So looking at those land conservation trends, future projections, and economic impacts, why was it so important to establish a statewide baseline?

I'm going to... share a confession today that this will be the first forum in which I've publicly announced it.

And that is that I turned 50 this year.

And as I get older, I realized that regular doctor visits become more important.

And to answer this question, I kind of want to draw a parallel, which I'm sure I just lost everybody in the audience that's younger than 40, because we all think we're invincible until We're not, right, until we're the one having to go to the doctor.

It feels every time you turn around, every month or so, there's like this other part of your body you have to go get checked out.

And so think about that process.

Ray, what are your thoughts about what gives you hope about the agriculture's future in North Carolina?

to hear something on that case from the Supreme court?

Yeah, I'll start with that because I think that's easy.

We don't know, but the Supreme Court does finish their term in June and will kind of clear their docket over the summer.

I think most of the talking heads will tell you, quote, we expect an opinion in June.

I feel very confident saying we'll know something by July, but we could know sooner.

The court releases opinions every few days or every couple of weeks throughout the remainder of their term, and depending on how much they have to grapple with this one, that opinion could come out in a matter of just weeks.

What chemical manufacturers in the U.S. were sort of faced with as it relates particularly to Roundup.

I mean, you could completely have 50 different rules to apply to your situation?

... can you, can you dig down a little for us on this?

this?You know, it's very reasonable, it's very sensible that the California court denied the injunction, but what are the chances that a California federal judge is actually gonna, you know, uphold a Trump administration rule, uh, when challenged in his local courtroom there by a, a constituency that's quite large in his backyard, which is the United Farm Workers? So we were obviously pleased with the result.

We think it's the right result.

We're grateful to the judge, who by the way, his name is, his last name is Sheriff, but we think the sheriff made the right call in this case.

There's lots of things in the last October.

It's actually called an interim rule, which means the Trump administration can come back and alter it in a final rule, and they have indicated they're gonna do that.

Nonetheless, they published a rule back in October.

Ray, if you want to pick it up from there.

I wonder if you could talk a little bit about that.

Yeah, happy to, and I th- I- I think you make a good point, Jon, that, uh, the Big Beautiful Bill, certainly the tax provisions in particular, we are grateful for, and we recognize these things are a big compromise and a big way to try to keep everybody at the table.

But there was a provision in the House version of the bill that would, without question, uh, hurt tobacco farmers, which are still a significant constituency in North Carolina.

We raise about $500 million worth of tobacco in our state.

That's half of what the entire country raises, about a billion.

Uh, of course, those dollars are then turned over in the economy, so it's a multi-billion dollar industry still.

But most of that tobacco now is headed somewhere outside the United States.

Wow.