Welcome to the Futures of Farming Conference. Today we are asking several questions that do not have one specific answer. How we ask questions is very important, for the manner in which we pose questions can influence the response. Consider the standard parent-child question, "What are you doing with your future?" or the teacher question, "Is there a problem over there?" Though considered a question by nature of the question mark, neither of these two inquiries provides much room for a response.

The questions we are asking today are hopefully a little more open ended than these two examples. And the five questions that frame the discussions are by no means the only five questions facing agriculture. There are hundreds of questions that can and must be asked. All of these questions float around, much like bubbles, and we can reach out and pick one out of the air and inspect it. We can look at it from all kinds of angles. And you may have a different perspective on any given bubble, on any given idea, and someone else may say, "But what if you consider this idea from this angle," and that is welcome at this conference. Today we are playing with bubbles, we are playing with ideas about the future of agriculture, and it should be really fun.

Welcome to the Futures of Farming Conference. Thank you so much for being here today.