Day 9- Hazard, KY, March 23, 2010

CALP Class 40 started the day with a two-hour bus ride from Lexington, KY to Hazard, KY (Population 5,000). Hazard is nestled in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, (Appalachia) has a general hospital, psychiatric hospital, a university-based rural health care center and clinics for primary care, cancer and other medical needs. The town grows to 20,000 during the workday, as many commute to the area for employment. The estimated median household income is $24,000. Hazard and its surrounding area are reliant on surface coal mining, commonly referred to Mountain Top Removal.

Kandi Manhart of Class 40, surprised the group by streaming into the bus PA system, the theme song, “Dukes of Hazzard” which got the group fired up for the visit to Hazard. During the ride, classmates discussed several social and economic issues regarding the City of Hazard and Perry County. Class 40 arrived at Hazard Community and Technical College and were joined by Hazard government and community leaders. Jim Shattuck of Class 40 had the honor of introducing Mayor Gorman, who is in his 33rd year as Mayor of Hazard. Mayor Gorman has been the Mayor since 1978 and for 85 years young, a great inspiration to all of us. A special thanks goes to Ron Daley, Senior Director, Office of Advancement & Government Relations for use of the college conference room and for providing lunch. Class 40 fellows asked questions of the panel in the following areas: coal mining, economy, education, unemployment, regulatory burdens, obesity, drug use, water storage and other health care issues. Some of the panel members included the Mayor, Commissioner Happy Mobelini, Betsy Clemons (Chamber of Commerce) and Dan Smoot, Director of UNITE (Law Enforcement). The City of Hazard provided a gift bag to all Class 40 fellows. The hospitality of the Mayor, panel and college will not be forgotten, thanks again City of Hazard!!

(The below is a link to a news article in the Hazard Herald newspaper about our visit)
http://www.hazard-herald.com/view/full_story/6855515/article-California-delegation-discusses-Hazard-economy--rural-issues?instance=secondary_news_left_column


At the conclusion of our Hazard Community Panel discussion we broke up and mingled with the community panel members. While eating and visiting with them we were entertained by the Hazard Community and Technical College Kentucky School of Bluegrass and Traditional Music. Dean Osborne and his band did a wonderful job of setting the ambiance. Thanks Dean for entertaining all of us!Toward the end of our time at the Hazard Community and Technical College, Class 40 fellows were honored by Mayor William D. Gorman by making a proclamation. The proclamation made each of us a Duke or Duchess of Hazard as well as gave us each a key to the City.

After experiencing the warm hospitality, we were off to tour a mountain top removal coal mining site. The 2500 acre site, 20 minutes from Hazard is owned by Pine Branch Coal Sales, Inc. We were met at the site by Robert Ray of Pine Branch Coal Sales, Inc. Robert has 35 years experience as a surface mining manager. He showed us their mountain top removal site where they extract coal; the site was opened for mining in 1992. We saw large trucks, “Tonka trucks” that can carry 200 tons of rock and coal per load. The process includes removal of all vegetation, cutting with dozers and excavators, removing the soil/rock to the reclaimed land to build up the mountain per regulation permits. Lastly, as the veins of coal are exposed, it is then broken up by the loaders and loaded for transport. We also viewed a site where the stream bed restoration process was being done. Eastern Kentucky provides coal to China and Europe as well as power plants in the United States.

Prior to leaving the coal mining site we were joined by Dr. Tammy Horn, Director of the Eastern Kentucky Environmental Research Institute. Dr. Horn discussed the practice of reclaiming coal mines with pollinators, trees, shrubs and vegetation.

Finally we learned about how they take a reclaimed surface mining area and turn it into grazing pasture for cattle. The pasture contains one animal unit per two acres. The pasture we viewed was approximately 600 acres in size, and is now useable land for the agricultural industry. The pasture, with its rolling hills, reminded us of parts of Montana.

The hospitality continued with Betsy Clemons, Executive Director of the Chamber of Commerce, organizing a group dinner (at the last minute) at the Hazard Country Club Golf Course. We enjoyed filet mignon and all the fixings. A BIG Thank You goes out to opening the restaurant especially for us!

