America is a vast country. There are approximately 320m people here, and after just two days in Washington I am getting a sense of just how big it actually is. We met with many individuals who are very proud of their agriculture. It must be great to have so many consumers on the doorstep of farms.

Over the course of the two days we had many high-level meetings. The venue was the USDA office, which is the equivalent to our Department of Agriculture. We met with Ed Key, secretary from the state of Delaware. Ed had also joined us two weeks ago at the Contemporary Scholars Conference in Cavan. He gave us a quick overview of the US extension programme, which is an independent training and advice programme for American farmers, quite similar to our Teagasc-run programmes.

Further meetings gave us a brief overview and introductions to organisations such as NASDA, who represent the state departments of agriculture. We also got an overview of USDA’s Research, Education and Economics programme (REE), and the USDA foreign agricultural service. We had a very interesting introduction to the Young Farmers Program that is run in the State of Delaware. My understanding is that they can give an interest-free loan to young trained farmers for farm purchase, up to 70% of the value to a maximum of $500,000.

We had a great meeting with Michael Scuse, the under secretary at the US Department of Agriculture, in which we covered a broad range of topics including crop and livestock insurance. Livestock insurance can cover livestock up to 75% of their value – the importance of which was highlighted a few years ago when an early snow storm swept in across North Dakota and thousands of livestock were lost. Interestingly, it can also cover beekeepers for colony collapse when entire swarms of bees die off.

Irish produce in the US

On our last evening we were very kindly hosted by the New Zealand Embassy where we were introduced to the agriculture attaches form New Zealand, Australia, Holland and Ireland. They all outlined their role in helping companies to export into the US. They are a very important link in the chain.

Dale Crammond, the Irish representative, shared a very compelling story about Kerrygold butter and how it is now the go-to brand for quality among top US chefs. Irish whiskey has always been a favourite in America and there are great opportunities for the many new distilleries that are opening up around the country.

Irish beef is the only European beef that has the green light to export into the States and there has been over 2,000t of quality cuts imported. There is a job of work ongoing to educate the American people that grass-fed beef is a superior product to grain-fed beef. Ireland has a great story to tell. We are the food island and with Origin Green we are unique in having carbon audits done on almost every Irish farm. With over 33 million people living in the US claiming to have some Irish heritage, the opportunities for Irish food exports are excellent.

Sight-seeing

During a few hours off, I took the opportunity to take in a few of DC’s tourist attractions. I took walk to the White House, the Lincoln memorial and the Washington monument. Politics and its history are at the heart of DC. I also had a quick visit to the Air and Space Museum, an interesting display of aviation down through the years. The technological advancements are fascinating, from the Wright Brothers to the Space Shuttle, and the Hubble Space Telescope. It is amazing to see the history of the speed of development around the time of WW2. I only had two hours there but it would be easy to spend most of the day looking around there.

California here we come!