Sitting in the US Embassy in Tokyo, we were getting briefed on the current political climate in Japan.  A door at the back of the room opened, and making her way to the front was US Ambassador Caroline Kennedy.  Her slight build and soft voice gave one the impression of a certain amount of shyness.  There was also something about her quietness that made an impression of her resolve.

Agriculture must look the same way at times.

Ambassador Kennedy looked out on a crowd of over 120 people, there as part of Iowa Farm Bureau and making up farm families from across the state.  For many this was just the first or second time they had stepped over the US border and dipped a toe in the rest of the world.  At the same time, as Iowa farmers, we’re on the world stage every day.

“I hope you understand the tremendous value your presence has here in Japan, and the value the Japanese place on personal relationships,” the Ambassador said.  She subsequently underscored this by repeatedly coming back to it.  She did this by stretching it out over the framework of Iowa’s involvement with the Prefecture (State) of Yamanashi.

A typhoon hit Yamanashi in 1959, devastating the area.  An Iowa Sargent, Richard Thomas, would frequently visit the area while he was stationed in Japan post World War II.  Having returned back to Iowa, he asked fellow Iowans to help come to the aid of  the region.

He received 36 hogs and 60,000 bushels of corn.  The hogs, 8 boars and 28 gilts would have 500 descendants in 3 years time.  By the end of 9, they would have 500,000.  In the aftermath of World War II, Thomas’ simple effort underscored the powerful but quiet diplomacy agriculture brings in making peace.  It’s power lies in the quiet resolve of bringing food to those who need it.  It’s brought by the relatively sedentary life of farming, as long as governments stay out of their way.

That morning Iowa Farm Bureau President Craig Hill spoke to the fact that 2/3 of the world’s middle class will be located on the Pacific Rim.  Potential for Iowa agriculture abounds, if those in our government will simply remove the barriers to trade.  The protectionist or isolationist push against doing such is as productive as trying to hold the waters of the Pacific back with a fork.  All the commotion created is an opportunity for someone else, just across the way, to slip in.

At dinner that evening, I wound up sitting across a large table from the Vice Governor of Yamanashi.  She’s a woman who seems to have held every position one could hold in agriculture, similar in build and manner to Ambassador Kennedy, and a similar sense of resolve.  The words that kept appearing in her remarks when she addressed the group were in thanking our state for its kindness over 50 years ago.

Kindness and agriculture can get by without a translator.  Just look at how well those Iowa hogs did.