(female announcer)
Production funding
for Behind the Headlines
is made possible in part by..
(male announcer)
The Bartlett Area
Chamber of Commerce
and its member A2H - engineers,
architects and planners creating
an enhanced quality of life
for our clients and community.
To learn more about
A2H's services and markets,
visit A2H.com.
- The economic impact
of the Agricenter tonight
on Behind the Headlines.
[theme music]
I'm Eric Barnes, publisher of
the Memphis Daily News.
Thanks for joining us.
I'm joined
tonight by John Butler,
the new president of the
Agricenter International.
Thanks for being here.
- Thanks for having me.
(Eric)
Along with Bill Dries,
senior reporter
with The Memphis Daily News.
So, you have just taken the job.
You've been on the board I
think you told me for some time.
But just talk about your goals
and we'll dig into what the
Agricenter does,
where it's been,
where it's going.
But as the new
president, what are your goals?
- You bet.
I'd first like to tell you a
little bit about my background.
Originally I'm from a fifth
generation family farmer from
Dyer County and always had a
passion for ag literacy and the
things that kind of encompass
our goal and our mission
statement there as somebody's
involved with the ag culture on
a daily basis.
When I kind of looked at
this job in the very beginning,
I loved the mission statement of
trying to improve the quality of
life of the citizens of
Shelby County through economic
development, ag
research, ag production,
and natural soils and
conservation efforts.
When you look at what Agricenter
does on just a daily basis,
it's really a hidden jewel for
the community and certaily for
economic development.
- Yeah, I didn't realize until I
was getting ready to do the show
and we're written about the
Agricenter and I've been there
and all that but you guys
had a study done a year ago,
$524 million impact.
I mean, the number of jobs, the
kind of range of what's going on
there was really
striking to me actually.
- Absolutely.
When you look at not only
what we do individually but also
collectively in our relationship
to all the tenants on our
property.
You look at Bayer, Helena, Case.
We're one of the two locations
that Case does all their
training program.
- Case being the tractor and
heavy equipment and so on.
- Absolutely.
Case is currently owned by Fiat.
But they're a major player in
ag equipment manufacturing.
And they have one of their
two training facilities here in
Memphis,
Tennessee at Agricenter.
So, we're super happy to
have that partnership.
When you look at the
overall economic development,
as you said, it's
$524 million annually.
It's over 2500 jobs directly and
indirectly and over $4.7 million
of tax revenue that's
generated off our events there.
- I'll bring Bill in a second.
You talk about Case, you know,
big corporate international
company.
Bayer, the pharmaceutical and
fertilizer and so on and so
forth kind of company.
But also, you guys do a lot of
work with small scale things.
You have, what,
one of the oldest,
if not the oldest, farmer's
market in Shelby County I think.
And a lot of working..
You have a master
gardener program through UT.
I mean, right?
So, talk some about the small
scale more individualized kind
of things you do as well.
- Sure.
Well, you mentioned
our farmer's market.
We're very proud to have one of
the oldest continuous farmer's
market in West Tennessee.
I don't know, Bill, if you've
been out there or not
but it's really amazing.
A lot of wide variety of
fruits and vegetables.
It's open six days a week,
which is kind of unusual for a
farmer's market.
A lot of times they
just open on the weekend.
We're open six days a week.
And you can find just hundreds
of people come there for fresh
fruits and also
for seafood as well.
So, we're really glad to
have them there as a partner.
- Bill?
- And you talked about your
family's farming experience.
And I think that so often we
talk about regionalism as a new
concept in business.
Actually, it's been around
since there's been a Memphis and
probably before
that in that regard.
And a lot of people
don't understand that, I think.
I mean, Memphis has
always been a cotton center.
For instance, we were
where the cotton came from.
But it was grown all around us
and in Shelby County as well.
So, talk a little bit about how
this demonstrates kind of the
reach of agriculture.
The agriculture is a big
business here but it's also a
family business
in a lot of ways, as well.
