In 30-some years of farm broadcasting, you get a lot of chances to be a lot of places and meet a lot of people . . . . I just want to say to all of you, I never, ever have seen a more dedicated group to the task at hand. I was visiting with someone this morning and we were talking about the fact that there is nobody here whose livelihood lies on what’s at stake. We are all here because of several . . . (inaudible). How many of us are former 4-H members? Let me see your hands. Look at this. How many of us are former FFA members? Let’s see your hands. How many of us have shown livestock at a county fair or state fair? All right, there we are! We have so much in common, we really do. And I say the time is now.

Let me take you back . . . Jack Crowner referred yesterday, his was the '40s when he was showing, and mine was the '50s when I was showing at the Fairfield County Fair at Lancaster, both as a 4-H member and an FFA member. I had the honor of being a state FFA officer back in Ohio. I get the question: How did you get in radio and television? Well if it hadn’t been for nine years of 4-H, and the advice of my advisors and that 4-H agent who said, "Hey, Ed, you really do need to go on to the ag college at Ohio State." The ones who are always urging people on and that’s what you people do. You create the atmosphere and encourage, and that’s what life’s all about. Yes sir, this is where we were learning by doing, and that’s still happening in FFA. And we still have the same motto in 4-H: "To make the best better." That’s what Colien Hefferan was talking about, that’s the challenge she’s leaving with us, that’s what Max Fisher was saying to us — We’ve got to go out of here and simply make the best better.

Back when we were doing our showing, you never heard of any shenanigans going on . . . No cheating - 4-H or FFA. Where we were taught goals, the value of sportsmanship, leadership, honesty — we could go on and on. What triggered it? I went down through it . . . I made notes this morning and I swear to gosh, I never . . . I’ve been to these kinds of sessions, and I never saw so many sheets up on the wall in all my life! And I got down there in that one area where Fred Dailey was, on Enforcement — boy, if you think it didn’t get good in your work group, you should have been in the Enforcement group. One thing that surfaced there, and it kept surfacing - "zero tolerance" - and I like that. And somebody else said if it’s gray, it’s bad — I like that. These are some of the things I’m going to be talking about come Monday morning. Someone said we’ve got to draw the line in the sand, and that’s what’s been done at this conference.

Well what triggered all of this? Was it major dollars? I was with Larry Case, who was a part of this symposium planning committee, the guy who we call the advisor of the National FFA. We were in Kansas City together because I was on the program out there. Larry doesn’t think it’s the big dollars. I’ve been the master of ceremonies for the Sale of Champions at the Ohio State Fair, one of the largest junior livestock fairs in America. This thing got big. There are some other shows that are bigger; but for our state fair, we reached $70,000, at one point, for the grand champion steer. Let me see, this year the grand champion steer went for $36,000 — that’s not bad. But I want to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, and Jodi Black and some others here from Ohio can tell you . . . but, I am smack in the middle of this thing as the master of ceremonies for this, one of the biggest events annually at the Ohio State Fair, the sale of champions. And I am the emcee, and we’re shooting television because this is 12 o’clock noon. By eight o’clock that night, we will have boiled this down to one hour of prime-time television that airs across Ohio, and Ohio has 11 million people. Just Ohio alone! It’s a major event! And what do we have? Seven out of ten steers show up with clenbuterol.

I talked to Dr. Ned Parrett, Animal Science Department at Ohio State, and he said when we opened up the one carcass we collected five gallons of vegetable oil . . . five gallons. And then we had the grand champion lamb, and I want to show you . . . here is the Columbus Dispatch, biggest daily newspaper in Ohio, 12 different articles, ladies and gentlemen, 12 different articles just about all the shenanigans at the State Fair. Here’s another one, Grand Champion Sheep: Livestock Tests Send FDA on Drug Search, here’s Ann Landers, and I could just show you . . . Packers May Reject Show Stock. Isn’t that sad ladies and gentlemen? When the people like Monfort - and we were out with the Monfort folks just a year ago shooting television - when they’re saying we’re not going to take any of your show animals, we can not, we can not take the risk.

Now, for you agents who are here, for all of us who are here, I want to tell you . . . when this happened at our Ohio State Fair, my city friends, my urban friends - and Marilyn and I have a lot of them because our farm is just like three miles right straight up the road from Jack Nicklaus’s Muirfield where you see the Memorial Tournament that gets aired worldwide every spring. So we have a lot of urban friends. Here is the key point of my address, one of the key points: 4-H and FFA have been on a pedestal in America for years - and that’s the way it should be! And many of you have given your lives that it will always be that way. Well I’m going to tell you that in Ohio, to our urban friends, they would come to me and say: "What in the world has happened? We always thought 4-H members and FFA members were of the best ethics, of the best moral fiber. What’s happening out on the farm? We can’t believe this!" No longer, no longer, are they putting 4-H and FFA up on the pedestal . . . we took a real blow in our state.

Those of you who haven’t had the problem, count yourself lucky. Can the problem happen? Well I think that with what has happened at this conference, we can avoid it, you can avoid that type of thing happening. But also, with the same breath, I would say to you that we had a tremendous, tremendous example of leadership, just at the right time, from one Director Fred Dailey, in our state. Because, in our state, the laws are on the books. A year ago, right now, this whole investigation was happening. Did you hear him yesterday? Thirteen people indicted. And like Jack was saying, once "felon" goes against your name and once you’re in the database and felon is in there . . . We’ve got some eighteen-year-olds, and it’s there and it will stay there. Like somebody said, even if they want to run for the local school board someone will say, "This guy was a felon at one time." And so, thank goodness that all has been put in place. Only one legislator in the whole House and Senate voted in opposition. And at the 1995 Ohio State Fair, I can say to you, we had a total reverse in the media slant. As was said yesterday, those of us in the media, I want to tell you that those of us in the farm media will always be your friend. And so can those of the non-farm media as well. They really can.

