Good morning.

I think Byron and Kent will agree with me that it’s good to be back in North Dakota after a week at the World Trade Organization talks. There’s something about the air in Seattle – maybe it’s the tear gas – that makes you glad to breathe the air of home again.

And it’s especially good to be back home with the North Dakota Farmers Union.

As it stands now, only 20 days or so remain of the millennium. I know that some people are still holding out for 2001, but most folks seem to accept the year 2000 as the beginning of the third millennium.

To say that a lot has been written and said about it would be an understatement. It seems that every waking hour brings some reference to the new millennium and I think we’ve all grown tired of the whole Y-2-K scare.

Yet, I believe this is a good time to pause, reflect on the past, and anticipate what the future may hold.

The year 2000 signals the beginning of a new era, but it also marks an end of another, the 20^th Century – our century (at least for most of us) – the greatest and most terrible century in history. What a time it has been!

What a time it has been for agriculture in particular. Farming changed more in our century than it had in the preceding thousand years.

One hundred years ago, family farms dotted the landscape. In fact during the 20 years between 1890 and 1910, the number of farms in North Dakota increased 65 percent from 45,000 to 74,000.

One hundred years ago, horsepower really meant HORSE-power. Sure, there were gigantic steam tractors and other mechanized machinery, but a lot of farming was still fueled by oats.

Wheat was king – 80 percent of cash receipts came from spring wheat, and there was a new crop called durum that was gaining in popularity. The number two crop in the state was flax.

In the second decade of this century, the number of cattle in the state more than doubled and cultivated acreage increased more than 25 percent. But there was unrest. Farmers were tired of their dependence on the Minneapolis grain monopoly and on Minneapolis banks. They fought back – first by signing up with the Equity Cooperative Exchange and then by helping form the Non-Partisan League. Neither the Exchange nor the League lasted very long, but both accomplished much. The Bank of North Dakota and the State Mill and Elevator – both creations of the NPL – still flourish today.

The "Roaring 20s" brought depression with low prices, high costs and heavy taxes. Land values tumbled and there was drought. During the decade the percentage of tenant farmers increased from one-fourth to one-third.

Yet there was good some good news – tractor ownership doubled and truck ownership increased five times. Scientists kept pace with new wheat and grass varieties.

Most importantly, a new organization came into being, bringing cooperative marketing opportunities, access to lower cost supplies, life and property insurance and other benefits. It is, of course, the North Dakota Farmers Union.

The twenties were bad, but the thirties were worse. North Dakota was part of the Dust Bowl. 1935 was the driest year ever, and it saw the state’s all-time lowest and highest official temperature readings -- 60 degrees below zero at Parshall and 120 degrees above at Steele.

Commodity prices hit rock bottom. Thousands left their farms and the state.

The federal government got into agriculture in a big way with programs to cut production and boost farm income. The Agricultural Adjustment Act set a floor under farm prices and allowed the government to take control of grain held as collateral. On the state front, the Legislature passed the Anti-Corporate Farm Act.

Things were looking up in the 40s. Good weather, a strong market and bumper crops made for the best agricultural economy the state had ever seen. North Dakota farmers cranked up production to help win the war and then feed a hungry world.

The fifties, however, saw a return to overproduction and falling prices. Price supports began to loosen first to 75 percent of parity, and then parity itself was reduced. We first heard terms like diverted acres and set-asides. New programs like Soil Bank and Food for Peace became part of the farm scene. An old, but new crop – sunflowers -- showed up.

The 60s brought both efforts to remove the government from agriculture and the first environmental controls on agriculture.

The 70s were export boom time. Farm income and land values went up, but by the end of the decade falling prices brought farmer unrest. Remember the tractor-cade?

The 80s are a time most of us don’t even like to think about – the worst decade since the 30s. Starting with the Soviet grain embargo, we went straight into the farm financial crisis with tumbling land values and mass foreclosures.

The 90s were in some respects a continuation of the previous decade. Severe weather and continued low commodity prices came together to create a most difficult climate for agriculture. The much-ballyhooed Freedom to Farm proved worse than useless in stemming the crisis. Recently, we have had to resort to a succession of bailouts that really do nothing in terms of providing long-term stability for the agricultural economy.

