0:00:01.016,0:00:04.305
So what do people usually say[br]when you're about to give a public talk?

0:00:05.159,0:00:07.627
It's to imagine[br]that your audience is naked.

0:00:07.651,0:00:09.420
(Laughter)

0:00:09.444,0:00:11.585
Well, I'm doing a different trick tonight,

0:00:11.609,0:00:15.156
and I'm going to imagine[br]all of us without farmers

0:00:15.180,0:00:17.871
and well, it's not so much different.

0:00:17.895,0:00:20.324
[Without farmers,[br]you'd be hungry, naked and sober]

0:00:20.348,0:00:21.349
(Laughter)

0:00:21.373,0:00:24.395
And our farmers do so much more for us

0:00:24.419,0:00:29.307
than simply feed and clothe[br]and provide us excellent things to drink.

0:00:29.776,0:00:33.461
Our farmers are an important part[br]of all of our communities,

0:00:33.485,0:00:35.818
particularly our rural communities.

0:00:36.334,0:00:38.167
And more than that,

0:00:38.191,0:00:41.968
they're a strong driver[br]of resilient economics.

0:00:42.739,0:00:44.219
Think about it this way:

0:00:44.243,0:00:47.672
When a brewer buys hops from me,[br]grown here in Minnesota,

0:00:47.696,0:00:50.044
90 percent of that dollar[br]stays in our state,

0:00:50.068,0:00:53.188
compared to just 10 percent[br]when they buy it from somewhere else.

0:00:53.212,0:00:55.077
What that means is a lot.

0:00:55.101,0:00:57.403
That 90 percent means local jobs.

0:00:57.427,0:01:00.370
It means tax revenue[br]for better schools and roads.

0:01:00.394,0:01:02.672
It means support[br]for the co-ops, the mechanics,

0:01:02.696,0:01:06.212
all the support staff that are needed[br]for a farm to thrive.

0:01:06.743,0:01:08.776
And they are our best[br]stewards of the land.

0:01:08.800,0:01:12.900
This quote I think exemplifies[br]what our family farmers do for us

0:01:12.924,0:01:15.402
in stewarding our shared[br]natural resources.

0:01:16.140,0:01:18.593
"That land is a community

0:01:18.617,0:01:21.987
is the basic concept of ecology,

0:01:22.011,0:01:24.556
but that land is to be loved and respected

0:01:24.580,0:01:26.230
as an extension of ethics."

0:01:27.628,0:01:31.079
Now, they sure do[br]a lot of good stuff for us.

0:01:31.714,0:01:34.355
And our family farmers[br]are great, we'd all agree.

0:01:34.379,0:01:36.291
However,

0:01:36.315,0:01:38.759
the trends in agriculture today are dire.

0:01:38.783,0:01:40.664
The average age of a farmer in America,

0:01:40.688,0:01:43.410
according to the latest[br]agricultural census --

0:01:43.434,0:01:44.934
58.3

0:01:44.958,0:01:46.886
Of all the farmers,

0:01:46.910,0:01:49.369
33 percent are 65 plus.

0:01:49.393,0:01:51.379
That's a little caricature of my grandpa.

0:01:51.403,0:01:52.727
(Laughter)

0:01:52.751,0:01:54.348
He's still farming,

0:01:54.372,0:01:56.506
and he's much older than 65.

0:01:56.530,0:01:57.998
But to put that in perspective

0:01:58.022,0:02:00.862
another important[br]public service job, teaching,

0:02:00.886,0:02:02.887
average age of teachers is 42.

0:02:03.950,0:02:06.283
Farmers are pretty old in this country.

0:02:06.307,0:02:08.268
And unfortunately,

0:02:08.292,0:02:11.862
when they retire, if they retire,

0:02:11.886,0:02:13.768
we're not really replacing them.

0:02:13.792,0:02:16.053
Of all the farmers[br]that we added in this country

0:02:16.077,0:02:18.576
between 2008 and 2012,

0:02:18.600,0:02:20.695
across the entire United States,

0:02:20.719,0:02:22.512
see if you can catch this difference,

0:02:22.536,0:02:25.088
we added 2,000 under the age of 30.

