[Video shows various
pictures of soybean fields with specialists or agents in fields. Music plays in
the background]
[Title Slide – Governor Mike Beebe Speaks at the Ground Breaking for New
Edamame Processing Facility in Mulberry, Arkansas. Your Arkansas Soybean Podcast. Presented by University of Arkansas
Division of Agriculture Research and Extension U of A System, Arkansas Soybean
Promotion Board.]
[Governor Mike Beebe, Arkansas State Governor] Thank you, doctor, for being
here, and for your investment in Arkansas. And for your belief in our people,
and for the opportunity to grow the economic opportunities for the people of
this region. To the higher education officials and to the folks who’ve been on
the ground with me also, add my sincere thanks for all of your collective
efforts that got us to where we are today.
You all probably have heard me say – certainly the media
has over and over – about the correlation between education and economic
development. Inevitably, a lot of the people’s emphasis has to do with workforce
training and upping our skill level of our people in order to be able to retain
and/or attract the kind of businesses and industries that tomorrow’s educational
demand requires. [It requires] a higher and higher skill level, a higher and
higher understanding in so many different fields that traditionally,
particularly in manufacturing, weren’t even applicable a few years ago. That’s
certainly going to be true here, as well. You’re going to have to, and we will
do all we can and we will provide all the assistance we need to provide, to
ensure that the workforce that ends up working here is the kind of quality
workforce with the kind of additional training necessary to make this company
the most successful company it can possibly be.
But there’s another aspect of this marriage, if you will,
between education and economic development, that doesn’t get talked about quite
as much. It does in smaller circles. It certainly does in our office. And it
certainly does in our institutions and higher education. But today’s
announcement is a specific reflection of that other aspect of that marriage
between economic development and higher education.
What has gone on at the University of Arkansas, the
research that has occurred, the collaboration between the educators, the
scientists, the research individuals who work day and night without you ever
knowing about it, to try to improve existing products and create new ones, is a
major component of the reason that we are here today. The whole string, now;
this isn’t your normal soybean people. And it’s already been mentioned: we grow
soybeans better than anybody in the world. Arkansas knows how to grow soybeans.
But the soybeans that we have traditionally been growing across the state,
particularly in eastern Arkansas, is a little bit different variety and has a
different usage than the soybean that is going to be used in the edamame. It’s a
totally different soybean, and the research that has gone on at the University
of Arkansas Department of Agriculture, in cooperation with the USDA and in
cooperation with the Farm Bureau, and in cooperation with all the other entities
that have been mentioned, provides another application for that traditional
soybean; a different type of soybean that’s used in a different fashion. I
didn’t even know what this stuff was a few months ago. Well, maybe a little
longer than that. My wife’s hooked on it. I mean, Ginger is hooked on this
stuff, and apparently a whole lot of Americans are getting hooked on it as well.
And it is really a growing industry that has the opportunity to be able to take
its place in our food chain and for our consumers; not just around this country,
but indeed around the globe. And Dr. Chung was mentioning the fact that things
have changed in China. We are seeing that more and more. And with transportation
costs, with increased labor costs in China, they have a very aggressive program
in China that ‘up’ the wages they’re paid in China.
America has become a more competitive place, even with our
higher wages, with the wages that we have that are still so much higher when you
factor in the transportation costs and all the other logistics; we now have a
competitive opportunity. Dr. Chung saw that in his vision [and] was actually
able to relate that, and he chose this part of America, not just this part of
Arkansas. He chose this part of America because of that relationship between our
education, because of the research that’s been going on, because of the
understanding and the commitment of all of our people. And I can’t say enough
about our AEDC people and our ADVO people. I mean, they work tirelessly; they
are better than a major-league all-star baseball player. They don’t bat a
thousand percent; we lose, we lose to other states, we lose sometimes, but
they’re batting so much better than that .333 or .340 that a major-league
baseball player gets inducted in the Hall of Fame for; they ought to be in the
Hall of Fame, too, because they win a whole lot more than they lose. And part of
it’s because of you. It’s you. The ultimate secret strength of this state is its
people.
We couldn’t do this without the U of A; we couldn’t do this
without the city leaders and the civic leaders; we couldn’t do this without our
state agencies; we couldn’t do it without the entrepreneurial spirit that
exists. But ultimately, we could not do it if we didn’t have the populace, the
work ethic and the values exhibited by the people of Arkansas.
So in the final analysis when you start congratulating
these folks – and they need to be congratulated – when we start throwing
accolades around – and they need to be thrown around – you do not need to forget
that all of the folks in this room and countless others like you across our
state are the reason for our success.
I bet you every governor in America feels that way about
his people, but they’re wrong. [Audience laughs] There is no place in America,
and we’re seeing this every single day.
I made a speech; I wasn’t going to get off into this and
I’m going to hush here in just a second, but I made a speech a couple of years
ago to Boys State. It’s the first time I’ve ever used this line. I said, your
parents, maybe some of you all youngsters have been guilty of it, but your
parents have been guilty of it, I’ve been guilty of it; for too long, there was
an attitude among our people a lot of times about ‘thank God for Mississippi.’
Anybody here ever said that? Huh? Well, don’t say it anymore. It’s not even
applicable anymore. We are now ranked fifth in America in public education.
Number five. [Audience applauds] As the mayor mentioned, we are one of four
states that entered this fiscal year not in financial trouble. We have been
lapping the rest of this country the last four or five years in a number of
different areas, not the least of which is the quality of life and the
opportunity for growth and expansion of our people. So don’t say that. Let
Louisiana or Alabama say ‘thank God for Mississippi.’ [Audience laughs] Let
Oklahoma say it, for God’s sake. If you want to say something, you say you’re
mad because Maryland’s first in education, and we’re just fifth, and we’re not
happy with that. You say you’re unhappy because we’ve, for the first time since
they’ve been keeping records, passed four states in four years in per-capita
income, when we never passed any state in any per capita income rating in the
past 50 years. And you’re not happy with passing four states in four years; you
wanted to pass eight states in four years. Set your goals higher, set your
sights higher. You people are the reason Arkansas is where she is today and
where she is going tomorrow.
This is another example of it. It’s cooperation; it’s
collaboration; it’s hard work; it’s Arkansas values; and it’s education and
economic development. God bless you, Mulberry. [Audience applauds]
[Narrator with music playing in the background] Your Arkansas Soybean Podcast is a production of the University of
Arkansas Division of Agriculture, and was funded impart by the Arkansas Soybean
Promotion Board. For more information on soybean farming in Arkansas contact
your local county extension office.
[Title slide – Your Arkansas Soybean Podcast. Video shows various pictures of
soybean fields with specialists or agents in fields. U of A Division of
Agriculture Research and Extension University of Arkansas System, Arkansas
Soybean Promotion Board. For more information on soybean farming in Arkansas
contact your county extension office or go to
www.uaex.edu. Your Arkansas Soybean Podcast.]
University of Arkansas • Division of Agriculture
Cooperative Extension Service
2301 South University Avenue
Little Rock, Arkansas 72204 • USA
Phone (501) 671-2000 • Fax (501) 671-2209
