July 1, 2015
Deputy Secretary Krysta Harden: It is a great opportunity to be with you and first of all I send regards from a colleague of mine at USDA, Anne Alonzo, who I believe may have been the first female head of this organization, or the first chair or president - I am not sure the right term, but she sends her regards and was very jealous that I was the one getting to come say hello to all of you today. I really have a very special interest in your work for a lot of different reasons, like so many of us, I really enjoy your products - maybe too much sometimes and when they are coupled with peanuts I believe it's a separate food group (laughter).
My family farms peanuts in southwest Georgia so very often a lot of the peanuts that we grow on our farm - my parents are still there - when it's mixed with chocolate-it's just a great combination. So, I think we have something going here that is very good for a lot of folks, but it's also about jobs. In my home area there are a couple of facilities that actually manufacture chocolate and peanut products so for a smaller town, a smaller city, or a rural area I think the manufacturing of the products is also very beneficial.
You know we do a lot to get our together with your industry and USDA I think it's a very strong public private partnership. I know there are many you'll hear about if you haven't already over the days you're in town about some of the research that we're doing together on genetics, some of the mapping for the genome, some of the other things that are very important to you in industry.
We obviously talk a lot to you about what's happening in the world and climate change is so critical to famers here and know how important it is to have good research and good information for all of you and for the farmers in the room who are trying to reproduce a crop around the world so we want to continue to have this kind of dialogue and talk about solutions that are real world, that make sense to producers so we can continue to have this robust industry and all the good products that come from it.
When I was thinking about what to say today, a lot of issues to talk about, a lot of technical things, a lot things that we work on as I just mentioned, but I really it amazed me how some of things that are so near and dear to my heart, personal heart and my work at USDA can relate to many of you probably especially some of the farmers directly, things that I spend a lot of time on and kind of just my discretionary time as Deputy Secretary at USDA. One is who's our bench in the farming world?
How do we convince young people to go into farming, to return to farming. Some of them grow-grow up on farms, and they see the hard work, they see the tight markets they don't want to go back. Some of them see that the farm can't support another family and that was my own case when I grew up on this farm in southwest Georgia in the eighties. It was very, very tough times I remember and some of you may remember, some of you were too young, but it was almost impossible to think about that I could go back to my family farm because it just could not support another farmer. So I had to do something different.
And so a lot of our young people today are seeing that, they're looking for careers off the farm, out of rural towns, and in cities. Which is fine for many, but we also need to think about who is going to be farming. I noticed one of the tweets earlier, "No farms, no chocolate" they say that a lot around here, "No farms, no food" it's the same kind of thought. What are we doing in the industry, in the broad industry, not just in the cocoa industry, but in agriculture to make sure that there are the tools; there are the resources there for our young people who want to come back to a family farm and take that on. And also it's young women, how do we make sure that they know, and I'm looking at your chair here, how do young women know that there is a place for them, not only in the fields, not only picking the crop, not only doing very, very tough labor, but how do we make sure that we know that their voice is needed, it is valued and it is appreciated?
Having the conversations, I looked at some of the materials that you have been looking at this week, making a presentation to you yesterday about women involved in this industry, numbers that you can share with a lot of other industries. The hard work, that commitment, we also know that women in agriculture are not only feeding their families, but others. They're making sure their kids get educated, they're making sure they're healthier, so we very much need to make sure that all of the decisions that we are making and thinking about and planning ahead for, that we're thinking about our young women, or making sure they're going to school, that they're getting the attention, both the education and help that they desperately need and should have and that there is a place for their voice in this industry.
So it's interesting, I'll say something, I started these-this kind of passions of my - I've been working on these passions in the U.S., thinking about who's going to be farming next, when I think about my own farm at home in Georgia. My sister and I, neither one are in production or agriculture, my parents (inaudible) I hope they live a long time, they need that farm for their income, but there will come a day when my sister and I have to make a decision about what to do with that land. Right now part of it's rented to the young guy in his late sixties, if my daddy's in his seventies he thinks the neighbor's younger so he's the "young guy." (Laughter) That's not the answer, that's not really what we need to be doing, we need to be thinking about how do we tell young people.
So I started talking about these issues in the U.S. really thinking that there was kind of isolated for us, that our average age in our country of a farmer is fifty-eight. And I started traveling internationally, doing other things like trade and global food security, and recognized 'Hey, the rest of the world has these issues, too'. So we need to be thinking, talking, cooperating, collaborating globally on these issues and how we can get some answers together and clearly women. I just got back from Maine and New Hampshire just last evening, doing roundtables regarding women in agriculture, talking to women farmers, talking to women involved in agriculture about their jobs, about their challenges, about their hurdles, but also about their opportunities.
But clearly it's not just an issue for the U.S., clearly it's an issue across the world for women. We talk about extension planning, how to make sure that young women know that they have a responsibility when they inherit that land how -- decisions that they can make along with sometimes (inaudible), sometimes a mother, sometimes not, sometimes both parents, (inaudible) that they can make decisions regarding that land and production. And then I go around the world and I talk to women who can't only - I cannot imagine - it's hard for me to say this, every time I talk about this I get emotional. I cannot imagine that I could not own my own farm when my parents are gone, because I'm female, because I don't have male kids, I don't have any kids. I cannot imagine the worry and the passion and the fear and the concern and the disappointment and the frustration of women around the world. Land may not be transferred to them, they cannot own land, even though they love it, they care about it, they're working it.
I've just-it breaks my heart, and we, as an agriculture industry, from field to fork, need to help make that change. (Applause) All of us who consume, all of us who enjoy, all of us who benefit from their hard work have this responsibility. They're not alone, they need to know that. And I know your industry does good things, I know we as a people and as an industry talk a good game, I just challenge you to do more than talk and make that difference.
And with that note, sorry to get so heavy right before lunch, but I can't even start the conversation without getting passionate and obviously emotional because it is something we cannot ignore, we have for too long. But I will thank you for what you do, I know that the foundation is committed to many of these issues, I know that you're making a difference and have a wonderful reputation and a wonderful partnership with USDA and we're very proud of that and the work that we can do together on a number of these very significant issues. Some are easier than others, I just challenge us not just to do the easy things. Thank you. (Applause)