- It is, it is.
If I could just for a minute,
I'm sure most of your viewers
understand how important the
Delta and the Mid-South region
is to that ag ecosystem.
But we're really positioned
amazingly where some of the best
soils in the nation are at.
So, from the Delta or
the Mid-South region,
you can almost grow
anything here from peanuts,
to rice, to soy
beans, to cotton.
You can even look at some of the
new crops that are coming out.
It's really amazing, the
diversity of our ecosystem and
the things we're
able to do here.
So, when you look at having an
ag research station here in the
Delta, it's really a great
compliment to the community.
And then when you look at all
the other players that are here
from an ag
investment standpoint,
you have the Cargills.
You have ADM.
You have Bayer and Helena
obviously at our campus.
You have Case.
You have John Deere.
You have several of the major
companies that position not only
in the region nationally but
also worldwide right here in the
Mid-South area.
So, it's a natural kind of
a melting pot from an ag
standpoint.
- So, for a farmer, what is the
technology like in this business
these days.
You have precision agriculture.
You have..
You have a lot of technology and
you have a lot of changes over a
pretty short period of time.
- Yeah, it's pretty amazing
when you sit down and talk.
Like my father, he grew up on
our family farm and he actually
picked cotton by hand.
I'm the first generation of our
family that didn't have to do a
lot of that manual labor.
So, luckily for me, I got the
chance to sit in some pretty
nice tractors and kind of
transition a little bit of an
easier lifestyle I guess.
It's still long hours.
It's still very dedicated.
But when you look at
how technology has really
revolutionized the ag industry
over the last 20 to 30 years,
it's pretty amazing.
We've got, you know, pivots that
basically bring water to our
crop also with
fertilizer and other nutrients.
We've got GPS tracking that
helps as we spray our chemicals
on our corps to make sure we
do a very efficient job of not
overlapping or
anything and utilizing that.
- And all that is
available to small farmers, too.
- Absolutely.
I'm actually a small farmer.
Our family business is not
that large when you look at it.
We're proud of what
we've accomplished
over the last several years.
But still, we farm just
a few thousand acres.
And we're not, you know..
A lot of people say, well,
you farm thousands of acres,
you're a corporate
farmer, whatever.
But, you know, if you
talk to my father or,
you know, my grandfather was
still alive, or..
I turned the business over to my
sons when I left to come up here
to Agricenter.
So, we're truly a
family business.
And we've been around
the community for a long,
long time and we're
certainly proud of our heritage.
- How does all that..
When you talk about the
technology and intersect with
just as a consumer.
So, I'm not a farmer.
I've been on farms.
But I'm not a farmer obviously.
But all this organic
food, the farm-to-table,
the locally sourced food,
how does that kind of..
What sounds like really
sophisticated and very expensive
technology, how does that jive
with this idea of locally grown
tomatoes and locally sourced
cattle and so on and so forth?
- Well, as a
producer, I love that story.
I really think that's, from
an agriculture perspective,
that's how we make
the next transition.
We've always
preached ag literacy.
You know, the knowledge of
knowing where your food and
fiber comes from.
But the concept of all
this local movement,
especially here in Memphis.
I mean, this is a
great food town.
We're known for our
BBQ and our blues.
But my goodness, it's got
such a great story past that.
But when you look at trying to
understand and really kind of
bring those folks into
what we call our ag pitcher,
it's really a great, great
what I call the perfect storm.
Because all this interest is
just coming up over the last
couple of years.
And people are very interested
in where their food
and fiber comes from.
That's why we have such a great
interest in our farmer's market.
And you'll notice it's not
just there at Agricenter.
There's farmer's markets all
over the community that are
extremely successful.
- How does all that and..
So, you do a whole lot of
education programs with kids,
high school kids.
Talk about those
education programs and again,
excuse me, ag literacy.
What do you do with the kids?
- You bet.
Well, we have a great
partnership with the University
of Tennessee Extension.
