America's Heartland is made possible by....

The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture dedicated to building greater awareness and understanding of agriculture through education and engagement.

More information at agfoundation.org Jason: A bakery in Egypt churning out thousands of loaves of bread a day, a California hair stylist using the hottest new product on the market, and a Moroccan farmer changing the way he raises his cattle, yes they are all connected to American farming!

America's Heartland venture to Egypt and beyond to disover the world of global food and grain trade.

♪ You can see it in the eyes of every woman and man ♪ ♪ in America's Heartland living close to the land.

♪ ♪ There's a love for the country ♪ ♪ and a pride in the brand ♪ ♪ in America's Heartland living close, ♪ ♪ close to the land.

♪ Jason: It's a sunny summer morning in Southern Ohio.

David Roehm's winter wheat harvest is going strong.

The weather has cooperated this year, and Roehm and his son are busy bringing in a good crop of soft red winter wheat.

Dave: My grandfather started farming here in 1930.

So we've been here for seventy-nine years, and the fourth generation is out there on the combine.

Jason: Besides wheat, the Roehm's also grow corn and soybeans which he'll be harvesting in the fall.

Today's wheat gets taken to a local grain elevator.

David: A lot of this wheat is going to probably go to the east coast or down the Ohio River export markets.

Jason: It's a system that involves trade deals, tariffs, cultural preferences, and regional conflicts.

By himself, Dave Roehm plays a small part.

But as we'll learn, as part of a group effort that brings together the collective resources of US farmers, it's an important part.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Jason: It's 11:00 at night at the Khan el-Khalili Market in Cairo, Egypt.

The Islamic celebration of Ramadan is about to begin.

And this market is bustling with activity.

♪♪♪ Jason: We've traveled 6-thousand miles from Roehm's Ohio farm to learn more about overseas agricultural trade.

Dave Roehm is getting some haggling help for this Egyptian Oud from our guide Hesham El Edwy.

His familiarity with the market, culture and language means a much better deal on the instrument for Dave than he would get if he negotiated on his own.

It's a small-scale version that Dave and Sue will witness over and over again on our journey at poultry farms in Morocco and Egyptian feedlots.

Opportunities for US trade are opened up through working to understand the local cultures and customs.

We get a taste of one important cultural moiré watching traditional baladi bread stacked up by the crateful at the Grand Cairo Bakery.

Bread is extremely important in this country.

The origins of leavened bread can be traced back to ancient Egypt along the Nile River.

Today bakeries churn out loaves by the millions.

This bakery alone produces a half-million loaves a day.

Dave: A half-a-million loaves would feed how many families?

Shannon: Consumption of wheat in Egypt is very high, roughly three times the consumption in the U.S. Jason: The Grand Cairo Bakery is subsidized by the government.

Government baladi bread sells for about one US cent per loaf!

Because families live on just a few dollars a day here, keeping the price of bread down is a top government priority.

Rising bread prices or bread shortages have led to violent riots in the past.

While government-run bread is a large percentage of the market, there are growing opportunities for private bakers and millers.

One young entrepreneur is Osama Nasser.

He owns Flour Land, a mill and biscuit company.

One of his growing markets?

Milled flour products for American-owned restaurants!

Jason: These are special packs for.... ....who do these go to?

Jason: Kentucky?

Do you mean Kentucky Fried Chicken?

Jason: Here in the Flour Land mill near Cairo, they have the capacity to produce about five-hundred metric tons of flour a day.

That's about five percent of the total produced private flour in the country.

Now you throw in the government-subsidy flour as well, and you got a lot of sifting.

Jason: Egypt imports upwards of 8 million metric tons of wheat each year.

But right now very little US wheat is being imported into Egypt.

Why?

One word: price.

Shannon: At the end of the day, I mean prices is still king.

Jason: Shannon Schlect works for US Wheat Associates , a non-profit organization that works to build the market for wheat grown in the United States.

Shannon: When we look at American wheat from the Gulf of Mexico, it takes longer for wheat to sail from the U.S. than it does from Europe or from the Black Sea.

So the geographic distance does impact the landed price.

Jason: So if it's such a challenging market for US producers to capture, why even try to get American wheat into a market like Egypt?

Shannon: It is a very big market.

If we could get fifty percent of this market, still four million tons of wheat is a lot of bushels of wheat that can move into Egypt.

Jason: So US wheat growers look for specific types of wheat that are grown in the United States like the soft red winter wheat that Dave was harvesting in Ohio and used here at flourland for the biscuits.

....an early lesson in the importance of price.

Just like at the neighborhood store, customers overseas are looking for the best value when it comes to imports.

At our next stop, we discover another important element: modernizing agricultural practices opens up opportunities for US growers.

This is Dinas Farm, a huge farming operation known across Egypt.

On 10-thousand acres of desert and growing everything from peanuts to dates to citrus, this irrigated farm is a model for agriculture growth in Egypt.

The farms owners emulate US agricultural practices to improve productivity, irrigating crops, and using new technologies.

