U.S. Secretaries of Agriculture, Part Two

for mccain auditorium at kansas state university not one not two but six former secretaries of agriculture i'm kate mcintyre and today on k pr present we'll hear from six people who have held the top agriculture opposed in the us government it's part two of the one hundred sixty third kansas state university landon lecture last week we heard the first hour of this conversation with six former us secretary of agriculture if you missed the program it's now archived on our website a pr like a few dot edu on today's show it's like you in a portion of that landon lecture recorded october twenty first two thousand thirteen we'll hear from dan glickman who served as secretary of agriculture from nineteen ninety five to two thousand won in the clinton administration following eighteen years in congress representing campuses fourth district we'll also hear from idle hands john bought an ed schafer as well as the first female secretary of agriculture

and then a man and the first african american ag secretary might ask me this event was moderated by dr barry flinch by a professor of agricultural economics at kansas state university i have prepared a list of questions now are while what were the most immediate issues you addressed to secretary and the most significant issue that i faced the secretary was reassurance of the american people that we had the safest least expensive and most abundant food supply in world we're under fire usda i'm for animal cruelty on for disease for proper management of the nutrition and food in the world and a lot of moms were worried about are we really haven't safe food supply out there we spent a lot of time making sure that we could prove to the american people that we did have that safe food supply and that was secure and

that it would be there for the people of the united states america an affordable price and one that would that would them they'll give them the security of their families in their homes and our neighborhoods thank you sir mike johannes was secretary of agriculture from two thousand five to two thousand eight during the george w bush administration he now represents nebraska in the us senate and was surgery where natal stole christmas as we say there was that the bse animal and that that transferred not only to my time is secure a bit and i'm sure you were working on that too and to some extent we continue to work on that that occupied a lot of my time we had many many country's borders were closed we tried to move as quickly as we could get re open borders even from very small countries just so we could get momentum going just recently japan move

to a more normalized day goes you know where they're not taking be from animals thirty months in in younger before that was twenty months so bse i cried a lot of my time probably the second thing though was the formal proposal the yeah the president was very anxious to get a comprehensive tall complete farm bill out there and that's what launched the yemen listening sessions across the country and the gratifying thing farm bill several our evolutionary as you know it's very rare that and that one just tears up the old one and starts over they tend to build on the shoulders of the last one it's gratifying to see how many of those proposals how were adapted and now are even adopted some the recommendations we made for conservation are all i think are likely to be in the next farm bill freaking get that to the finish line so those would be the true that pop up

as most significant challenges we faced and then a man was secretary of agriculture from two thousand one to two thousand five the first female secretary of the usda like my job and she's served during the george w bush administration i served as secretary at a time where we had it seem like challenge after challenge of emergency type situations about oh week after i came in we had this huge outbreak of foot mouth disease in europe which we were very worried that was going to come to the west course we then had nine eleven it was significant all all of the us people and economy in an agriculture we were looking at ways that's where where the biggest vulnerabilities would be in the food and agriculture system from farms to processing plants so that was among the most significant of course we had outbreaks of exotic newcastle disease the first time in fifty years that became a big emergency to deal with a bird flu and then of course we

had the cabin stole christmas as you pointed out which was december twenty third two thousand and three almost ten years ago arm as i mention this afternoon although we did have our export markets shut down as we would have done other countries if that ad if if other countries got cases of bse these big we were pretty much treated as we treat others but we were able to keep enough confidence in the food safety system in this country that are beef consumption during that time never went down we also dealt with significant forest fires around the country so it was like it was as if we had a crisis after crisis in those four years that i was there but we also launched a doha round and we held a significant our science and technology conference which brought together over a hundred countries to talk about the future of agriculture and how to use technology to feed the world in the future we had over a hundred ministers and arms

you know that the issues you do weather just so broad and and and so immense but it certainly was an honor privilege to serve mike mike espy was secretary of agriculture from nineteen ninety three to nineteen ninety four during the clinton administration he was the first african american to head the usda like i am also enabled emergency very very quickly into my administration might not turn first three days that i was sworn in with a young young girl who died from the demon under cook hamburger you might remember it was the jack in the box incident end of about now about the ravages of himalaya to do really poisoning eco love the rules there are one point seven eight seven and we had to move to contain it investigated end of duma good to institute reports but at the same time we have to guarantee the image of agriculture to make sure