And we also work very
closely with a lot of youth
organizations like
4-H for example.
And we have our educator on
staff basically deals with
somewhere between four and
five-thousand kids every year.
About 85 different schools from
around the community come in.
We actually have
bussing scholarships.
They're not out anything.
So, there's no excuse for a
teacher or a principal or a
superintendent not to have their
kids at our campus this year
at Agricenter International.
- And I'll go to
Bill in a second but,
you know, there's such this
focus on childhood obesity
and adult obesity.
I mean, it's not
a Memphis thing.
It is a national problem.
And it gets back to food
and education on that.
Is that part of the education
program with the kids is
nutrition and so on?
It is?
- Yes.
When you look at some of the
social challenges we have here,
it's not just the Mid-South
region but certainly we have
to be aware of.
We more or less lead the nation
in some of those issues that are
extremely
concerning and alarming.
I think part of the local food
movement is as we transition our
self to where that food
and fiber comes from,
we understand that maybe
the health associated
with that as well.
And hopefully as it works down
from adults to youth then it's
just that natural
transition happens.
Well, yeah.
Sure, maybe I'll grab the banana
instead of the bag of chips.
- So, how much of the research
that's underway at Agricenter
deals with this whole question
and even a controversy in some
discussions about agriculture as
an energy source versus a food
source, particularly with corn.
- You bet.
Well, first off,
all of our research..
We have over 11,000 replicated
plots this year dedicated just
to ag research and how that
involves not only technology but
plant physiology and also as
it relates to our environment.
We're very in tuned, those of us
that are involved in ag issues,
about how the general
consumer views what we're doing.
So, we're certainly aware
that there's a disconnect.
And that disconnect
has not happened
over the last five years.
That disconnect
has come around as,
for instance, more and more
people have been disassociated
from the farm.
So, most folks are five to
four generations removed from
actually farming
the land themselves.
So, it's a different technology,
a different phrasing.
You know, for instance, I can
talk about some of the things
I'm very used to but maybe it's
different for you and you've
never heard of those words.
The point is we have to have a
relationship and a conversation
with people that are based
on the health of the products
we're producing.
We're not only producing it
for you and your family but
producing it for
our family, as well.
Now when you look at the food
versus fuel issue basically as
it involves corn
and corn ethanol,
it's a very centric argument
that I think came about because
people were trying to find
how they can divide or create a
difference within
the ag community.
And I've always
related it to this.
It's very simple.
It's an issue of
national security.
Would you rather have
your fuel, you know,
grown and pumped out of the
ground in a petroleum product
and shipped over here
or rather have it raised
by your own neighbors?
And I love the fact that we're
raising corn that's going into
the ethanol industry.
And also, soy
beans in bio diesel.
I think those are great wins for
us basically from a standpoint
of national security, from
a standpoint of being more
environmentally
friendly to the environment.
We have less greenhouse gases
related to biofuels as opposed
to petroleum based products.
I think it's a huge win for us.
- Are biofuels stabilizing?
Because not too many years ago,
we saw a cycle where when gas
prices went up, biofuel
enterprises did very well.
When the prices
dropped, they didn't so well.
- Sure.
When you look at
the cost of, like,
raw oil, I think it's about
$42 a barrel or $42 a barrel
right now.
I mean, obviously
that's created a crunch
to the ethanol industry.
But in all
industries, it's cyclical.
And so, you have to be able to
kind of live with the downturns
as well as the upturns.
I mean, you look at the
margins in the ethanol industry,
you know, they're making it.
It's tough on them
but they're making it.
When you look at how we relate
from the industry perspective to
the national, like the RFS,
which is the standard the EPA
issues to meet
with the blend wall,
we've been able to meet that as
an industry and we're certainly
proud that, you know,
from our standpoint,
we've been able to do it.
From an economic standpoint,
it's not been that beneficial
the last two or three years.
