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After a lunch discussion with students in the KDU, Steve reported to the Reynolds building, grabbed a piece of chalk and created the following matrix under the heading "Ag in the Real World":
-Scale: Big versus Small
-Crop: Organic versus Conventional
-Economics: Career versus Capital
-Technology: Genetically Engineered versus Genetically Modified Organisms
This was the starting point for the lively discussion that ensued. There was much weighing of benefits and consequences among these headings. If you get too far out on the organic limb, can you still turn a profit and stay in business? Is it bad to waste fewer crops by introducing a fish gene into a tomato species to keep it from freezing? How would the landscape and communities change if small farms all went out of business? Is hybrid corn a genetically modified organism? And so on. It was a lot of fun and we have Ellen Merrill in the development office to thank for inviting Steve. They worked together when Steve was CEO of the Holstein Association. Steve's parting advice to the class was, "If you're going to have an opinion, make sure it's an informed opinion. You'll get farther with information than you ever will with yelling, bullying or slandering the opposition."
