Dr. Hans Kok used his time Tuesday night to compare and contrast his homeland of the Netherlands and his adopted home of the United States.
Kok was the keynote speaker at the Kosciusko County Soil & Water Conservation District Annual Meeting.
Kok is currently the coordinator for Indiana's Conservation Cropping Systems Initiative.
He received a bachelors and masters in science from the Agricultural University in the Netherlands and a Ph.D. in agricultural engineering from the University of Idaho.
He has lived in the United States since 1984.
"I'm one of those pesky foreign exchange students who never left," said Kok.
His program is involved in working with cover crops, no-till farming, precision farming and nutrient and plant management.
He spoke about the importance of erosion control and showed slides of different areas in the world with erosion troubles.
"Whole civilizations have gone under because they didn't control erosion," said Kok. "Erosion has an impact on your lives."
He spent much of his time as keynote speaker comparing and contrasting both farming and cultural differences between two countries.
Kok noted that the Netherlands is densely populated as it is much smaller than Indiana but has 16.4 million people living there.
Despite the shortage of land, the Netherlands exports $54 billion in agricultural exports a year. That is 2/3 of what the United States does in a year.
According to Kok, 3.5 percent of people work in agriculture in the Netherlands and there are 4 million acres of farmland in the country.
The cost for such land is much more expensive in the Netherlands. An acre of farmland in Indiana may go for about $6,000 while in the Netherlands it will go for easily two to four times that amount.
The biggest Dutch export is ornaments and cut flowers while dairy is second and pork is third.
In the United States, people spend less than 10 percent of their net income on food while that number is around 14 percent in the Netherlands and that doesn't include going out to eat said Kok.
The top tax bracket in the Netherlands is around 60 percent for those making $100,000 or more.
Culturally, older generations of Dutch are very pro-American while younger people have mixed feelings toward the U.S. said Kok.
"Young people hate America but try to be American so bad," said Kok.
He also said that while the warnings on cigarettes in the Netherlands, 80 percent of people smoke there.
Drinking is much more socially acceptable in the Netherlands said Kok and he asserted that since the drinking age is lower, by the time students get to college its not as big of a deal to drink.
The drinking age there is 16 though Kok said that isn't enforced. The driving age is 18 but most people ride bikes instead of drive.
Kok also gave some advice to those traveling in the Netherlands to bring pocket change because all of the public restrooms are pay.
Before Kok's presentation, several awards were handed out. Wawasee High School earned the Soil Judging Team Award.
The award goes to the top high school judging team in the county.
Team members are Seth Helfers, Katrina Simbeck, Zach Bussie and Brittany Ryckman.
Their coach is Randy Warren.
Tony Zimmeran won the River Friendly Farmer Award.
The focus of the award is environmental stewardship. It is based nine criteria that rate conservation practices such as erosion control and nutrient and pest management.
Zimmerman was unable to attend Tuesday night.
Jim Scott earned the Certificate of Appreciation.
Scott was recognized for, among other things, providing meeting space and field opportunities for several events, including cover crop workshops and field days.
Jeff Wise earned the Distinguished Service award. Wise was recognized for his leadership and his role as a board supervisor as well as its secretary/treasurer.
Lyle Enyeart won the Conservation Education Award. Enyeart was noted for his work on a program that saw nearly 1,000 high school students climb into rafts on either Grassy Creek or the Tippecanoe River to learn the value of water resources.
John Dome was awarded with the Conservation Farmer of the Year award.
Dome farms in Monroe and Jackson Townships. He was noted for adopting a no-till planting system more than 20 years ago. All of his crops are no-till planted.
The Master Farmer award was awarded posthumously to Richard Sponseller. He passed away in December but before that he operated Sponseller Brother Farms which includes hog and chicken production and approximately 1,000 acres in western Kosciusko County.
His wife, Donna Sponseller, along with his daughter Kim Waggoner and grandson Nick Harker were on hand to accept the award.