Obviously a lot of
us that, you know,
drive cars and trucks love the
fact that gas is cheaper than
what it was, you
know, three years ago.
So, that's
certainly a benefit for us.
- You talk about energy
and energy independence.
You've got a solar farm, not a
huge one but a sizeable solar
farm out there that went
in in the last year or two.
How long has it been?
- I think it's about
four or five years ago.
- I have no sense of time.
What's the importance
of that or what's it do?
Is that
electricity you use on site?
How is it used?
- No.
Well, actually that
electricity is generated
and hits the TVA grid.
It's a whole different form of
adaptation of the solar energy
itself trying to use it on site.
So, for us, it's better
for us to hit the grid.
We're right there about a
hundred yards from where we can
hit the grid.
It makes really great
sense for us to hit the grid.
But it makes us energy neutral.
And that's the point that
we like to tell is that.
And I want to say
something else.
The man that's just
retired, John Charles Wilson,
basically put a lot of these
programs I'm here talking about.
You know, I'm talking about them
but he actually did all the work
to make it happen.
So, I want to make sure we
acknowledge all the hard work
and effort he's done.
- You talked about
greenhouse gases.
Do you always
study climate change,
droughts around the
country and so on?
I mean, this sort of change in
climate and the impact that has
on agriculture, does that play
into your research into what
you're doing at the Agricenter?
- You know, a lot of our
research is based on how the
crops deal with, you
know, moisture issues,
drought tolerance.
Here in the
Southeast, we have, you know,
extreme conditions with not
only the heat but also lack of
moisture, especially during
the July - August timeframe.
You know, last week we
had heat indexes over
over 110 and 115.
So, that certainly has an effect
not only on the crop but also
the animals that are in farmers'
care all over the Delta region.
So, yes, we look at that.
More I think to the
point, we look at more..
As far as climate change, we
look at some of the macro issues
like where there's El Nino and
how those affect not only the
Mid-South but also the Mid-West.
- Bill?
- In working with
farmers on yield,
is the goal always the maximum
yield or is the goal a more
strategic kind of yield?
- That's a great question.
Actually, I'm not sure if
I know the answer to it.
But I can tell
you as a producer,
it's all about, you
know, producing volume.
But it has to be done at a
managed level not only from an
input standpoint
but from a resource,
you know, an
accountability standpoint.
So, for instance, it
can't just be about yield.
It has to be
about how it relates
to the local environment.
For instance, one of the things
I just went to yesterday was the
Milan No Till Day.
It's no 29th year of the Milan
No Till Day which basically
revolutionized agriculture
production here
in the Mid-South region.
- Explain that a little more.
- Back in my father's
day and grandfather's day,
we were tilling the
land up significantly.
And so, we had over 20 tons of
acre erosion annually in some of
our really silt soils
here in West Tennessee.
- Erosion, just
to the layman, me,
that just means you're tilling
it up and then there's maybe a
rain or there's wind.
So much of that good,
valuable soil goes away
and it's very inefficient.
- It takes years,
and years, and years,
almost a generation to
build that soil back.
So, over the last 15, 20 years,
we've identified that from a
practical standpoint, if we
basically change what we had
thought was the way
to do things and went
to no more till practices.
So, we don't till
the soil up at all.
We basically go in and we'll
spray it and we just no till it.
- Is the industry..
I mean, farmers
of various sizes..
I mean, are they open
to all this change?
Because there's a
stereotype of..
Maybe it's just my stereotype.
Of farmers being maybe
resistant to change somehow,
that being a kind of old school
industry that doesn't involve a
lot of innovation.
But you're describing an
entirely different world.
- Farmers lead the
innovation, I think,
across the country.
Most of us have either BS or
advanced degrees in some type of
science or animal
degrees and we have..
We're basically
inner science nerds, you know.
So, we're all about trying to
figure out how to do it better.
And it involves not
only technology but also,
different practices.
No till is one of those.
No till has been
around for 20 or 30 years.