The farm is getting assistance from Dr. Hussein Soliman, the Egypt director for the US Grains Council.

The council is an organization that works to develop overseas grain markets.

While more than half of the 4.6 million dairy cattle in Egypt are raised on small farms, the council is helping farms like Dinas grow larger and modernize.

Jason: Dinas plans to expand to 10-thousand milking cows.

But as we discover, cultural traditions are important.

In Egypt about half of the milk comes from water buffalo.

And increasing US grain imports depends on expanding that market.

A visit to a traditional farm shows us why that's a challenge.

This is Mahoud Abbas's farm in Saft El Laban, Giza.

It's in the center of a metropolitan area surrounded by residential and commercial buildings.

Jason: It's really an amazing sight to see, one that you won't find in the United States: high rise buildings surrounding a water buffalo operation.

You can literally see the mounds of grain to feed the water buffalo right in the heart of the city.

Jason: Inside concrete and brick buildings are the animals, cramped and in the dark.

Not good conditions for milk production.

Farms like this one are located throughout Egypt's city centers.

Jason: What would you say the biggest challenge is with running a farm like this here in the middle of the city?

Jason: There are other drawbacks to this kind of farming.

It takes a good deal of labor to watch after the animals.

And these conditions invite disease.

70 percent of the water buffalo farms in Egypt are this type of closed-system.

And if Abbas is feeding his buffalo better, he's using more of Dave's corn.

Sue: So you do use American corn?

Jason: But to expand, Abbas needs to move his farming operation outside of the city.

This is the type of water buffalo farm that Mahmoud Abbas could one day operate: away from the city with open air pens and modern facilities.

If these weren't water buffalo, the Roehm's could be in any modern-style farm in the US.

Dave: How many head do you feed a year?

Jason: In the early 90's with US assistance, a bank was developed to help farmers improve and expand their operations.

Buffalo producers have also banded together to form a national association.

Saadon Al Hayani is the president of that association.

Jason: That's good news for farmers.

But Hussein Soliman says the economic benefits go beyond the feedlot.

Jason: It's evident that efforts like the Egypt water buffalo program are having an impact on the ground here.

It's a model similar to Agriculture extension service in the United States: enlist well-known farmers in a region to help develop new methods and showcase them throughout the agriculture community.

Once other farmers see the success, they want to copy it!

Dave: It's not only just an investment by American corn growers or U.S. wheat growers in changing the way they do things, but it's actually an investment by the local people here.

These are projects that they have an investment in, and so they're part of the growth process.

Jason: But is it improving the market for farmer's like the Roehm's?

Do the millions of dollars that he and other farmers invest in payments, they make to trade associations, pay off?

Do the millions of tax dollars that you pay for trade programs benefit us?

Our next stop provides some answers.

♪♪♪ Jason: Morocco, a North Africa nation with vibrant cities like Casablanca, snow-capped mountains, and vast dry desert land.

40 percent of the 33 million people here live in rural areas.

Incomes in these areas are based largely on agriculture.

And the majority of people living in these areas are poor.

Jason: This is the open air market in Bourdan, Morocco.

Take a look around.

Farmers bring their cattle here one, two, three at a time .

And they auction them off.

Think about the challenges you face when you try to change this sort of activity!

It's been done this way here for centuries.

♪♪♪ Jason: Folks we'll see this, and they'll think, (they'll take a step back in time) Jason: For dairy farmers like Amusin Muhammed, the long-established customs and markets are a way of life.

He purchased three milking cows in 1995.

Small farmers like Muhammed often barely get by on their own.

But look around his small farm, and you see signs of change and a better life for his family: a more modern milking parlor, expanded barns for the cows, and a new addition to his home complete with a personal computer.

Jason: Are you happy with the success that you've had?

You've really grown pretty considerably.

Jason: Muhammed intends to someday have 80 milking cows.

He credits his membership in a dairy cooperative for improving his bottom line and ultimately his family's life.

Dairy farmers bring their milk to cooperatives like this regional facility near Taroudant.

They use credits earned for their milk to shop in the cooperative's store.

They can find everything from bags of flour to agricultural equipment and seed.

Any profits the cooperative gets for milk sales go right back to the farmers.

We visited the country's second largest dairy processing facility to find out more about cooperatives.

The facility is owned by a farmer-coop called COPAG.

It produces everything from yogurt to cartons of fresh milk.

It's a modern processing facility that produces 30 percent of the county's milk supply.

Because it's a coop, it pays its farmer members 20 percent more for their milk than they would get selling it elsewhere.

But it doesn't stop there.

In 2005 COPAG began operating a 10-thousand head cattle feedlot with financial help from the US Grains Council.

Members of the COPAG cooperative can send their calves here to grow in a better environment and be more profitable for farmers when they're returned to them.

Kurt: You look at this feed lot.

One feed lot in Morocco is not significant in the true grand scheme of things.

But what this feed lot will do is it's going to revolutionize beef production in Morocco.

It's gonna make beef much more affordable, accessible to the consumer.