that that stigma but moderation i would not deal of americans in the world soon as the ball's perception of art about boot but that doesn't emerge said but i know what i have dealt with their fans but last night and i told the story and as they juggle work it into this landon lecture so this is about is that i visited as it enough to get it i'm going to go out there and be out there in the first years of the current administration we were able to sign nafta and get you know joe griffin oh tears of jerry lewis i'm here around was out of sight and i asked the president to lead me out to love to negotiate agricultural title and it he said okay lot of ideas grew up so i don't work in a given had taken their cash and brussels and uneven and then south korean and all of that so we did it and try to write about one country outstanding that we didn't we didn't really make any progress on that

they are about our trade agreement and their supply japan refused to import us rice and there were there were essential to their economy was the cultural iconic central to their culture and they just they would they would they would import more apples or they'll do anything else on that market access and on their quotas but they would not employ one railroad rise until ago judges would not happen and that was the great poet outstanding in what would otherwise would've been a very successful trade negotiations so i go by lou to tokyo and i met with michael barr miss a hotdog and you know we walked into his big rome you know what i usually do you do get off the pledge of flour biden and you go and change and shower been going to these negotiations rooms and out my delegations pretty small head and walter mondale who at that time was the head master to today it was a no more ride and i had beet the award by our interpreters and day out what might come to sew on the left and i have two points to make

an ipod megan well up i was taken that in the end there was a striking down strike down strike down strike him down and that we even had out the night before i will stand in a high rise to below tail and there was a drummer of an earthquake about never come from mississippi you know i never had never experienced this wail that done before and i said okay well i'll do tomorrow is leading to month basis that are you couldn't read that your self sufficient and that this is even the party or national defense but you're not immune to natural disasters so i got a layoff with that and they struck it down so a big ok we've we lost this wooden bike was not have achieved at any hour in his success and this decline and us are called it a close so mr heart i wanted to imitate me and i will go on to a banquet and becker was across the hall from the negotiations or so you know beloved tired in and i'm angry

and yet but now i'm up what's our article it made where reconsider and and so well i was going to the banquet room and all of a sudden someone tell him to show and someone i really recognize as he had not been in in about abortion issues and he invited to an anti roe awfully awful be the main road there's a dinner roll and i went to that ronan was no blood in their body all of the tools and i asked him you know you're going get doused the ambassador to your god yet he said no issue to share and he said okay you made ten points and we agree with our recruitment and he started to come off and this tournament was the japanese villages and i don't agree on everything and i asked him that did not persuade him based on my love logic but magill says they don't know his solo pieces which you guys all know is our housewives of macon the students that

is is your rice is better and is cheaper than ours they want this long grain rice in an hour and he's and that's why and so i have a glass a boston office and it says a stronger us rice federation is it says it calls bieber trade sector and that is because we introduced rice of us rising first i've been to japan that's a great story starring jackie have to follow the job but was appointed secretary of agriculture by president ronald reagan block served from nineteen eighty one to nineteen eighty six there's no question about it all of us a secretary's face a lot of challenges and certainly when i was there are these were tough times of the early years in the nineteen eighties it just waits went through the roof we lost a lot of farmers but that the story i'll tell you about is

even before the president ronald reagan had been inaugurated we were out we went to washington what i was selected the whole cabinet we were out there in january we had our first cabinet meeting and wasn't at the white house because he was not in there yet many had a few members of the cabinet that gave praise of patients they head towards israel and when it was done there when they were done but really it also very thing that water bring out and i've just been it has been moving around the switch of all time i wanted to bring some love but i put my hand up naive as i was and i just said that mr president you had said during your campaign as you would lift the trade embargo there was a trade embargo at the time so that we could not export to the soviet union there were that there were great partner of ours they bought all kinds of goods from us they always paid cash on

