 Thank you very much and good afternoon. I understand that we've got youth leaders with us from every state and also from Puerto Rico, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Well welcome to the White House and I know it's a little warm, isn't it? So I'd better get on with it and let you get toward the shade. I'd like to take this opportunity, however, to offer special congratulations to Jan Eberle from my home state of California, the first woman to be national president of your organization. I always get a kick out of meeting with the future farmers of America and I think my ties go back quite a long way. Many of my friends when I was growing up back in Illinois were future farmers and I wasn't too far away from them because I lived in the kind of a town that even in the center of town you weren't too far from plowed ground. What was then and true then is still true today and that was the future farmers of America does more than give a good start to some fine young people. By cultivating leadership skills and patriotism it ensures the strength and vitality of our country. This generation of American farmers has astounded the world with its productivity. Farm output since 1950 has jumped 89 percent with agricultural productivity rising more than four times faster than industrial productivity per hour worked. Last year with less than three tenths of one percent of the world's farm workers our country produced 65 percent of the world's soybeans, 48 percent of the corn, 33 percent of the sorghum, 25 percent of the oranges, 32 percent of the poultry, 26 percent of the beef and the list goes on and on. Today one of our farm workers produces enough food to feed himself plus 50 other Americans and 20 people in other countries in the world so it doesn't take a Harvard trained economist to see what this means to our economy and the well-being of our people. American agriculture has been so efficient that we often tend to take the abundance of food for granted. We can be very proud that we live in one of the few countries of the world that will not tolerate hunger and that your profession can take a lion's share of the credit for our ability to live up to that goal. Agricultural productivity has permitted us to develop human values and to put those values into practice and this just didn't happen by accident. Our abundance is a product of the hard work of our farmers, the skill and technological know-how that we put into agriculture and most important the freedom of which we're so proud here in America. By the way you might be interested in some of the efforts to help the third world, the developing countries and when we met in Cancun, Mexico, nations of the industrial nations on this subject I spoke to some of the things that we could do other than just handing out grants in aid and told them that what it could be like if we could send teams of agricultural farmers from our country to some of those countries to help them become more self-sustaining in their food and you might be happy to know that we have called a number of times already and every time American farmers have volunteered and sent task forces to these undeveloped countries to tell them how they can better feed themselves. There's another country with resources just every bit as much as our own, a major power. Its citizens are decent, hardworking people but they have no freedom and that lack of freedom is matched by a lack of productivity. There's no better proof that freedom and material progress can only survive together. The story that I like to tell about that as a matter of fact it's a story these people in that country tell about their own country. I'm kind of making a collection of jokes that the Russian people tell about their own country and this is one in which the commissar went out to one of their collective farms, stopped one of the workers there and asked him how things were, any complaints, oh no sir, he said I've never heard anyone around here complain about anything. Well he said what about the crops, oh he said the crops just greater than ever. He said the potato harvest, he said if we piled all the potatoes we've harvested up in one pile they'd reach the foot of God. And the commissar said this is the Soviet Union, there is no God. He said that's alright, there aren't any potatoes either. I know that the future farmers of America are doing its part to build character, to keep our country in the forefront of the production of food and fiber. I'd like to congratulate you for FFA's theme this year which I understand is keeping America on the grow. You're now just emerging from some hard times that have been a long time in the making. I know things have been rough and still are for many farmers but I hope when you go back to your homes you will tell your families and your friends of our confidence that things are getting better and while you're at it tell them that the White House source told you personally that America's farmers are not going to be left out of the good times that lie ahead. I hope all of you are enjoying yourselves and learning a lot while you're here in the nation's capital and I think that one general, we owe General Motors a thank you for sponsoring this leadership conference and making it possible. This kind of enlightened support from the private sector speaks well of American business. Let me leave you with this thought, when you go home and remember all the sites you've seen in Washington, the shrines of American liberty, remember that back at the time the ideals of our nation emerged it was composed overwhelmingly of men and women who made their living from the land. Today we rely on you to maintain our ties to the land and to live up to our ideals and I know you won't let us down. Thank you for coming over here to visit and God bless you all. Mr. President, our country young though it may seem to some others has many rich traditions. Among these are the shrines of liberty you mentioned that commemorate freedom, justice and truth. There are some words also that are not mentioned quite so loudly nor so frequently. Words like unyielding commitment, words like foresight, words like self-sacrifice. As young leaders in agriculture we look to you for your great leadership of our country and realize that the course you set now is one which these young people will put their feet to in the future. We look to you for your example, we follow you in your leadership of our great nation and we realize that just as surely as we stand before you today we stand behind you in our commitment to agriculture and to the future of our nation. It is my pleasure to present to you on behalf of almost half a million future farmers of America across this country, this plaque on behalf of our national officer team, treats to President Ronald Reagan in sincere appreciation for sharing your knowledge and wisdom with the future farmers of America. Your outstanding leadership provides an example and an inspiration to the youth of America. The Rose Garden FFA State Presidents Conference July 28th, 29th, 1983. Thank you Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Madam President and thank all of you very much. This makes me very proud and I look forward to seeing you or your counterparts here next year. God bless you.