0:02:25.393,0:02:26.543
I'm one of those.

0:02:27.426,0:02:30.315
I'll be around to autograph[br]some photos later, if you'd like.

0:02:30.339,0:02:32.363
(Laughter)

0:02:32.665,0:02:34.569
You know, our farmers are getting older

0:02:34.593,0:02:36.109
and we're not replacing them,

0:02:36.133,0:02:37.625
what's going on here?

0:02:37.649,0:02:39.037
What are we going to do?

0:02:39.061,0:02:41.760
And I think there's a reason[br]folks aren't coming into it,

0:02:41.784,0:02:42.943
and that's prices.

0:02:42.967,0:02:45.545
We're going to go through[br]a couple of slides like this.

0:02:45.569,0:02:49.346
Milk: This is the average retail price[br]of a gallon of milk in the United States.

0:02:49.370,0:02:50.521
Four dollars 49 cents.

0:02:50.545,0:02:52.357
How much do you think the farmer gets?

0:02:52.381,0:02:53.553
Dollar thirty-two.

0:02:53.577,0:02:54.778
Dollar thirty-two.

0:02:54.802,0:02:56.133
We'll try again with bread.

0:02:56.157,0:02:58.934
Average retail price of bread[br]in America, three forty-nine.

0:02:58.958,0:03:00.831
Farmer gets 12 cents.

0:03:00.855,0:03:02.005
Audience: Oh!

0:03:02.632,0:03:06.233
And so how are we supposed to have[br]strong local farms

0:03:07.342,0:03:08.512
in this scenario?

0:03:08.536,0:03:12.059
What are we supposed to do[br]if there aren't any local farmers left?

0:03:13.206,0:03:15.699
And this isn't just a farmer problem,

0:03:15.723,0:03:18.910
it's not just something[br]for the few of us farmers to sort out.

0:03:18.934,0:03:20.323
This is an all-of-us problem.

0:03:20.347,0:03:23.775
This is rural and it's urban[br]and it's state-wide and it's nation-wide.

0:03:23.799,0:03:25.533
So what do we do about it?

0:03:26.426,0:03:27.656
I'll tell you that.

0:03:27.680,0:03:28.947
But first, a story.

0:03:29.879,0:03:32.721
The green movement,[br]we're all kind of familiar,

0:03:32.745,0:03:34.927
started in the '60s, planting trees.

0:03:35.417,0:03:37.188
And now we've come such a long way.

0:03:37.212,0:03:39.488
Green is part of our day-to-day lives.

0:03:39.512,0:03:42.520
It's part of the day-to-day lives[br]of Fortune 500 businesses.

0:03:42.544,0:03:44.561
It's a subject of international treaties,

0:03:44.585,0:03:46.696
the subject of presidential debates.

0:03:47.125,0:03:49.077
You and I, we switch our light bulbs,

0:03:49.101,0:03:51.272
we use reusable bags.

0:03:51.744,0:03:54.403
We participate in the green movement[br]each and every day.

0:03:54.427,0:03:55.760
Yet --

0:03:55.784,0:03:58.514
and this is how we get to the idea --

0:03:58.538,0:03:59.689
the food movement,

0:03:59.713,0:04:00.981
relatively younger,

0:04:01.005,0:04:03.093
but also somewhat familiar, I imagine.

0:04:03.117,0:04:04.474
You go to the grocery store,

0:04:04.498,0:04:06.307
you see a sign that says "Buy local,"

0:04:06.331,0:04:08.950
you go to the farmers market,[br]you go to the co-op,

0:04:08.974,0:04:11.374
you read books by prominent authors.

0:04:11.903,0:04:13.117
The food movement to date

0:04:13.141,0:04:16.029
could be summarized[br]as voting with your fork.

0:04:16.053,0:04:18.592
The idea is you pull a dollar[br]out of your wallet.

0:04:18.616,0:04:20.958
How you spend that dollar[br]affects the food system.

