Closing Remarks 



Ted Schwinden 

 Governor of Montana 



Thank you, Dick, and I want to especially thank the 

 panelists who I think have given us this morning an 

 opportunity to explore not only food in the West, but 

 agriculture in terms of the entire world. In closing, 

 what I'd like to do is to try to bring back the perspec- 

 tive of the original theme which is the West and the 

 role that we have as governors 



Dick Lamm started out by saying that agriculture is 

 the glue that holds the West together. If that's the 

 case, then I believe the question that Dr. Borlaug 

 asked earlier in terms of a louder voice on behalf of 

 Western agriculture is something that clearly is 

 needed. But we're expected to do that in terms of a 

 declining farm population. Obviously, a lesser political 

 voice and perhaps most dangerously of all, another 

 point that Vic Atiyeh mentioned this morning was the 

 fact of the 55 years of age and the impact that this 

 can have on agriculture in the future I think the other 

 side of that question is really more important That's 

 that we now have generations of Americans who are 

 below 55 who have never had a rural experience 

 The Jeffersonian Idealism is tough to implant on Wall 

 Street or in Los Angeles. We have a population, at 

 least in this country today, which overwhelmingly views 

 agriculture I suppose somewhere between "Little 

 House on the Prairie" and "Dallas." Given that, I 

 think we have some real problems down the road. 



There is an excellent paper that was prepared for 

 our conference by Mr. Ehrenreich from Idaho, and I 

 suggest that the Western governors use that to ask 

 ourselves the question: if indeed ag is the glue of the 

 West, then perhaps it is time to elevate it to an area 

 of concern and sensitivity. Here in the 1970s we have 



concentrated on energy and its implications because 

 of not only our region, but the world. Clearly, as Mr. 

 Ehrenreich pointed out, the West must begin to act in 

 concert as a region on both agricultural and other nat- 

 ural resource issues. 



I think it's a challenge that we began discussing this 

 in depth today with the participation of Dr Borlaug, 

 Dick Bressler, Dr Castle, Governors, and the people 

 here this morning. I think we've got an indication of 

 the challenge ahead. If we're going to continue to 

 maintain agriculture as a key element, not only in the 

 West but in terms of feeding those additional, I sup- 

 pose it's up another 2,000 by now, people, hungry 

 people around the world Thank you. .v 



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