To end the night we learned about the Pikes County Community Arts Program. Stephanie Richards, University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Agent for Fine Arts shared how several programs benefit youth in Appalachia. Goals of the programs are to instill in the youth an appreciation of their cultural heritage and enhance their appreciation of the arts. Stephanie is involved in the Artists Collaborative Theatre, Inc. in Elkhorn City, KY. For more information go to http://www.act4.org/. Stephanie developed and made a success story by introducing fine arts programs into a small community (Population 1,060) in Pikes County, KY. Stephanie was inspiring and reminded all of us how passion may be the most important character of a person to benefit the community, and ultimately make yourself happy.

Class 40 started out the morning in Kentucky at the Holliday Inn Express in Lexington. What a difference in the weather. We left the sunny skies of Washing DC to wake up to some light rain and much cooler days. Dr. Steve Isaacs with the UK Extension met up with the group at the hotel at 7:30 to take us to our destination. By 7:45 we were on the phone with the bus company wondering where they were. Bus showed up about 20 minutes later and off we went to the Scott County UK Cooperative Extension.

Dr. Steve Isaacs and Dr. Will Snell are the co-directors for the Kentucky Ag Leadership Program (KALP), got the morning program off to its start. Our morning session was with alumni and class members of the KALP. The morning sessions consisted of seven 20 minute up-dates on Kentucky agriculture initiatives. The final session was a farmers panel made up of 3 Kentucky farmers and our own Dan Sutton and Karm Bains. Interesting how we shared such similar issues with labor and regulatory controls that seem to hinder more than help.

Lunch was provided by Triple J Farm and was home grown hamburgers and homemade chocolate cake. During lunch we got caught up on or time, at least for a short while, and hustled off to our afternoon tours around Lexington.

First stop was to the Kentucky Horse Park for a tour around their facilities. There are several new improvements going on around the grounds as the World Equestrian Games are coming to Kentucky. Horses and Riders will be coming from around the world to showcase their skills in several events and Kentucky is stepping up to the plate with a world class facility.

Our next stop was to KALP alumni Todd Clark’s tobacco farm. It was the first time any of had seen such an operation. It was raining so we spent most of the time in a drying barn learning about the changes and challenges to tobacco farm industry. Todd and Steve taught us how the leaves of the plant were graded into 4 grades from lowest to highest quality. They shared that in the old days, about 10-15 years ago, that this work was done mostly by family members. Now most this work is done by farm labor. The majority of the costs for production are in the labor, sound Familiar?

As we pulled out of Todd’s farm we were on our way to the Fares Thoroughbred Horse Ranch. We were heading down the road when the familiar aroma of hot brakes started to fill the air in the bus. A couple of checks in the rearview mirror confirmed that the bus brakes were smoking hot. The driver pulled to the side of the highway, and our own fireman, Dan Sutton, confirmed that the brake were on fire. As the fellows calmly unloaded the bus, Dan spent the next few minutes putting out the fire. The KALP group came to the rescue of about 75% of the class while the rest of us waited for the backup bus to arrive. We ended up about 15 minutes behind the rest of the group as we arrived to the ranch.

Our host Shannon White at the Fares Farm was very welcoming and brought the group into a guest house and offered refreshments for the group while they waited for the bus. The ranch was amazing. Shannon did a great job of explaining the operation and fielding lots of questions about the thoroughbred industry. Toward the end of the tour Shannon was kind enough to take us the fowling barn where we may have seen a future Horse of the Year, by the way Fares has produced a back to back already.

The trip back to the hotel was quick and uneventful. Most of the fellows went for some quick food and were ready to reload for wheels up and on our way to Wood Songs Old Time Radio Hour.

The show kicked off at 7pm sharp. The show is a live radio, PBS broadcast and is played on every navy vessel in our fleet world wide. We were treated to 2 bands that played Bluegrass and American Folk. The bands were generous and each played an additional song for the audience. After the show we were able to hang out and meet and greet with the band members and take some photos.

When the dust settled some of 40 went out to enjoy downtown Lexington and some headed back to get ready for the next days events.

With a free day on Sunday and beautiful weather in the nation’s capitol, everybody took advantage of their time to see some of the sights that were most exciting to them. Free access to the numerous Smithsonian Museums was taken advantage of: groups went to the Air and Space museum along the mall as well as to the larger facility near Dulles International Airport where they have the really big planes: the SR-71 Blackbird, the Space Shuttle and the Enola Gay, which dropped one of the two atomic bombs on Japan.