0:04:20.982,0:04:23.249
It supports farmers close to home.

0:04:23.974,0:04:26.482
And that's all well and good,[br]but where are we going?

0:04:26.506,0:04:28.570
How do we get to our[br]renewable-energy moment

0:04:28.594,0:04:29.934
like the green movement did?

0:04:29.958,0:04:32.147
And this, I think, is what we need to do.

0:04:32.521,0:04:35.409
Just voting with out fork[br]is not solving the issues

0:04:35.433,0:04:36.782
that our farmers are facing.

0:04:36.806,0:04:38.560
And so we need to do more than that.

0:04:38.584,0:04:41.497
I believe we must move on[br]from just voting with our fork

0:04:41.521,0:04:43.121
to voting with our vote.

0:04:43.421,0:04:46.278
We need to take our dollars

0:04:46.302,0:04:47.987
and continue to spend them locally.

0:04:48.011,0:04:50.744
We also need to show up[br]at the ballot box for our farmers.

0:04:51.167,0:04:53.516
This is bigger than just[br]buying local strawberries

0:04:53.540,0:04:55.317
once a year at Pick your own.

0:04:55.341,0:04:57.913
This is a year-round effort[br]that we must make together

0:04:57.937,0:04:59.324
to make the change we need.

0:04:59.793,0:05:02.324
Changes like fair pricing for farmers.

0:05:02.348,0:05:04.579
That's quotas, supply management,

0:05:04.603,0:05:05.803
guaranteed prices.

0:05:06.792,0:05:09.197
Changes like fair and open trade.

0:05:09.221,0:05:11.155
That means ending trade wars.

0:05:11.499,0:05:14.300
And yeah, of course it means voting.

0:05:14.324,0:05:16.261
Now we all knew that one already though.

0:05:16.285,0:05:17.562
For example, it's working.

0:05:17.586,0:05:19.260
Hey, who's that?

0:05:19.284,0:05:20.958
(Laughter)

0:05:20.982,0:05:23.061
Just this year in Minnesota,

0:05:23.085,0:05:25.760
we've passed a historic,[br]first-in-the-country tax credit.

0:05:25.784,0:05:27.917
The Beginning Farmer Tax Credit.

0:05:28.323,0:05:30.522
It incentivizes our transition of land

0:05:30.546,0:05:33.561
from the existing generation[br]to the next generation.

0:05:34.125,0:05:36.752
That was done by a handful[br]of us young farmers,

0:05:36.776,0:05:39.220
We certainly don't have money,[br]you saw that earlier.

0:05:39.569,0:05:41.276
We don't have political experience.

0:05:41.300,0:05:43.530
But we showed up[br]and we made our voices heard.

0:05:43.554,0:05:46.434
And thanks to the support[br]of farmers and non-farmers alike,

0:05:46.458,0:05:48.992
we got something incredible done[br]here in this state.

0:05:50.538,0:05:52.482
If we can do it, anybody can do it.

0:05:52.506,0:05:54.189
Now, that was all light and fuzzy

0:05:54.213,0:05:55.791
and feels pretty happy.

0:05:55.815,0:05:58.092
Skeptics in the audience, you're here.

0:05:58.116,0:05:59.737
That would be me if I were here.

0:05:59.761,0:06:00.983
Skeptics are thinking,

0:06:01.007,0:06:03.988
"Wow, what do we need to change[br]about our food system?"

0:06:04.704,0:06:05.904
Farmers are great.

0:06:06.260,0:06:08.593
We have unlimited food[br]and it's real cheap too,

0:06:08.617,0:06:09.767
isn't that great?

0:06:10.450,0:06:11.696
Well unfortunately,

0:06:11.720,0:06:13.783
in the '80s and the '90s in this country

0:06:13.807,0:06:15.998
we went down a path of policy

0:06:16.022,0:06:18.855
that could be described as[br]"get big or get out."

0:06:19.926,0:06:23.696
And what "get big or get out" means[br]is you maximize production

0:06:23.720,0:06:25.254
while minimizing costs.