the barrel at but we couldn't export there because president carter had impose an embargo interestingly enough it's because they the soviet union had invaded afghanistan now in which a detail on or fast mike out there why i'm not had my head taken out by the secretary of state alexander haig and cap weinberger the secretary defense law would then if we're not going to do that we've got two of extract some concessions from the soviet union and so i left that meeting or a depression like i found out from our ed meese and the two or three others assemble will help you as we do to get this done and so we did start working order and in the meantime the president got shot in that slowed things don't forget

why it was that was terrible i just thought man there i couldn't get anything done and at the newspapers were all writing up the fact that though secretary blocked not getting anything done he probably gonna fail on all your resume chris christie thank you i had an audience with the president and we got enough people working on this thing that finally he called me into the oval office and alexander haig was there and hate should write straight to me said were left in the grain embargo today and for american farmers that was huge alexander hagel marshall back in his chair but that tough luck for him as we left of the grain embargo we had

academy right afterwards immediately lot of the cabinet room if he told a cabinet grain embargo to be lifted the day and it ignored julie told him that was it that was one of the best moments that we had some moments awards are great for those years cause it was tough laurie talk about how important radio he betrayed jails all right today we're negotiating trade with with the pacific countries over including the asian were negotiating with europe going to be tough in those negotiations but we need to get done then you can finish dan glickman was secretary of agriculture from nineteen ninety five to two thousand one under president clinton he also represented the fourth district of kansas for eighteen years in congress i was the most assaulted member of the cabinet and in fact data gorged and others in the room would have heard me tell the story before but oddly so the secret service change their

entire protective detail for cabinet members because of my album a proclivity to get things struck me so odd first time it happened about six months after i took the job and i went to the world food song summit in rome and i was their president clinton and the pope fidel castro they'll spoken an american delegation went into this room to have a news conference he was very hot we were sweating and all the sudden in the front row the entire flu front rows of people split totally naked and written on their bodies of course it did look a written on their bodies were were no gina dreams and the naked truth and they threw genetically modified soybeans and other things at us and so i just was so you know i don't have a lot of areas you know until my i was like sweating and these

scenes are sticking to my forehead and and so on that nighttime and the police came in and an end so they arrested the protesters in that night on cnn did the whole thing except in the us they do a big black stripes over the key portions of people's bodies and but not in europe so i get a call from a get a call from my parents and wichita and mime mother says this is terrible this job is dangerous i told you shouldn't take this job and then you're and then just having your father was to talk to in those you know my father died he was a guy who saw the bright line every situation his first question as tommy what it look like then not too long a letter on us about four months on international nutrition summit in the shoreham hotel in washington and we're talking about nutrition i'm on the panel i'm on the diarists with bob dole and secretary shall a lot and a woman starts chris grayling glickman you're nothing but up camp for the meat industry and so

she's running up and she has a tofu cream pie and her hand and just for states to get up close and she throws it it made it deftly dike and they had shalala on the back while i didn't know what to make of it and so i just quickly said to dole i said bob i don't think were in kansas any longer and then and then the final thing it happened about three months later and we're at yellowstone park where i'm in gardiner montana where i've there is an effort to try to root out bruce solow says which is a disease that were like and the cattle got infected and they were spontaneously aborting and it was a terrible problem and so we were set up to and basically to call loved the number of bison that were there that had this disease and so we're talking about what were doing and all of a sudden a woman comes down and she's screaming and she's got a big pot of something and she says you're killing my brothers you're

killing my sisters and so one of the people on the panel of those was senator conrad burns of the montana he was an old auctioneer in pretty funny guy and i said what's going on and she says he says well we got a problem i had this all happening like yesterday's it what's the problem she thinks that those animals are her brothers and sisters so she proceeded to throw infected buffalo guts at the whole table and done so all i could think about was is that i'm going to get a disease like malaria cullen dylan fever and i was going i have never the rest of my life and my mother was right after all so i only tell you the story there others that happened to military these stories because one thing i learned about this experience is is that people feel very very strongly about food okay and these are matters they care about very much and they're well i'm giving you some of the perhaps the more extreme evidences of what's going on here what we do doesn't impact

people's lives every day every place all over the country farmers ranchers consumers businesspeople national government national security america's image in the world and everything else and it does make a difference well you may have a hard time believing this damages does lead in the series and very eloquently talked about the world hunger in the world food problem and center so a very blunt question is it any way possible the seder world without now dead now that the wind and the things is impossible no no we're not well back to what i said what you do you go back and farmed the way my grandfather did with all the weeds unfold although labor takes a look at all the extra chemicals later on to start using chemicals will use the chemicals they use in europe because we have