Some of the most impactful items seen related to the founding of our country and directly tied into the prep work that we did leading up to the trip. At the Smithsonian of American History, George Washington’s actual uniform he wore for ceremonies and inaugurals was on display, as was Lincoln’s iconic stovepipe hat and the Star Spangled Banner that was the inspiration for the national anthem.

A number of fellows rented a car and drove out to Monticello. While we examine the growing divide between the political views of our rural and urban populations, it is impressive to see how Thomas Jefferson was able to see this hundreds of years ago with these gems: “When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe" and "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."

Most of the class got a little taste of Washington protest marches mixed with a feeling of home with the immigration reform march on the Capitol Mall.

Also on display was a sobering reminder from September 11th that Freedom is never free...

Later that afternoon, we congregated back at the hotel and made our way to the airport to continue onward to Kentucky for the back half of our national trip.

Gettysburg

Saturday morning started early for our Class 40 Fellows. We were in the lobby, bags packed, checked out by 6:30am.
After breakfast, we were reintroduced to Colonel Steven Randolph, PhD., our guide for the day. Colonel Randolph is a native Californian, a retired Colonel from the United States Air Force and teaches Military Strategy for the National Defense University. He began with a presentation that equipped us for the place we were about to visit, Gettysburg. Right from the start, we knew this was no ordinary tour from some ordinary tour guide. After the bus arrived, we embarked on the two hour drive to Gettysburg. For the drive, the Colonel offered us an opportunity to deepen our knowledge of Gettysburg by playing a video of an educational documentary about the battle. We stopped in town, took a quick “Bio-Break” and headed to our first stop.

High above the trees, in an observation tower, the fellows took their first look over the battlefield.


After waiting for Dr. Crabb to catch his breath, we turned to hear Colonel Randolph begin to paint the scene in our minds. From his words, the soldiers rose from the ground and the scenery melted into a topographic map of troughs and crests, defensible positions and tactical advantage points. We looked at that ground for the first time as if we were the Generals on the battlefield. He gave us the context of their situations, the blind approach of General Lee vs. the well structured flow of information to General Mead; thanks to the recently resigned General F.J. Hooker’s gift for setting up an effective infrastructure. Leadership lessons anybody?

A powerful part of Colonel Randolph’s tour was entering Gettysburg Cemetery. He asked us to respect the fallen with silence; we did just that, for him and for all of the soldiers that made the ultimate sacrifice. We didn’t know these men personally, but our hearts are now heavy with thoughts of them.

Another impactful stop was a hike on Little Round Top, where Colonel Chamberlain of the Union army succeeded in holding his line. For those not familiar with this success, it was the turning point for the Union army that would not have happened without Chamberlain, a highly respected, brave soldier to say the least.

While the Union had Little Round Top as a defining moment, the Confederate Army had Pickett’s Charge. This represented the courageous nature of the Rebel Soldiers who charged a fortified position, through open ground, all the while under heavy fire. This backbreaking loss exemplified the horrific casualties of this war.

Class 40 decided to avoid the bloodloss and found common ground to solve our differences.

Then, when the fun was over, we walked the historic charge.

It is impossible to tell the whole story and, in fact, more words would not serve justice to the experiences. Instead of trying to replicate the experience here in detail, we’ll simply share an unequivocal truth from the day: the desire of all of us to not only understand what happened there that day, but why…

From the Civil War memorial at Gettysburg Cemetery-

“It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us. That from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion...” – Abraham Lincoln (an Excerpt from the Gettysburg address)


Afterwards, we stopped for dinner at the Cozy Restaurant, the restaurant that entertains all the media when the President is at Camp David. We had a wonderful buffet for dinner and thanked Col. Randolph for his knowledge, experience, and time he gave to Class 40. Col. Randolph did make the statement, “The past years classes have been good, but this one is the best.” Once again confirming, “The sun rises and falls on Class 40”.
Finally, we had a very quiet bus ride home, the movie Gettysburg was playing and undoubtedly, most of us were reflecting on the struggles and impact of the Battle of Gettysburg.

P.S. A super special thank you to Mrs. Randolph for the most delicious cookies!!!! Mmmmmm!

Friday came with great anticipation, the Supreme Court day. The class had written, screened, and gave a chronological order to a set of questions in preparation for meeting with Justice Scalia.

Friday morning started early with a breakfast at the Capital Club. Congressman Dan Lungren from the 3rd district of CA, and former CA Attorney General, had invited us to meet him there (thank you Bains family). Congressman Lungren is a mesmerizing speaker who talked about health care, immigration, water and partisanship (our big themes of the week). We could have listened to him all day.

