AGRICULTURE: TRENDS, TOPICS & TOMORROW
By Steve Trusty
Te title might not be the most compelling you’ve seen, but the hour was certainly captivating and provocative. Te time was 8:30 a.m. on July 20 in the Merchant Amphitheatre at Te Heldrich Hotel in New Brunswick, NJ. Te occasion was the Keynote presentation for the TPI 2017 Summer Program.
TPI President Jimmy Fox started the session by thanking Immediate Past-President Linda Bradley for the idea of this Summer Meeting. He said that Linda and Michelle Williams had proposed meeting at Rutgers in conjunction with the ITRC and pushed all the right buttons to make it happen. Jimmy thanked all the meeting sponsors (see page 21) for their support in making the meeting possible and affordable. He then introduced the meeting’s keynote speaker, Damian Mason. What followed was 55 minutes of a combination of insight, challenges and stand-up comedy.
Damian Mason provided a provocative and entertaining presentation for the keynote address at the TPI 2017 Summer Program.
Damian’s life on stage began in 1994 when he won a Halloween contest dressed as Bill Clinton. It didn’t take long for him to decide he should launch a new career. He resigned his post as a sales executive with Cooper Industries (now part of Eaton Corporation) and launched his company, Executive Entertainment. Damian was raised on a dairy farm, has a degree from Purdue University in Agricultural Economics, and currently owns and manages a farm in northwest Indiana.
After a few biting, but friendly, comedic jabs at Jimmy, Damian stated that he was an “agriculturist—fancy word for a farm boy that keeps up with ag issues.” He continued, “I’ve been called a shill for food production, and a mouth for Monsanto.” He stated that he had spoken at a TPI event once before, 2011. For this audience he was going to talk about the four “F”s of agriculture: Farming, Food, Feelings and Future. He said, “I may not know much about growing grass—I know a lot about agriculture.” He said, “Agriculture is the world’s most important industry and the foundation of societal advancement. In Africa 70 percent of the population is involved in agriculture. In the U.S. 7 percent are peripherally involved, only 1 percent actively involved.”
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Damian reported there are 2.3 million farms in the U.S. to feed 323.1 million people. It is important to understand that, “My 8 acres of alfalfa and 10 steers put me in the top 50 percent of U.S. farms. Te bottom half sell less than $10,000 worth of agricultural products in a year.” He went on to say, “Te people that don’t like chemicals and march against Monsanto and corporate farming don’t understand our need for food. Without industrial agriculture, we’ve got nothing.” He also took a jab at those that ridicule the pork industry, “Tey complain about ‘factory farms’— ‘they corral the pigs and push them together’—have they ever been to Disney World?”
Damien pointed out that most people just a few generations ago grew up in the ag industry. Now most people are far removed from it. Te reduced number of people in agriculture have to produce more. Another problem sod producers face is recognition. While some people still recognize the importance of food crops, grass is of much less concern.
He went on to say, “Tis business—any business—is never about us. It’s about our customer, that’s who we work for. It’s a myth that you work for yourself. Tere is no such thing as being self-employed. Every dollar you are going to make for the rest of your life is in the pockets of other people.” He continued, “Without a buyer we have no product. We also must understand that it is not just the
TPI Turf News September/October 2017
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