biotechnology your use forty percent fifty percent more chemicals than we do and then they can't keep deals up with us i mean there's no way that unless we invent something else is better right now we don't have anything that's better i think it's a now that surge short answer but i i just think it's ridiculous but somehow we've got to make sure that we rely on site it's not on somebody's as well but you've got to go back and farmed the way my grandfather did or the way they do in africa now a lot of places over there don't help biotechnology they don't even have a hybrid seeds and they don't have what they need to raise a big crop and we're going to feed the world where the net raise a big rap in a lot of places not just you know roy in camps which i would agree but with this one proviso there is no silver bullet to feeding up a world of larger numbers of people

there's silver buckshot i cause there's a lot of answers you go on days i was in ethiopia just in april and then if you go to a lot of these countries i mean what they really need more than gm seats and i'm for them by the way i think it's an important part equation is they need modern techniques modern fertilizers they you know they knew that they needed to deal with the issue of the waste which and talked about that they need to deal with cost modern conservation tillage practices i mean an end and to you know about seventy five percent of them people are farming in africa are women and they need that you know that they need to understand that marketing techniques have used cooperatives much better so we just can't take this issue and just overly on everything and say it's the only answer or in many cases the primary answer no i do agree with you that we're not going to be able to deal with the water issue were not going to be able to deal with the pesky issue and were not going to

be able to deal with disease and weather and climate without using new technologies including genetic engineering arm and we got a talk about the tradeoffs involved we don't do this kind of thing which we haven't as well i would say this however if i were the food industry i would be looking at ways that we could develop techniques and traits of food the average consumers could say would benefit then right now most of the discussion about technology is how it effects production agriculture which is fine but you sing a growing movement in this country of people who want to know what's in their food and water people who do that really are against biotechnology and genetic moderately modified foods but we we asked if we could get more evidence that these traits are improving nutrition and in and create improving diet and doing things that not only help production agriculture but also help consumers i think

it would go a long way to read move all lot of the uncertainty there is out there about the subject in altoona come and not offer a couple of comments i think it and you make a very valid point here an intact is to butt here supporting kansas style agriculture or nebraska's dollar illinois dial or whatever state you want to mention does not necessarily work in every part of the world it's just a different phenomena like i said i just got back from for mass go after we were in ethiopia rwanda liberia we even spend all over the time over in the congo which is really a mask and you could change the world there are with hybrid seed and fertilizer and water management you could change the world with just better planking practices one of the things that they found out they

grow a crop there and they spread it in so it can to grow like a weed or something they came to learn that it's a trip that that crop included in rows their real double know why did they spread instead of putting added roles because the their father did it that way their grandfather did it that way they're great grandfather did it that way as long as anybody could ever remember they spread it well when you start changing things on that scale you may go world a difference the other thing i'd say about this too is that i'm a believer in bao technology job is to serve the governor's coalition about technology i could give the all the credentials but i will offer this number one we have to really get good at the science that's work a state comes in and the university of nebraska another land

grants to since we've got to be the best and we have to understand that when we send a product into the marketplace we're going to put our seal of approval on that product from a safety standpoint sector the second thing i would say is that no matter how hard we try to convince people they're not going to be convinced and this is what i say to young people i love all kinds of agriculture hack our loved it when we numb thirty thousand for all twelve selzer the time but i appreciate that's a hobby farm today know that fed for kids and to adults but you're not farming that way anymore as much as i'm i love that in and pined for those days again i appreciate those days of ended and we've got a growing population we've got to deal with it but what i say to young kids deserve so many opportunities in agriculture maybe you want to do organic god bless you there's a market for it out there maybe you

want to do something different maybe want to do hormone free beef god blesses there's a market out there for year and on a non and so what i would say is celebrate all aspects of agriculture from the very large operation so we're used to go to the very small operations that maybe are the organic farmer whose selling at farmers markets or whatever because there's opportunity and all parts of agriculture and we should we should say that's outstanding in india's but there's got to be room for all parts of their records are not just one segment that was nebraska senator mike joe hands before him dan glickman and john block i'm kate mcintyre you're listening to k pr presents on kansas public radio if you're just joining us today on k pr presents we're hearing six former secretaries of

