People drive the agricultural industry.  AgriCULTURE is built on culture.  Every year the Farm Progress Show provides a forum for learning about the newest and best technology in production agriculture – mostly crop production.  But my experience is that it is the people that make the show successful.

I enjoyed the passion and commitment from the company representatives, who even after 3 days were still excited to tell farmers and show participants how the newest and latest innovation was going to enhance their farm production systems.  I had the most fun, 1) running into colleagues, and 2) comparing notes with the farmer support groups: University of Illinois Extension, Illinois Farm Bureau, Illinois Corn Growers, and Illinois Soybean Association.  These folks were simply excited about information that would enhance production.  These farm support groups are racing to serve farmers.

I attended my first Farm Progress Show in 1980 as a senior in agronomy at University of Missouri.  The show that year was in Nevada, Iowa.  Fellow ag students and I drove up to the show leaving early from Columbia and came back late that night.  Reflecting on that experience now, 45 years later, I remember the private planes that landed in the field one right after the other all morning.  And then in the afternoon, the reverse happened as planes took off one right after the other all afternoon.

‘Good people in agriculture’ has been a theme all summer long for me.  This reflection began with my June road trip to a friend and ag policy colleague’s wedding in Minnesota.  Along the way I got to visit career-long acquaintances including friends with whom I was in the Peace Corps in Nepal in the early 80s in Iowa and Minnesota.  In Missouri on that trip, I caught up with my best friend from my BS degree in agronomy in the 70s.  Everyone I visited on that trip had wildly differing views of what was the best way to help farmers and consumers.  But each of these friends have devoted their life to making their visions bear fruit (or soybeans, or dairy).

My July road trip was to my ag economic association annual meeting, my nerd fest, in Denver, Colorado.  My favorite part of that group is that even though I am very unique (a.k.a. weird) in my ag economics professional career, they still include me as an authentic ag economist.  I am grateful to have people.  Ag economists are disciplined in applying math and statistics to real life situations.  We take known facts and truths and model outcomes for which not all the necessary historical data is accessible or exists.  We use what is known to fill in the knowledge gaps about what is unknown.  Which is a pretty cool skill.

Since each model is based on the starting point, assumptions, and the functional form of the math employed, we generally get different answers.  Getting the same answer is not our goal although the analyses are replicable. As a discipline, we agree on the underlying principles.  Getting different answers in different situations is ok, just don’t cross the boundaries on the principles.  Our common thread is using established economic foundations to find frontier and emerging truths.

I have not written about every trip.  There was an AgTech Innovation Showcase I attended hosted by the Illinois Farm Bureau at the University of Illinois.  This community was unique in their entrepreneurial exhilaration about taking traditional farming practices to new levels with their sea-changing technologies.  And there is the local support at county fairs.  I did write about the local county fair as a secret life of rural communities.  Successful agribusiness and farming families showering the next generation of budding livestock caregivers with high bids on livestock projects.

Each of these agriculturally-oriented communities are all authentically agriculture, but have different missions: political and international ag (MN), academic ag economics (CO), emerging technologies (ILFB/U of I), county fair (supporting new blood), and crop farmer production support (Farm Progress Show).  They all work toward a better world tomorrow because the players of each group understand their community.  Everyone works together to make each component the most efficient.  Sometimes that means raising tough questions and holding each other accountable.  Because of decades and centuries of mutual trust, we can look at emerging issues and find a pathway.  Sometimes finding a common pathway takes decades.

Investing first in farming as a young man, then as farmer-support the last 35 years, has been a great choice for me.  It hasn’t always been easy, but it has been completely rewarding in the long run.  Folks outside of the agricultural community don’t always understand these industries.  But ag industry folks across many disciplines have a basic understanding of the mission and motivation.

Agricultural practitioners share a common heritage of strong values and are highly adaptable.  That is a paradox – holding on to the past and racing into the future – but the players in agriculture are able to do both.  This was clearly evident in Decatur, Illinois the last week of August 2025, as tradition met innovation at the Farm Progress Show.  The glue that made it all work was the people.