so were increased fertilizer costs, land rent, seed costs; and if you were a livestock farmer you were experiencing all time high feed costs mixed with low livestock prices. I also explained to her that while it was costing her more to heat her home, livestock farmers were feeling the same pressure as they paid to heat their livestock barns.

Farmers are definitely feeling the same pressures as the average family with increased input costs. I don't know if I changed this lady's mind, but hopefully I gave her some food for thought. This was another reminder to me that we in agriculture have to start telling our story because the average American is more than three generations removed from agriculture and they don't understand where their food comes from.