Next on the docket was Ruth McCormick who informed us on clean energy policy. As Ruth said, the rest of the nation is behind California in this area. Ruth gave us some ideas on what might be the new national policies in this area.

After Ruth, three high ranking officials from the Army Corps of Engineers met with us to talk about mainly water issues. While they realize there are some issues in CA, they had no commitments or resolutions. We did have a thorough 30 minute tutorial on the formation of their 6 billion dollar budget.

After lunch, we met up with class 21 alumnus Congressman George Radanovich. He recently decided to retire from office, which was disappointing to many of us because he is genuine and sincere. He hinted he may be writing a book about how to improve our government, so we will be watching.

Congressman Radanovich's office set up our meeting with Justice Scalia so he and his staffer accompanied us to the Supreme Court. As mentioned before, we had prepared for our meeting with the Justice because of his public persona of occasional gruffness and lampooning humor. What we saw yesterday was instead a brilliant, funny man who loves this country and the Constitution. After our Q&A, he gave a brief monologue on why stagnation in government is good and why our country is the best in the world. Many of our classmates have a new hero; Justice Scalia said it was insane that some believe the delta smelt and Kangaroo rat have the same rights as farmers. While he has never stepped foot on a tractor, yesterday he was our honorary farmer of the day!!!

The conclusion of the day was David Martosko. While none of us had heard of him before, he made us question the moral character of the Humane Society of the US- see humanewatch.org. He also gave us a few ideas on how to sway public opinion on the CA water issue.

Overall, this was a day that will not be forgotten by any of us, as all six meetings were outstanding! As we pass the midway mark on our trip, we just want to let everyone know we miss you. Off the Gettysburg tomorrow; charge!!!

The California sun has most certainly followed Class 40 to Washington, DC. Personally, I think it’s because Class 40 is the BEST CLASS EVER! A week after the worst weather in DC, we’ve had another beautiful sunny day. We’re having a phenomenal time in our nation’s capital. Not only is Class 40 learning more than we had ever expected about our government and leadership, we’re bonding and truly using this time to grow.
We had a really interesting day on Thursday, four from our group were able to split off to meet with their representative Congressman Wally Herger. They had a very unique experience, but so did the larger group that stuck together for the scheduled AM.
The large group headed to the Longworth Building (one of the many historical buildings in DC) for presentations with the United States Fish and Wildlife Services as well as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The focus of the panel discussion was ‘Section 7’, an initiative for interagency cooperation between USFWS and NOAA. Our discussion was heavily focused on water issues - we had great discussions and left with aspirations to ‘find common ground’ (Class 40’s theme). The myriad of questions couldn’t be contained within the time allotted and I’m certain our speakers will have more than just a few emails to follow up with once Class 40 returns to their desks and computers.


Our fortunate second group started their day with a visit to the congress. They had a quick tour of Congress and an opportunity to see a live session of Congress from the gallery. The topic on the minds of everyone in Washington is the Health Care Bill. During this session, various speakers were giving their protests (in the form of one minute speeches) to the Health Care Bill. The group then left to meet with their congressman. Congressman Herger gave a brief overview and opinion of some of the various current issues facing congress. The group session was an incredible experience - the four folks who were able to attend took much away from the morning to relate back to their classmates.
Once the whole group reconvened, we headed to a busy lunch. Class 40 hosted both Congressional aids and Lobbyists for a lunch and panel discussion. We started our working meal by hearing from Congressional aids that work with our California Congressmen. Everyone left the conversation with a clear understanding of who we need to contact for an ‘in’ with our representatives. It was fascinating to gain a better understanding of who is involved in our national government - particularly, the folks that work ‘behind the curtain’. One of the congressional aids gave us an analogy between government and the Land of Oz. It’s actually the mysterious folks behind the curtain we need to have an ‘in’ with.
Following the Congressional Panel, we moved on to a very insightful panel with Agricultural Lobbyists. We were thrilled to have a diverse representation of agriculture amongst our panelists. Each gentlemen gave an overview of a pressing agricultural issue such as the Farm Bill, water, food security and more. We were delighted to get to know each gentleman better and look forward fostering those relationships in the future. Once again, we gained invaluable insight into the inner workings of our government and the representatives that make our voices heard.