On a positive note, the 90s saw a revival of cooperatives, most notably value-added processing cooperatives. And a technological revolution was underway with use of personal computers to aid in the production of crops and livestock.

We have looked back; it’s now time to look forward. It brings us to a point where -- to borrow the theme of this year’s convention -- we have to ask, "Which Way, America?"

Well, we can’t go back – and to be honest, we don’t want to. We have been there and done that.

I think that question, "Which way America?", has already been answered in this, the report of the Commission on the Future of Agriculture.

And before I go any further, I want to thank the North Dakota Farmers Union, and especially your president, Robert Carlson; your vice president, Richard Schlosser, and your District 5 Director, Arlene Olson, for all the hard work they and all of you have put into this effort.

The vision expressed in this report – that North Dakota becomes the trusted provider of the highest quality food in the world with prosperous family farms, thriving rural communities and world class stewardship of resources – is a bold vision, but one that I believe, and I think you believe, can be attained.

To attain this vision:

We must make North Dakota agricultural products synonymous with high quality, dominating the premium markets.

We must increase value-added agricultural processing. Efforts like Dakota Growers Pasta Co. and the North American Bison Cooperative point the way. There is no reason why we cannot add value to every agricultural commodity produced in this state and reap the additional profits from them.

We must diversify and increase the value of agricultural production. Remember: about a century ago spring wheat accounted for 80 percent of the state’s cash receipts. Things have gotten better in that regard since then, but I think we are still too dependent on a few commodities. We need to grow more and different crops, but we must also make sure that people who grow these new crops have access to necessary crop insurance and pesticides for risk management.

We must increase farm and non-farm cooperation that supports thriving rural communities and enhances our natural resources.

And finally, we must create a political, regulatory, economic, trade, financial and natural resources environment in which North Dakota producers can compete in the global marketplace.

Speaking of the global marketplace, let me take a moment to talk about the World Trade Organization talks. It was certainly an exciting time in Seattle, and I’m not talking about the protesters and the rioting that took over the news coverage. I’m talking about the fact we tried to make sure that agriculture was on the front burner throughout the talks, and I think we were successful in that. I also think progress was made. I am not saying we will get everything we want, because we will not. It’s going to take time to finalize these negotiations – at least three to four years. During that time, we will hold the line and put pressure on our negotiators to open the world’s markets for you, the best and most efficient producers in the world.

On the international front, I believe we are also making progress in our relations with Canada. The Northern Plains Producer Conference, held last month in Fargo, brought together producers from three states and two Canadian provinces. Guess what? They found out they have a lot more in common than they have differences. The Canadians also want harmonization of regulations and other things that American farmers want. Both American and Canadian farmers want a common currency, and everyone liked the idea of joint American-Canadian efforts to dominate the market. That’s not exactly news to the Farmers Union – this organization has been promoting across-the-border cooperation in marketing for years.

If we are to dominate the market, we must be ready to meet the demands of the market. We must be ready with the very best quality products and commodities, and we must produce what the customer wants!

Our destiny is being put back where it belongs---into our own hands!

This doesn’t mean the federal government is getting out of agriculture, because it can’t. The stakes for our country are too high for that. But Washington must come up with a coherent farm policy that enables producers to grow and market their commodities while providing them with safeguards against catastrophes, such as droughts, floods, insects AND YES, collapsing commodity prices.

Given that kind of safety net, together with the new opportunities presented to us in the world market, I believe more than ever that the vision of the Commission on the Future of Agriculture can be met.

Working together in the historical spirit of the Farmers Union, we can make North Dakota the trusted provider of the highest quality food in the world with prosperous family farms, thriving rural communities and world class stewardship of resources.

Earlier I said the 20^th Century has been our century. If we hold to our principles – the principles of the Farmers Union – and expend all of our efforts to reach the vision of the Commission on the Future of Agriculture, the 21^st Century will be ours, too.

Thanks for asking me to be with you today – it’s good to be home.