Food And The Future (1964)

I'm Bill Roberts of the food science department at North Carolina State North Carolina is in a dilemma our per capita income is just above 40th in the nation there's a scarcity of jobs and opportunities both on the farms and in the cities our best young people are leaving the state by the thousands this is a gloomy picture but there is something that we can do about it we're primarily an agricultural State our basic sources are land and people and we can build on this great heritage [Music] [Applause] Winds of Change are sweeping across our landscape turning rural Crossroads into towns towns into cities cities into urban centers and to feed this shifting and Rising population our farmlands are Transforming Our Industries widening their Enterprise tobacco and cotton though still profitable crops have lost their Monopoly over our best soils in the face of a new agricultural opportunity the production and processing of food it is said that North Carolina will become a horn of plenty for the East and with good cause in her fertile soils vegetable crops luxuriate twice over through a 280 day coastal plain season fruits are mellowed in a rare Appalachian climate 50 in of rainfall annually join her many rivers spilling Westward toward the Mississippi Eastward into the vast Coastland of Atlantic fishing Waters livestock and poultry are now an industry nourished by a benevolent climate and scientific research already this new wealth of the soil and sea is being tapped by food processing plants where it is preserved packaged and sped over some of the nation's finest Road potatoes dehydrated from Idaho a salad made of lettuce from California savored with a dressing ready made in Illinois for dessert Cherry shipped and Frozen from Michigan these are processed foods a meal almost cooked before it's purchased we could not provide this meal away from home this variety of foods if it weren't for the food processing well now why not red well Bill back in the old days when I first started in this business you used to have to keep the chickens in the basement you'd have to go down kill those chickens pick them cut them up you used to have half cattle coming through your back door had to have a fancy meat cutter to break down that half cattle get it down in the sections of parts of the meat that you wanted to use then it would be very difficult to get each size of portion just cut into exact size you wanted and also you had this job of peeling potatoes you had to do a lot of potato peating had to do a lot of cutting whereas today all of that type food comes in ready to go to the oven or to the frying pan and the uniformity means so much if you got four people sitting at a table like this you sure that four people's going to get exact same quality and the same portion we feed 3,000 people a day million meals a year so many people eating away from home these days you might call this Mass feeding here institutional feeding and just like the airlines the schools the governments the hospitals we have to be pretty demanding when it comes to food we buy quality standards and uniform if the hungry American public likes its meals in a hurry at the restaurant it also likes home meals without fuss and bother to get semi-prepared Foods the housewife turns to one of the biggest food buyers of all the chain Supermarket the story of the supermarket is real really evidence of a food revolution in America convenience and time saving the customers are looking for foods that are convenient they no longer look for the items that you have to soak stir and mix they look for items now that you heat serve and eat whether this food Revolution is caused by new marketing techniques or by the increased tempo of people on the move is hard for me to say but one thing for sure we in the supermarkets are going to have to please the housewife she will always be the boss most host wives I know are much too busy to spend time in the kitchen and even spend time shopping for that matter thank heavens they're able to get so many uh Foods at the grocery store that are already half prepared Saving Time think of how long it would take to Chuck all that coin I don't think it's necessary really today to shop but once a week if you're a smart if you have a freezer well I know what some of you are thinking the oldfashioned taste of oldfashioned cooking back before there was mention of food processing but before some of you make the Reckless accusation that Foods don't taste like they used to beware of our independent housewife I think one of the most ridiculous charges in the world is that you can't be a good cook and used processed foods I buy as many foods that will save me time as possible to save time time to devote to a family of four children and a husband and I think really that the art of cooking is in the proper selection of food and in seasoning that's what makes us satisfied family one of the big problems is the uh distance that we have to transport some of these convenient Foods as an example we have uh Frozen Foods coming from California up in New Jersey and down in uh Georgia uh we feel that a great many of these items could be grown and processed here in North Carolina and it would be a tremendous saving to the consumer in the freight rate alone we are very North Carolina conscious let me show [Music] you we feature products that are processed in the state of North Carolina baby food country ham dairy products pickles various other items and uh we hope that as uh the years go by that uh there will be hundreds and hundreds of other items processed in North Carolina that we can sell during this sale well I know that this is good news for our farmers and processors in this state to know that they have an outlet such as this to sell their product supermarkets restaurants food Brokers and canners are all looking for the Dependable raw product they realize that there will always be a demand for fresh foods but they seek to convince the farmer that food processing is a serious business proposition not a Dumping Ground for occasional Fresh Market guts although the food industry offers Financial Improvement and added security tarhill farmers will not be able to reap fantastic rewards from it as they sometimes do from produce buyers the Contracting processor or the fresh produce buyer a choice that the food producer considers carefully farmers who still take a lot of their fancy produce to the open Fresh Market rather than to the more stable Market the food processor here's FCX manager Frank Tanner in lber cheap problem down here is developing and receiving from the farmers a quality raw product which is necessary for us to fulfill our orders and ship out to our markets this winter we went up to the Sand Hill section to see a a supply of peaches while we were up there to the meeting uh one of the big Growers uh after the meeting had developed for some time he said Mr Tanner uh we can adequately sell our first quality merchandise what we're interested in is for you handling our Co Peaches