To my fellow students:

The economic depression is likely to last for some time without the opening of some new economic frontier for further exploitation.  Indeed, after this financial crisis it seems the last 15 years have been more economic redistribution rather than economic growth.  Do not get me wrong, I am not innocent of going after some of that redistribution.  And I would likely continue chasing after personal economic prosperity, even after having thought through the consequences of taking the post-ivy league path of corporate economic security, and having borne it for some short time in, because I, like every individual educated in the economic orthodoxy, believes in the power -- no sovereignty -- of free markets.

My first apartment in graduate school was a small place on the tenth floor of a large graduate dorm.  My bedroom measured 12 feet by 8 feet and the university-owned furniture only fit in one particular arrangement.  Being on the tenth floor of an old building meant that my bedroom was perpetually 80 degrees warm, whether the heat was on or not.  In the summer, it got unbearably hot, so I invested in an air conditioner.

Normally when you talk about agriculture, the last thing you want is grey. No grey weather, no grey water, no grey foliage, no grey milk; I think you get the point.  I’m here to argue; however, that grey is exactly what modern dairy production needs when it comes to consumers and the media.

I am an animal scientist.  I study dairy cattle production.  I do the best I can to make decisions based on consideration of facts and consequences. I understand that there are opportunities for compromise, or no single right answer.  There can be a grey area.  If it’s not grey, the other

Now picture an environmentalist in your mind. You may be imagining a man or a woman. That man or woman may be in a city chained to a tree, on a campus distributing pamphlets on the evils of capitalism, or in the rainforest studying parrots— regardless, you are definitely imagining an individual that votes Democrat.