Listening to former Secretary of Agriculture Ed Kee last Wednesday Sept. 26, I realized that the United States has by far one of the most diverse agriculture industries in the world. This diversity is due to our various climates and soils from coast to coast that allows farmers to grow the crop that will best grow on their farm. As for California and Iowa they have excelled in finding what best grows in their state allowing these two states to hold the top two positions in the U.S. agriculture industry. Iowa is a state that really catches my attention because they grow many commodities that we grow here on the delmarva but they achieve unthinkable yields. Kee taught us that because of their high yields Iowa leads the country in both corn and soybean production, which is an astonishing accomplishment if you ask me. But then I realize that they have a huge advantage compared to little Delaware because they have 30.5 million acres in farmland compared to 450,000 acres here. Then when I look at California the top agriculture state I’m just amazed how they cope with only 10 inches of rain a year by using aqueducts that bring water to their crops. California also amazes me by ranking number 1 in 9 different commodities in the U.S. and being the 10th largest general economy in the world! That means out of all the countries in the world just one state has enough economic activity to rank 10th, it just takes me by surprise. Overall I could talk about these two states for days because the information that Ed Keeps taught me was very interesting.