I said uh gentleman I said the term CS in our business means garbage I said in other words you want us to be your garbage disposal I said no I said we've got to have just a final quality to go in our cans as what can be attained we can't improve it so that means that we really have to have an adequate quality supply of raw material so that we can in turn tornado quality product but Lumberton Farmers like Farmers everywhere are rugged individualist used to deciding their own crops and markets one of the thorny problems in establishing a processing business is to recognize its relationship with the supplying Farmers contract farming is an agreement between the processor and the farmer whereby the processor guarantees a farmer a price pre stipulated price for the raw material the farmer is going to produce the farmer in turn guarantees us as a processor that he will deliver these Pro these vegetables to us of a certain quantity at it Harvest Time that's good business and good farming but it wasn't easy for Roy 2 to get this idea across to the farmers and done well the first two or three years we were here farmers were somewhat skeptical very difficult to get agreements to grow produce for us but since that time Farmers have been beginning to to be more uh dependent upon our contracts they've accepted our contracts and our way of of contract farming Mr Westbrook uh these look like some modifying Peppers here how is your crop this year we have right nice crop how have Farmers sold their crops in this area well we're growing cotton into tobac and vegetables that's been our line for years I see for years 30 40 years years I Reon we used to do right much truck farming and but we at that time we marketed everything fresh fresh vegetables why were you Farmers so skeptical at first about growing for a food processing plant why I think well probably they had go some under contract probably that won't the uh didn't prove satisfaction and it a little bit juberous you might say of uh going into this but I think they're well pleased now their their previous experience wasn't so good then was it no that makes you a little bit more skeptical you know to get in anything you know gets a little bit uh sometimes you think twice before you well what is a farmer's attitude now about growing under contract in this region uh I said well as long as the prices was $4 a bush why we we prefer the uh the oat Market but when they get down to where to a dollar Bush them why then they come back here to the can well uh you come up here and you sign your contract and you know then the price that you going to get for that Peppers when it's delivered here uh in good condition and then it's up to you just to see how much of that that you can grow per acre that that means The Profit that you get out of it you can concentrate all your efforts and energy on growing it and growing into the right quality and so on and let Mr two over here worry about the market for it the dairy industry unlike fruit and vegetable processing is a year round activity offering steady employment to contractors it is one of North Carolina's Pioneer Food Industries stretching back to the time when the state's people had to import not only milk but many other food stuffs when most a land was given over to nonfood cash crops dairying has made great strides in gendering with it such Allied Industries as Trucking and Refrigeration using modern and efficient Machinery always applying the latest research it can now purify and liberate from odors the raw product of milk and convert it into a huge rack of consumer goods no longer is there a Dairy deficit in Carolina in daring North Carolina has grown at a rate that even Wisconsin would envy a 20-year success story increasing cash farm income by $60 million again the attitude of the individual farmer is important as Darman Glenn KS points out we had a operation we grew a lot of our own food we had various small farming Enterprises some tobacco some poultry some Dairy but now times have changed we no longer have the time can afford to take the time to process our own food and do these small operations that we had we now specialize in just one thing which is daring which is our sole income and it's very important to us of course we now have to depend on selling raw milk to our local Dairy distributor who processes this for the public of course the our success depends on the success of our local Dairy distributor and when he is successful and making a profit uh that reflects on our income when he uh gets in financial trouble or due to price squeezes and competition that reflects on our income also when my father started during we had approximately 15 cows we realize that today we could not operate with 15 cows we have increased to approximately four times that many we have to be larger and more efficient I think the key to success now is efficiency but if one farmer can specialize so then can another farmer diversify try new Enterprises experiment and become his own food processor like Lewis Upchurch of Rayford North Carolina a farmer with Small Beginnings but big ideas and we decided to try the fish farming Enterprise we got our information from the Southeastern part of of the United States and we believe it has real possibility within our area but it is a thing that will probably come into its own in the next few years is not right at the present uh there's a big demand in the Midwest for commercially dressed and uh packaged catfish of the channel variety not our native Mudcat we feel that perhaps we can raise more protein per acre through our ponds and we can through our grass land uh we are a general Farm consisting of livestock Hogs cattle grow crops uh tumber management we have only a little over a year ago begun to process country cured hams here on the farm and we have uh approach this thing with the idea that we would go into it in a limited Manner and as a market or our particular Market grew we would expand as necessary and we feel now that we are rapidly approaching the point where that we would desire to have Federal inspection so that we can move out of North Carolina and into Interstate Market we have Diversified or tried to diversify our family farm Enterprise due to the fact that we feel we should spread our income out over more than just a the fall period of the Year another such family Enterprise which Grew From humble beginnings on a farm in Alamance County centered on pickles almost 80 years ago Kate's pickles began with Grandmother Kate's special Springhouse recipe who success caused the family to diversify operations and shift later to facin in the middle of North Carolina truck farming country where the cucumbers are the Vanguard of Kate steady and measured progress has been research work with North Carolina State scientists has led to the discovery of superior techniques of processing and preserving pickles AP Kates has seen his company grow into a million-dollar business and has observed many refinements in food processing techniques over the years some