It's not
necessarily a new revolution.
But some of the things we're
doing with it as far as cover
crops is new.
That's about a five to
seven year transition.
We're using cover crops to
basically control weeds.
(Eric)
What's a cover crop?
- We'll plant weeds in the
late fall or early spring,
like rye, clover, like
legumes that help fix nitrogen.
And all those things are done
through the plants themselves as
opposed to us having to apply
chemicals or other pesticides
and also man-made
petroleum fertilizers.
So, it's done naturally.
- So, what are the immediate
goals on the horizon for
Agricenter?
- That's a great question.
As we look at the
local food movement,
we've got a great interest
in trying to move into more
of organic research.
We really think it's
a great opportunity.
And not that I'm here to
say organic is the answer.
I think organic is a component
of what we do in agriculture.
Obviously I'm a
traditional farmer.
So, I have GMO crops.
I have traditional crops.
I just think organic, especially
here in the Mid-South region,
is something that we
want to kind of look at.
We think as it works
into our research farm,
it would be really neat to have
side by side comparisons of how
organics actually
compare to traditional crops.
So, we think it's
really interesting
from a research perspective.
- So, what is
Agricenter's relationship
with Shelby Farms Park?
There's a whole lot of change
going on on the other side of
Walnut Grove as
well as your side.
- First off, what they're doing
over there at the Conservancy
is really amazing.
I don't know if you've been over
there lately but it looks just
absolutely fantastic.
And I'm excited
to be a neighbor.
When you look at the very
origin of how we came about,
we being Agricenter
International and Shelby Farms
Park Conservancy, we both
came from Shelby Farms.
So, when you look at that
property as it existed back in
the '60s and '70s, it basically
was a very cutting edge,
you know, penal system
that was self-sufficient.
They had their own dairy.
They had their own,
you know, ag production,
their own beef cattle herd.
And then it has a lot of
soil practices that were very
interesting as far as grass
waterways and things like that.
And actually, I don't know if
you know this or not but our
very own county
mayor, Mark Luttrell,
his father was the
superintendent of Shelby Farms
at one time.
So, it's kind of a very unique
connection between Shelby Farms
and..
- And Agricenter
was founded when?
- Eighty-three.
So, the story I tell..
Now you may want to talk.
We still have some of those
gentlemen laying around here.
They can tell the truth.
The story I tell myself and I
think it sounds funny is that
they were probably in a
room, smoking a few cigars,
maybe taking a glass of bourbon
trying to figure out what do we
do with a thousand acres on
the other side of the road.
Hey, let's make it..
We're here in the Delta.
Let's make it about agriculture.
So, you know,
that's about '83, '84.
I think the
groundbreaking was '85.
And it's, you know, you
kind of laugh about it.
But those founding members of
Agricenter International really
did this all in great favor.
When you look at what you're
trying to do from ag research
and ag literacy, I think the
country and the nation and the
region is kind of looking to us
to kind of lead as an example.
- And Agricenter, for
people who don't know,
and I was a little confused
about this before prepping
for the show.
Agricenter is an
independent body, a 501-c3.
Is that correct?
But the land is still
owned by the country.
Funding comes from where?
- We're
self-sufficient actually.
So, we pay our own way.
- Through renting the space?
- Through the
operations of our business.
So, we have..
We rent space out.
We have an event center.
We have the Showplace Arena that
we also run equestrian events.
We've mentioned
the Farmer's Market.
We haven't
mentioned the RV park.
We have an RV park that is an
extremely successful business
entity for us.
We do a lot of ag
research for basically for hire.
So, that's an
income train for us, as well.
- And the agritourism is a
term that you guys use
on your website.
What does that mean?
- Well, it's how you kind of
engage the local community with
what's going on in agriculture.
So, how we do it is
through a tenant of ours
that runs a corn maze.
I consider agritourism
as Jones Orchard has
a You-Pick Strawberry.
I consider that
basically agritourism.