agriculture speaking at kansas state university is landon lecture this is the second part in a two part series featuring dan glickman mike johansen john block at schafer mike espy and invent a man if you missed last week's programme part one of the landon lecture you can listen to it on our website k pr that kay you that edu this event was moderated by dr barry flint's bob professor of agricultural economics a kansas state he directs his next question to former ag secretary and then a man who also served as the executive director of unicef and you probably have the most experience on this panel in terms of food policy what dietary changes do you see coming and how will it affect people's eating habits well i mean i

think we have a new set of dietary guidelines i mean continually we see the dietary guidelines focus on the need for more fruits and vegetables more whole grains oh i'm a healthier lifestyle in terms of exercise i'm you know we've seen a lot of it i mean i i think we see now a lot of focus now because of the severe problem of obesity in this country and around the world ah oui oui oui dan glickman and i co chaired an initiative through the bipartisan policy council looking at the cost of health care of obesity in this country and you know there's so many implications in addition to the health care costs in the twenty five percent of the people in this country were plotting on the military can get in his or to overweight so it's affecting national security but i think we're making progress we're seeing some decline in in childhood

obesity rates right now the worst was some slight good news coming out we've seen some changes to the school lunch program which i think are positive results in terms of really looking at how do you help children to eat healthier there's some very good examples of cities who've worked with new kinds of food companies are preparing healthier foods that kids want to eat i think education of children and eating as is absolutely critical arm and i think that that you know as we go forward we have you know a lot of this controversy over you know what people are eating and i absolutely agree that we have to look at you know all kinds of their culture and men how much of that is consumer driven consumers are asking for you know more connectivity with where their food comes from whether it's local food organic food we see a huge increase in me the amount of absence of local third and driven a lot by the restaurant

industry's we see the you know the emergence of stores like whole foods and doug moore more certification programs whether it's fair trade or organics as senator john ensign said i mean we have to really look at our culture and the breadth of what it is what it represents and we have to focus on nutrition and how to get nutrition to people and that connectivity of nutrition and healthy human being we talked earlier about the farm he'll be in a problem because dr patricia daughter was the length are taken out of it again mike espy taken out because prison because of the dvr ballooning cost of it based on our entitlements and those who qualify for snapper or blue states and i want to watch it i recorded and that power and then him and say it also save us up with her record at our high rates of obesity i am from save mississippi abortion lee

every also sure about index when it comes to those kinds of things we do at the bottom and we got to do something about soul to medium we have reform idea which makes some may consider is a bit controversial i certainly not come under the landon lecture janet do you know become controversial however i might add that is a reasonable to experiment as to whether or not we can remove some of the snack foods from dr from the sniper where those foods that are high in calories a high and solved that dr fetz some of the hyper pulls corn syrup drinks perhaps winning comes to use of beep public tax dollars at the supermarket to be xp it on things about that that are that we no i do not perpetuate the best health

outcomes those products just like tobacco or dislike beery jet jeb jeb out of products and people with food stamps we would we would give some consideration to removing a naked some of these foods ineligible for use in the snap program that doesn't mean they get bad on that in his own private dollars a discretionary dollars for those bills types of foods public doubt i think that should be considered and you know a date i don't want to get some insight this boar and a drizzle brazil joyce not subtle i'm trying to do here but honestly what we know as the nation that they are negative and deleterious health effects for those like this and i have them included in the food basket out that we keep and all that and to keep ample the negative health outcomes on twitter god obesity and then the rest it did this summer consider the savings on these types of prod said that are available have some good i had a half percent bonus up all the bridges of birds nests

sylvia so we'd try persuasion we tried education and as we're gay but now we might need to take more stringent measures again mike johanns efforts likely with both what an end of my set that i had to take two personal vignettes of it whereas usda running as part of agriculture we have the authority on what's called section twenty nine or thirty two thirty two jere let's fly as twenty five twenty nine am told that wasn't there a very long anyway but very late it whereas there's issues we wait in the uk when there was a crop or a product of oversupply we had the ability to go on the marketplace and white and some limited it was almost it was a totally unlimited power so um and just thinking about this because he had these problems are i well i grew up and mike is probably a little more complicated you think so one day i get a call from senator stevens was a very very powerful center of the appropriations committee and a prevailed on us to buy