of the primary areas in which uh uh conditions are so much different now from what they were when Kate's pickles were first manufactured is first the securing of raw materials which were primarily produced on the family farm at the beginning of the uh manufacturer of Kate pickles now we are growing uh cucumbers for pickles on approximately 4,000 farms in South Carolina North Carolina and Virginia however they're primarily produced in North Carolina uh cucumbers are very easy to produce to grow H which can be done cheaply however the most difficult part is picking and usually a crop has to be picked uh 12 or 15 times usually about three times a week for four to 5 weeks for Kates the green season is a frenzied Harvest Time When half a million bushels of cucumbers are gathered from 5,000 farmer contracted Acres quite a change from the gay90s especially when the massive Harvest and processing begins if new varieties and proper uh mechanical harvesting AIDS can be successfully developed it will probably mean that instead of one and one2 acres per producer that the producers of the future will produce from 50 to 75 Acres each there will always be an opportunity for the small food processor as Kates once was wherever there's an appetite or a need but we have now entered the larger stage of national markets this means that bass corporations are turning their eyes to North Carolina seal test Swifts bordens and Gerbers these big firms once settled in a new local do do not stand alone they depend on the cooperation of local people manager John Erikson of Gerber's Plant High in the Appalachians of Western North Carolina we believe that uh we have a very very fine relationship uh with the farmers uh uh I believe they were a little afraid of us at first because uh my understanding that there have been several uh what I would call Fly by Night processors that were here for one year and uh they contracted with the farmer but never Liv up to the contract so uh I I I uh believe uh after they saw us build this size building we've built uh uh pouring several million dollars into it and uh about equal amount of dollars into equipment that uh they could see that uh that we are here to stay and uh today I believe we have the finest relationship with the farmers of anybody could have many people have asked why we chose Western North Carolina for a plant site there are many reasons uh probably the number one reason is the fact that we're close to our source of supply of fruits and vegetables uh number two we had to have transportation to deliver these fin the finished product to our customers and also have transportation to bring it into our uh plant we also needed a uh labor Supply that uh that was plentiful and willing to put out a day's work which I might say Ad is we're very satisfied with uh we had to have an adequate uh water supply it had to be plentiful and it had to be uh clean uh we uh also needed uh after using this water we had to get rid of we had to have a waste disposal and uh all these things were provided in our location here in Asheville Gerbers of Asheville pays out millions of dollars annually for supplies and perform products such as beans carrots potatoes squash peas apples and peaches 20 million pounds of produce a year almost a thousand man labor force Gerbers has indeed made an impact on the Asheville area that additional industry which the Gerber Factory has fostered let's find out from one of its workers that story a pardon me sir are you employed by another food processing firm no sir this is no food processing plant we make glass jars here I and three 300 other people make jars for the processing plants that are springing up in North Carolina a new industry like food processing is bound to create a big splash its economic influence ripples out in every direction produce processors Incorporated PPI as it's called is a factor that sprang up in winon North Carolina soon after North Carolina State scientist saw the flaking of sweet potatoes to make them more uniform the result of food processing research now without that taking this raw sweet potato converting it into instant yam or sweet potato flakes it would have been an impossibility we would have never ground out our first product now we can take the sweet potato you take a number one sweet potato there's still a market for it fresh you don't need to process it where we can take the smaller potatoes the larger potatoes the misshapen potatoes uh the internal meat of that potato is still the same when we take and Flake it in our flaking process and come up with it in the can I can't and no one can tell whether it came from a ping number one whether it came from a two or a jumbo or what in the food processing business today everything hinges on uniformity we sell a man in January we sell him in June he wants the same product both times the nucleus for food research is at North Carolina State the 25 man Department of food scientist keep in close touch with the food farmer the processor and the consumer now our research scientists already have many achievements to their credit their work for example in cutting the curing time of country hams removing all flavors from milk prolonging the shelf life of brawlers and eggs producing sweet potatoes and pump Flakes and we also have a department of extension that provides information for those people who are working in the field to keep them up to date to keep them modern Progressive also we have a training program that educates many young men and women to become leaders and specialists in the food industry now in return in future with students at institutions like North Carolina State College they could send students into the field to us anyone in the food processing business and those students could learn from industry what they can't learn from textbooks the last two summers we have sent one of our young men out of our plant up to North Carolina State College to work with Dr Hoover in research on our product primarily now this boy has come back has learned a lot and has been a help to us I got out of high school in 1960 and I worked for year and I started reading about produce processors getting started and I became quite interested in it and I came out and applied for a job and I was hired I worked one season with them and chance came up for me to go to state college for the summer months and work with Dr Hoover and his lab our instruction program permits students who want a career in the food industry to prepare themselves with a University degree we sketched the story of food processing in North Carolina a modern version of a story as old as man himself the best possible preparation of his Daily Bread food processing is not an easy industry this mining of food from the soil this pairing and reading of food for the market squares of the nation and the world food processing is an industry that will generate new markets new jobs New Hope it is a a fresh chapter in the 200y old history of North Carolina's agricultural way of life [Music] [Applause] I [Music]