After the lunch we traveled to the USDA. We met with the Deputy Under Secretary of Farm and Foreign Agriculture, Michael Scuzy. It was refreshing to hear the opinion of a “Farm Boy from Delaware.” To this day, he maintains his family farm in partnership with his brother. He gave us some excellent insight into the ’behind the scenes’ workings of the USDA. We discussed the commitment to inform and more importantly educate the public about Ag - Class 40 left inspired and ready for some serious education and outreach to the non-ag people of California.

High from our briefing with the USDA, we traveled to the Brookings Institute via cab (an incredible feat for 27 folks!) for a briefing. We met with Steve Bennett, the Vice President and C.O.O. of the institute. He gave an overview of think tanks and the policies that the organization actively researches and offers insights on. Most importantly, we were once again inspired to take action on many of the issues California agriculture is facing.
Class 40 finally ended their day at Toscana Restaurant. Time, the Metro and herding 27 leadership-minded individuals offered an interesting leadership learning lesson, but we made it on time, all the better for the experience. Class 40 hosted the evening for alum from the DC Exchange program. Our goal for the evening was to make connections with alum from the program, strengthening existing relationships between the DC Exchange alum and CALP. We hope to further these relationships and work together in the future.
During the dinner, we spoke to the attending alum and heard about how the exchange program made a positive impact in both their personal and professional lives. Despite the fact that a couple of folks had participated in the program 10 years ago, they recalled their experiences with great fondness and appreciation for the valuable understanding they drew from their travels. Clearly, the DC Exchange Program is once that Class 40 looks forward to participating in as hosts in future years. It offers hands-on opportunities in agriculture otherwise not afforded to the folks that promote policy in agriculture.
On behalf our whole class, we must extend our great appreciation to Western Growers for their great contributions to the California Agricultural Leadership Foundation. The assistance from Western Growers has made Class 40’s trip possible. We arrived in DC fairly naïve and under-exposed to our nation’s government. We will leave the capital on Sunday with a renewed passion for our industry and an intense drive to influence those in power to understand our commodities and promote government actions that will support and encourage sound agricultural practices. Western Growers, we salute you and extend our heartfelt thanks.
　

Hot Topics

We got an early start and had breakfast at the Capitol Hill Club with Congressman Devin Nunes, Class 29 CALF Alumnus, who contrasted some of our experiences the previous day with his candid perspective on the Health Care Reform Bill and how it is dominating Capitol Hill. A wonderful breakfast, graciously sponsored by WUD and CDI, was both insightful and educational for the fellows of Class 40.

We then made our way to the International Trade Commission (we are now feeling like seasoned pros on the Metro). Commissioner Irving Williamson, a graduate of the DC Exchange Program, and Catherine DeFilippo, Director of Investigations gave us a historical background of ITC and detailed case studies relevant to agriculture. We grabbed a bite to eat en route to US Department of Health and Human Services for a briefing on health care policy with an Obama Administration Policy Director. Dr. Meena Seshamani, a surgeon and an economist, gave us her perspective into the current health care bill and its impact upon the economy and our society. Unfortunately, two of our fellows were unable to attend this briefing; one due to a misunderstanding in protocols related to foreign national status, and the other, quite frankly, due to racial profiling. It was a sobering and discouraging experience for us, and counter to the objective of empowering our local Californian leaders. Leaving the unfortunate events of HHS behind us, we continued to the White House Council on Environmental Quality for another controversial briefing, this time on climate change policy. Jason Bordoff, the Associate Director for Energy and Climate Change, gave us an overview of the Waxman-Markey Bill which currently is in the legislature. Many of us had questions and concerns about how the potential Cap and Trade Policy might affect agriculture. This is clearly a hot topic today with much uncertainty.

Closing out a day of current issues, we joined our colleagues from the Foundation Fellows Council at the USDA building, along with candidates and alumni from the DC Exchange Program. We also enjoyed meeting members of the Kansas Agriculture and Rural Leadership group, who happened to be in DC the same week as us. It was a great experience seeing their excitement and hearing about their program which is modeled after the CALP.

Day 3 began at the Capitol Hill Club and ended with a toast of green beer. We reflected upon the key issues of the day and how they may affect the future of agriculture in California. You had a better chance of seeing a leprechaun ride up on a unicorn than a presiding fellow turning in early on St. Patty’s Day. There are whispers about a late, LATE night monument tour….