millions of dollars of candor salmon for the school lunch program because south there was an oversupply of salmon now i can tell you there are there is one thing that school kids will not eat play and sam so we bought it remember forrest gump when they had broiled trim slice red dye shrimp well we did wild salmon slice them and butter salmon anything we could and i think we still have that salmon twelve years later ok then senator another colleague of the senator moran in and the center joined senator carl levin call them he says we got a lot of charities what are we going to do with all these cherries me i'm sure you all had similar examples so we bought lots and lots of cherries for the school lunch program now levitate what we did with them we dried them we fry them we mix them odd we mix it with hamburger between nixon with cam seven even with

an end i think that we serve about three portions a non in kansas i wanted to write it you know my point of all this is is that job the obesity problem was really serious and what mike says is true we would probably ought to begin looking at these issues of other these are taxpayer funds and what people ought to be buying with a minute there's a way to improve their health but you know fundamentally a lot of these issues are taste preference and culture and sometimes they're difficult widens to really get people to change their behavior emails one comment that jack just one word on this i agree with mike former secretary of agriculture john block i think the federal government contribute sports obesity and for fifty million people getting food stamps now and all of jackson people are a lot of

things over realize that there are more obese people in that group then there are the other group is not getting food stamps i've seen used at a steady seventy about don't get to complain and i've got another solution that's the first thing i'd rate more fruits and vegetables and maybe win but not stuff that makes them fat then the other thing is we got kids are obese and they are there they are the goal of school and they get free lunches mail bag lunches form and their idea here the way you deal with that as you're white a man do you have a vegetable y and if they're not to have been her just right they can go get done all they can get biscuits and gravy it doesn't matter lucia says it's

personal freedom has toured well the government can the government can dictate to us because we're given the money out it's not that it's not that were taken some way from someone and i do that can i say well first of all i mean we have to recognize that but i think what my guest bea said is is right we have to look at these issues is the government paying for food that is actually contributing then on the other end were health care costs i think the other thing we have to think about it is a few years back that the name of this program was change from the food stamp program to the supplemental nutrition assistance program that ought to be taken into account week we debated these issues a lot during our report and the end and one of the things we realized is how politically sensitive some of these issues are so one of the things we

noted in our report was that you know this is a time where everybody wants information big data and transparency on everything and yet we don't have any publicly available data on what people buy with it with the snap program so one of the things we called for in our report was let's get that it's first of all the rich get that data on a second well there's been many of you heard about things that go on in the place where i live the other manhattan are in your city and what mayor bloomberg has done on and soft drinks but what he didn't start with that he went to he went first to try to contact with anyone to the usda map da mass for a pilot program exemption and i think the other way politically to start this process to see if there can be some of the program's long walk the line said my guest reciting about is is to begin some pilot programs in other states have asked for

this as well and perhaps this is a way to begin to look at whether or not what policy would make sense in this regard and i would tell my friends and he just i mean i'm not running for office well i think we've probably sufficiently governments object shadley continue to provide a safety net under farm income like we've done since nineteen thirty three and should we continue let you know i'm not you as it should be more focused on risk management which were doing and our mantra natural disasters and we are entering i believe in iraq much stronger farm prices farming town and the just

sending out of checks to farmers audie is one that's under great review right now on the senate bill is dealt with that issue by dealing with trying to reduce direct payments but will we should not take this and as an opportune go down the road to get rid of farm programs that are real bad mistake in my mind it it i think the history of the world shows that we're always gonna need some government support for agriculture it's been true since the time of the bible an exodus when we had you know a grain storage programs to help people during periods of of big surpluses and as well as tight supplies and sell but i think that the programs are to be more geared towards risk management and away from just from writing checks to producers and you aren't yet i don't actually i think that one of the things we tend to forget when we got a body or protocols in a farm program is the fact that with with disease and weather problems in this man's farmers can be impacted through no fault of their own ed schafer was secretary of agriculture from two thousand eight