Jason: A visit to a farm near El Jadida shows us the past, present and potential future cattle farming here.

Abdel Fettah Ammar is converting his operation from confined tethered cattle to a modern open-style feedlot.

Mustapha explains why.

Kurt: We're not here to impose a production practice.

Our model is a U.S. model.

But what we're trying to do is to improve their production practices.

♪♪♪ Jason: And the desert sands of Morocco seem like the unlikeliest of places for culture's intersecting.

But it's happening right here where goats climb Argan trees to munch on leaves and nuts.

Then the goat farmers pick up the digested nut core off the ground, one by one.

These nuts then get cracked and pressed to get the oil inside.

And that oil is now used as one of the hottest beauty products on the market.

You'll find high-end salons like this one near Sacramento, California using the oil for hair treatment.

Jason: So Sue, here's the argan.

You're gonna try to press this?

Maybe take it home and press it for some oil, for some cosmetics, right?

Sue: They tell me that just one nut makes so little oil that I would need very, very many to make any kind of product out of it.

And I probably will understand now why it is so expensive!

Jason: And maybe buy it this time to support the farmer, right?

Sue: Yeah, I'll do that.

♪♪♪ Jason: And thanks to the cooperative that farmers belong to, women from this area are employed at facilities like this one near Agadir, improving lives in this poor rural region.

♪♪♪ Jason: So it's clear that programs are improving lives on the ground here.

But are they really helping US farmers?

A visit to a chicken farm in Morocco provides some answers.

The growth of the Moroccan poultry industry is tied to US efforts in the 1990's when the US Grains Council helped poultry farmers form an association.

The chicken farmers lobbied the government to reduce corn import tariffs.

Now modern-style poultry operations like this one are popping up across the countryside.

Khaireddine Soussi is the association's president.

Jason: Anytime you're asking people to change the way they do things, that they've been doing for generations, it's a challenge.

That's the way it is around the world.

Has it been a challenge to convince people to adopt these practices?

Jason: Today Morocco imports 1.8 million tons of corn.

That's up from less than 400 thousand before the tariff was reduced.

The corn is imported to places like the Alf Sahel feed mill near El Jaddida.

It's rare for US farmers like Dave Roehm to talk directly with millers like the owners of Alf Sahel.

But today he gets to hear just how busy they have been importing grain!

Jason: That translates into higher grain prices for farmers, evidence that agricultural trade associations say of the success of their overseas efforts.

A recent study found that for every dollar farmers like Dave Roehm invest into these programs, they get back $37 in income.

But developing overseas markets is a long-term investment with payoff that isn't always immediate, evidenced as we explore the market for wheat in Morocco.

Here, Casablanca residents bring their wheat to small neighborhood mills to be milled for baking at home.

The raw wheat arrives by bike, car.... Jason:....they even bringing wheat bringing wheat by taxi!

Jason: On first blush, it's hard to see where large scale efforts could find a market for US wheat imports in this kind of system.

But compare the traditional corner mill to the TRIA Mill not far away.... Dave: We just came from a small neighborhood mill where they were grinding 10 or 20 kilos of wheat.

What's the difference between that and what we're seeing now?

Jason: This is where US wheat producers see a growing opportunity.

And it's why in 1994, US Wheat Associates invested millions of dollars to partner in a wheat milling school in Casablanca.

Similar to Egypt, the US can't compete on price against closer producers.

But the school helps millers recognize and utilize the value of specific types of higher-quality wheat to be milled for specialty breads and pastries.

Jason: The Roehm's got to sample some of the pastries that are becoming popular as incomes rise in Morocco's metropolitan areas.

♪♪♪ Jason: Corner bakeries like this one with high-end pastry products are popular.

Moroccan's eat more than twice as many wheat-based products per capita than people in the US.

So even if the overall market share for US wheat is just over 10 percent, it adds up to more than 11 million bushels a year.

From Egyptian water buffalo to Moroccan pastries, as economies around the world improve, so does the market for US agricultural products.

And as Dave and Sue Roehm discovered, it's a complicated story that requires long-term commitment and working to improve methods but not impose beliefs.

Sue: I think that when I go out and look at our corn and our wheat fields, I will have a different perspective of those crops growing out there and thinking that they could actually be on somebody's table over in Egypt or Morocco in the form of a bread or that corn could have been fed to their cattle.

It just really makes you feel good about being a farmer in America and being able to have a product that can be used worldwide.

There's much more on America's Heartland at our website including video on the stories from today's show.

You can also give us your feedback.

Just log onto americasheartland.org.

♪ You can see it in the eyes of every woman and man ♪ ♪ in America's Heartland living close to the land.

♪ ♪ There's a love for the country ♪ ♪ and a pride in the brand ♪ ♪ in America's Heartland living close, ♪ ♪ close to the land.

♪ America's Heartland is made possible by....

The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture dedicated to building greater awareness and understanding of agriculture through education and engagement.

More information at agfoundation.org ♪♪♪