0:06:25.792,0:06:28.228
On its face value,[br]that sounds pretty simple.

0:06:28.530,0:06:31.033
However, that shift

0:06:31.677,0:06:34.458
turned our farmers from a venerated class

0:06:34.482,0:06:36.228
and a valued class in our society

0:06:36.252,0:06:38.119
into a cost to be minimized.

0:06:39.355,0:06:42.006
That shift made it[br]so that my great grandfather,

0:06:42.030,0:06:45.286
who supported the family with six cows,

0:06:45.310,0:06:47.204
that same dairy,

0:06:47.228,0:06:50.117
trying to support their family,[br]has to be 600 cows today.

0:06:50.141,0:06:54.188
Six thousand-cow dairies[br]are not unheard of.

0:06:55.446,0:06:57.549
What happens when[br]there's this one dairy farm

0:06:57.573,0:06:58.748
in an entire county,

0:06:58.772,0:07:00.374
where there used to be hundreds?

0:07:00.954,0:07:04.454
The same could be said[br]with corn or beans or field crops.

0:07:05.116,0:07:08.815
What happens when it takes 10,000 acres[br]for one person to support themselves?

0:07:09.871,0:07:11.804
When it used to only take 40.

0:07:13.038,0:07:14.277
We know what happens,

0:07:14.301,0:07:15.951
we read about it in the news.

0:07:16.451,0:07:18.068
[unclear] rural decline,

0:07:18.092,0:07:19.983
but schools close, schools consolidate,

0:07:20.007,0:07:22.713
post offices close, grocery stores close.

0:07:23.649,0:07:24.847
People leave,

0:07:24.871,0:07:27.271
the community suffers and goes away.

0:07:28.109,0:07:31.204
I believe all of us in this audience[br]with ties to rural Minnesota

0:07:31.228,0:07:32.628
know this story well.

0:07:34.117,0:07:36.594
This is not a problem that we can solve

0:07:36.618,0:07:38.998
with farmers markets and good intentions.

0:07:39.022,0:07:41.608
We have to do more for our farmers.

0:07:41.632,0:07:43.895
Policy got us into this mess,

0:07:43.919,0:07:45.652
and policy can get us out.

0:07:47.109,0:07:51.781
American farmers are only getting[br]older, fewer and poorer.

0:07:52.163,0:07:54.430
Yet they are crucial to our state.

0:07:54.782,0:07:57.186
They are the vibrancy[br]in our rural communities.

0:07:57.210,0:08:00.139
They are the drivers[br]of the economic growth and stability.

0:08:00.576,0:08:04.354
And they are our best protectors[br]of our shared resources

0:08:04.378,0:08:05.911
of land, water and air.

0:08:06.268,0:08:08.307
So we have to do better for them.

0:08:08.331,0:08:09.798
So join me, would you?

0:08:10.220,0:08:11.728
Let's fight for our farmers.

0:08:11.752,0:08:12.903
You can see it,

0:08:12.927,0:08:14.658
we're already doing it in Minnesota,

0:08:14.682,0:08:16.082
having great success.

0:08:16.736,0:08:18.569
And together, we can do even more.

0:08:18.593,0:08:19.815
And we must.

0:08:19.839,0:08:23.154
So we were voting with our fork before,

0:08:23.178,0:08:24.970
and we want to keep doing that.

0:08:24.994,0:08:27.877
But if I could have one idea[br]for you to go home with today,

0:08:27.901,0:08:29.702
it's vote with your vote.

0:08:29.726,0:08:30.996
And so to that end,

0:08:31.020,0:08:34.094
on the count of three,[br]I'd like all of us to say it together.

0:08:34.118,0:08:35.268
Are you ready?

0:08:36.477,0:08:38.445
OK, one,

0:08:38.469,0:08:39.865
two,

0:08:39.889,0:08:41.052
three.

0:08:41.076,0:08:43.301
Audience: Vote with your vote.

0:08:43.325,0:08:44.492
Very nice, thank you.

0:08:44.516,0:08:45.786
I think you got it.

0:08:45.810,0:08:48.337
(Applause)