to two thousand nine and so you know we we want to make sure that we keep the production capacity out there keep aig or culture in business so to speak so that we keep aig or culture and food security in the united states if you look at a parallel to the energy ah that we see today it all is getting better on the only we didn't take care of our energy industry and that sector of the economy in united states was pushed off shore and we became dependent on other countries for energy we do not want to become dependent on other countries for food that would be a bad idea and we need to have some kind of a a program that is an assurance an insurance program a disaster payment program something to keep farmers in business when they get pale about washed out diseased out through no fault of their own and we'd read just need to provide that security and strength for the agriculture

sector the economy in a country like senator mike johanns served as secretary of agriculture from two thousand five to two thousand eight it's interesting question especially happening here in our our share something with you one of the most forward leaning thinking people in the nine states senate on this issue comes from the state pat roberts back in the day when he was such error of the house ag committee but he was working this issue and his concept rowling has become the foundation for discussion now in basically i often refer to pad is as the father of the modern crop insurance program when i became secretary of agriculture i think corn prices were two bucks a bushel it was not a good system we

had that we had the counter cyclical program we had the marketing loan program we had the direct payments and quite honestly it was it was moving farmers away from a thoughtful view of how best to manage their operations and then there was a point in foreign policy history where we told you what planet the federal government literally dictated what you point can you possibly mention that these days i mean if i think it we tried to do that today we have offered rebellion enroll america so what we have now is a more risk management approach to agriculture and that's basically what we're saying we're saying last year when we have drought across the corn belt have a crop insurance program and that makes sense to people and we can sell that in tone that make sense of the former we can sell in town and the thing i like about it is

everybody has skin in the game the farmers pay in premiums and federal government participates in this and people understand natural disasters but there's a big debate going on because as you move south it's that soaring white speaking but they like their they like their direct payments they like their counter cyclical program they like their marketing loan program and so you get this constant knocking of heads between southern agriculture and midwest agriculture and many of you who have participated in national airport in the stations knows that this is the case we just got to keep working on this because we can't defend these programs i've been telling farmers nebraska for the last two three years direct payments are gone for ever get a farm bill done don't go to your bank or until the direct payments are going to be there because they're not

and i didn't get any pushback from nebraska farmers on that no one said while we still may direct payments nobody said that i really believe where we need to be as what was envisioned years ago in it literally came out of pat here in kansas he joined forces with a brass to senator bob kerrey and it became what is today the modern crop insurance program which is working very well very well for us and we just need to protect that program as we think about getting this farm bill done obviously one of the things thats driving the farm bill debate is the budget and we guess will launch through got off experience over shutting the government down and the debt ceiling debate why is why are seated them so dysfunctional and what can we do about it i get it was listed below grade statement at the other said they're one gets into the shower

and julio so many women in juarez it was the peak why's it so dysfunctional you know a hundred years ago mark twain said there was only one true criminal class in america and that's come again dan glickman some sense things happen changed all that much i do think it is probably worse today than it was before and i don't think there's one simple solution i think there's a twenty four hour media which is generally not objective in not reporting the news that the reporting up in the ideological perspectives on the right if you watch fox on the left if you watch msnbc and on the radio or for all of the above i think the amount of money in politics is is embarrassing that members

of congress spent fifty sixty seventy percent of their time raising money and don't have the time to do their jobs i think that that's a lot different than when i first came to the place in nineteen seventy seven and i suspect mike joins has some thoughts about that you know himself is well odd i think that a lot of times leadership doesn't act like leadership this post back to that people get very nervous about the safety of their races in you know i mean look i love the three eyed i lost nineteen ninety four you know a last i thought it was the most terrible thing that ever happened to me and it's turned out i had the best life that i could ever imagine my life you know it was it was at the end of the world so odd you know that this record i would've been secretary had a baby a baby that is it may you know i it's it's a i i think that the deep the

