00:00When we decide to do something that impacts the quality of life for our members, the community
00:13just comes together and there's example after example after example of it. You know farming's
00:18been an economy of scale and the big just keep getting bigger and it's tougher every year to
00:22compete. I don't think because you're going to put solar panels up on these farms that
00:28agriculture will stop existing. We didn't take this decision lightly. We didn't just do
00:34this on a whim or just because of the money. I saw some opportunities that we could keep
00:39using the land. You know we'd be allowed to be a part of it. You know other people would
00:44allow to be a part of it and I think it could benefit everyone a whole lot more than the
00:49way we're currently doing it. Corn takes a pound to a pound and a quarter of nitrogen per
00:55bushel that you're raising. That's all fine if the crop uses it all up and that's to get
01:01your best yield. So if you get a hail storm, you don't have the crop out there to use this
01:07nitrogen up, it's going to start going down. They had to put that new well and all that
01:12piping in and all that and that's over a million dollars because our other two wells were contaminated
01:16with nitrates. For one thing we won't be pulling any out of there, out of the water table anymore
01:22to irrigate and there will be no pesticides used or very very restricted amounts. We have
01:29a wonderful school down here but it takes money. You know the school is going to get a pretty
01:34good charge of money to them and well it's going to help the county, it's going to help
01:40the fire district, everybody. Development, economic development, increasing the property base is
01:48the only way to keep property taxes in line. I can tell you I wouldn't have signed up any of my property
01:54for this if I thought it was going to hurt anyone. It'll open a lot of a lot of doors for a lot of
01:58people that wouldn't be able to get involved in agriculture and I like that. We don't have enough
02:04farmers, we don't have enough people that are doing this and if I didn't believe that I wouldn't have signed up for it.
02:11You know we have to do our part once in a while if you put 40 years on this stuff not having corn on it
02:18there's going to be some fantastic yielding fields out here in 40 years time. Things just don't happen
02:25overnight it takes time. Change is hard for everybody even when you have a growth mindset. Change is also
02:32good because it's moving the community forward making the community more sustainable.
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