Governor Otter on Idaho Ag

 “It’s 24-25% of our total $52 billion economy also that’s one of our greatest value added products that we’ve got in this state when we can take potatoes and turn them into French fries as you know we grow most of the seed that’s required for gardens for the vegetable business and so ag is always going to be a big part of Idaho’s economy and therefore justifiably a big part of our attention. We’ve got some good commodity prices this year, some of them are getting a little light obviously we’re having trouble with dairy, but we’ll continue to work on it and continue to add value to those products, do the best we can to broaden the markets and increase our economic activity within that sector. I know something that’s close to you is beef ranching and that seems to have been struggling. I know the people at AgriBeef and they seem pretty positive that they’re going to come out of it. I’ve had those folks with me on a lot of trade missions and as a result of that , they’ve been very successful in broadening their markets, establishing the high quality, establishing the ability to provide what they say they’ll provide so these things all have peaks and valleys and if we can smooth some of those peaks off  and raise some of those valleys, which we will do, because we’ve always done that David. (Sparks) Yup. It’s like my tennis game…peaks and valleys. (Governor Otter laughs) ”