coal country is a bit less civil as well i mean you look at the content on television n n n n n the general media tips it's harsher than it used to be as well as of the public picks set up and you go to town hall meetings in its harsh people or nastier than they used to be i mean it's so i don't think there's i mean look i think most members of congress are honorable people want to do the right thing i think the system is says difficult i think there are some problems in the system as i said i think money the excess of money money is the mob as sam rayburn wanted money is the mother's milk of politics but it's become the cottage cheese and the yogurt and that and then cream pie and everything in between you know it's so odd yeah we i mean i it's it's something that i do but we're all in this together we gonna have a country that works well i think it was my career and the talked about what the rest of the world looks at last one week when we shut down our government when we don't pay our bills i mean where the strongest country

in the world we don't act like that in america now that doesn't mean that we don't have problems and we we do have a terrible deficit that has to be dealt with but we are we gonna act like the two are responsible people who are fiduciaries of the public and if we don't act that way we're going to become a second rate power and i don't see that happen and females does mike you're the la land that when most public matters of the moment fi i will offer a couple of the brutally honest assessments here if i were a kansas resident and i've been in this place in my home state of nebraska and i wanted to be here mayor of manhattan nor kansas city or whatever or i wanted to be your governor and i ran on a platform and i said and ladies and gentlemen i want to assure you that if i do not get my way i will shut the

government down think about that what would the impact of an case they'd be what would be the impact on your schools that get a major portion of their funding and i could go on and on and you know i've been in that position he say i never thought i had that option i think that is unbelievable now there are certain things that have happened in the last five years that break my heart but part of the ownership has to be on the on the country too i just think at the end of the day you got to fight wisely and strategically and in the best interests of the country that would be number one the second thing i would offer is this you know as i was looking across those young people today those beautiful kids at race in the state that as i said remind me so much of the kids back to nebraska no they drop on ranches and farms and they get great values conservative by

nature they been raised that way as i hope in that room we have school board members i hope we have members of the trustees of your local church i don't wear somebody is a future united states and there may be there somebody in there it'll be the next pres the united states but boy if we just if we continue to destroy our belief in our ability to govern ourselves than it ever gonna get those young people to do these jobs and i think that would be a tragic loss for our future gun battle a public service and i'm going to to continue to believe like the first day i ran for office that this is a profession that has great merit in cannes tremendously improve the lives of the way of its citizens but ladies and gentlemen it's got to work i mean

flirting with your in your full faith and credit please i mean i don't like to seventeen trillion dollars for the dead man enough i ever get an hour we're going to fix a hat because you know our benefits it for inadvertent a touchy about entitlements my soul security and medicare which i'm just a couple of years away from that's where the spending set you know why we don't talk about their minds as a surefire way to get un elected and we want to talk about given up their their benefits but quite honestly that's where you get a chart we can emerge a steak til the cows come home we can cut research we can cut all of these discretionary spending programs and there isn't enough there to make any difference but thats what were doing year after year after year and repay in a very heavy price for it let's get real and honest and have a adult conversation a very honest conversation about where the spending is that in its i tell people

back home in nebraska i'm your problem and they go you know we voted for you know an actor but i am i'm a baby boomer and smack dab in the middle in all these years some he's been saying you're going to get medicare and so security and if you're poor you're gonna get medicaid that's very costly and you know one final thing i'll say about this i could really get ramped up on this i am two years away from medicare why in the world should my kids were struggling to make their house payments provide day care for their two children why should they became for my medical care does that make any sense to a single person in this room and that the wealthiest person in the senate but i can sure sector for my medical care and if i'm going to pay it first as mikael ok and that this is not a close call just tell me what i gotta do just be honest and i think thats

the camera conversation this nation needs more of and we need a whole lot less of a let me and i'll shut down your government because we will pay a heavy price for that that is dangerous and it's dangerous if i don't get my way i'm gonna shut down or government and jeopardize are full faith in credit i don't like that message and i am as conservative and as republican as the next person we owe you better than that if that's the best we can come up with that's not very good we all you better than that as events it's a distance that's senator mike held hands of nebraska one of six former secretaries of agriculture that's ok kansas state university is landon lecture series on october twenty first two thousand thirteen we also heard from dan glickman john block mike espy ed schafer end and then a man this event was moderated by our very flintoff professor of agricultural economics at kansas state i'm j mak entire kbr

present some production of kansas public radio at the university of kansas