But also what I want to share with you, not only did we put the legislation into effect, but we came up with the outstanding project of the year. I hope that you take this project back to your states, because I want to tell you as an outside person that it worked in each of the species — in the hogs and the lambs and in the steers and in the chickens, as well. Ladies and gentlemen, we recognized ten . . . Now, we had what we call the skillathon competition, that was a third of the score for the outstanding project. We had a showmanship contest, that was a third of the points. And how you did in the showring, that was the other third. You add those all up together - took a lot of work and a lot of cooperation, took a lot of networking and partnering, but . . . they made it happen. They made it work! A lot of people said that they would never make it work - that they can’t make it happen that quickly - but they did. And we recognized those ten young people, those ten young 4-H and FFA members on the television show, we recognized them in our magazine with pictures, and we pumped out more positive publicity than what’s ever come out of a Sale of Champions at the Ohio State Fair. Because now, you see, it didn’t take the big bucks for one to compete.

Then we sold those outstanding projects in the species sales, not in the Sale of Champions . . . perhaps in ‘96 they will sell in the Sale of Champions. That’s one that they’re still looking at. But I’ll tell this whole new concept plus the other thing we did, ladies and gentlemen — we put a cap on what they can bring in the Sale of Champions. For example, the grand champion lamb brought $20,000 and we had a cap on the lamb of $8,000. The grand champion barrow brought $25,000, we put a cap on it of eight. The rest goes to other young people as scholarships for carcass contests and so forth. So, we found that that concept has worked very well too — to go with the caps and to spread out the money from the sales.

Well, back to what triggered all this. Maybe it was big money, maybe it was moral decay, perhaps the demise of true family values. Some would say liberal show management, some would say it was the professional groomers and fitters — and we threw those guys out as well. So, a lot of things have changed. Let me say something to you very direct. Animal agriculture, as you well know, and many of you are so close to it from the breed associations and so forth, cannot take a direct hit. We are talking about it . . . we are talking about the consumer - how’s the consumer going to react? I wish Elizabeth Harse was here right now. She heads up the Ohio Beef Council and the Ohio Cattlemen’s Association. She would share with you how the telephone rang off the hook, once this broke at the Ohio State Fair, saying, "Are we going to have to worry about oil in the meat when we go buy beef? At the supermarket, are we going to have to worry about clenbuterol?"

She would tell you that we would have a real mess on our hands if that were to ever happen. Thank goodness lady luck has been with us, but how long can lady luck keep us safe. I could give you examples, but I won’t. You’ve seen the examples of tampering of livestock. There’s just one example after another. Will we have livestock shows ten years from now? I think, after this symposium, we will - it (the youth livestock shows) will continue to happen.

I want to wrap it up with a challenge for you. The stage has been set. I have said so many times you don’t get the opportunity very often to be a part of history. People will look back in America’s animal industry — they will look back at this thing of junior livestock shows and say, that at this symposium, the challenge was accepted and something began to happen. I would say to you very directly: "Don’t fumble the ball."

Let me tell you a story that fits so well because they are playing football on national television as I speak. You see, before I put the ABN, the Agriculture Broadcasting Network together, I had done as much sports broadcasting as I had agricultural broadcasting. That goes way back because I was fortunate enough to make it as a walk-on, as a basketball player, some years ago at the Ohio State University.

I stayed with that sports career and tried to fit both of them together, because farm boys enjoy playing basketball as much as anyone else. Well, my broadcast career included doing play-by-play of Ohio State football, and I got to know on a first-name basis a guy by the name of Woody Hayes. I think all of you have heard of coach Woody Hayes. As I look back on my broadcast career, what a wonderful opportunity. I was with him many nights at practice. You do that when you do the play-by-play on Saturday afternoon.

Two different times UPI from New York called me and said — this is when they were national champs in 1968 — "Ed, would you sit down one-on-one with coach Woody Hayes because we would like to do a half-hour for Armed Forces Radio around the world." Woody would only let you talk to him after the Monday media luncheon, that was it. When I said to Woody, after practice, it’s for Armed Forces Radio, and they don’t want to wait till next Monday, he said, "Meet me after I get out of the shower in my little private room and I will be there. Have your recorder ready."

I’ll tell you, Woody Hayes could not stand, ladies and gentlemen, anybody that fumbled the ball. Archie Griffin is the only guy that has ever won two Heisman Trophies. Archie is a long-time personal friend. Marilyn has served, many a time, Sunday dinner to Archie on our farm. First time Archie ever got the ball, in Ohio Stadium, 90-some thousand people, he fumbled the first play. He thought, as a freshman, Woody Hayes would set him on the bench for the rest of the season. Well, he never got back in that ball game, but Woody saw the talent in one Archie Griffin. The story goes on from there.

All I’m saying to you is this: If Woody Hayes were behind this microphone today, he would be saying to you, "Don’t fumble the ball." The play that is at hand is as significant as any you have ever had. You must take and run with the ball and score.

To paraphrase a line from the Bible: "I head straight to the goal with purpose in every step." That’s the challenge. Don’t fumble the ball, and head straight to the goal with purpose in every step. The challenge is yours and ours, those of us in the media . . . ‘cause we’re sure gonna help. God bless, best of luck. Thank you very much!