The strawberries are amazing.
Don't get me wrong.
But it's really interesting
to watch people interact with,
you know, something like that.
- And that's the
fundamental mission then?
So, you've got to
be self-sufficient.
But you're not just
there to make money.
You are a non-profit.
- You bet.
And so, when you look at
our mission statement,
I think it's real important
that we emphasize we're about ag
education and trying to
bridge that gap between people
understand where their
food and fiber comes from.
- Just three minutes left.
- And you've also got an
audience for this with what is
happening at the park.
Because on the western end of
your side of Walnut Grove Road,
a lot of people are
crossing there at Farm Road.
So, they see
what's going on there.
I mean, I bike ride through the
park as well as to see what's
going on at Agricenter.
- Yeah and we've
just got, you know,
super happy to have a chance
to try to do some extension and
completion of our
greenline on our facility.
Also, we have
Wolf River right there
to the extreme south of us.
It borders us, as well.
So, we have a lot of tourism.
On our facility, we're actually
1.4 million people
to our campus annually.
So, we're like the third
largest tourist attraction
in Shelby County.
So, we're really happy with
what's going on around us.
We think that we're a really
great jewel and certainly a
complement to Shelby
County, and to the region,
and to the Greater Memphis area.
- Some of the other
tenants that are out there
that people are familiar with.
Ducks Unlimited is
obviously a big one.
But there's things
like the raptors.
Talk about that.
It's a small..
Talk about that for a second.
- Anywhere in the
Mid-South region,
if there's a bird of prey
that's injured or needs help,
they call the Raptor Center and
they go get them or TWRA takes
it to them.
And they basically try to bring
those birds back to health.
So, it's a really great story.
I know they could use..
They're a 501-3c and they
could use additional funding,
as well.
So, if any of your
audience members would love to
participate in
the Raptor Center,
I'm sure they
would appreciate it.
We also have partnership with
the Memphis Zoo in trying to
raise the bamboo
for their pandas.
That's a great story, as well.
- As somebody who
lives in Midtown,
bamboo in my back yard.
They don't want mine.
But they do want yours.
And you all were partnered
in the AgLaunch Accelerator.
- You bet.
- There's a huge..
We has Leslie Smith.
She's one of the
people from EPIcenter,
the start-up community, on.
And it's growing and growing.
Bioworks is involved.
But talk about your role and it
gets back to this innovation,
technology, and the
business and so on.
What the AgLaunch
Accelerator involves.
- Well, first
off, I can just say,
you know, Memphis Bioworks,
what they're doing there is
absolutely incredible.
We're just a partner with
them on a lot of their programs.
And we're just trying to
help them as much as we can.
When you look at the future of
what Agricenter holds for the
region, we think
it's an incubator,
it's an opportunity to have
start-up businesses there.
An R and D campus
maybe, you know,
probably as we
look into the future.
- At Agricenter?
- Absolutely at Agricenter.
We think we have the chance,
the way we're positioned in the
Delta here in the
Mid-South region,
specifically
focused on ag generation,
ag business, we think we have
the chance to kind of be that
nucleus of where
does it start at.
It starts at Agricenter here in
the Mid-South region in Memphis.
- How many people?
I'm going to put you on the spot
with a couple of seconds left.
How many people are employed in
the Mid-South in ag business?
Do you have any sense of that?
- You know, I don't
know in the Mid-South.
I can tell you in the
state of Tennessee,
the ag economy is about
$63 billion in the state
of Tennessee.
- Alright.
Well, that is all
the time we have.
Thanks for being here.
It was great to meet you.
Thank you for joining us.
Join us again next week.
[theme music]
(male announcer)
Production funding for
Behind the Headlines
is made
possible in part by..
The Bartlett Area Chamber of
Commerce and its member A2H -
engineers, architects and
planners creating an enhanced
quality of life for our
clients and community.
To learn more about
A2H's services and markets,
visit A2H.com.