Message from Commissioner Rudolph Shulterbrandt
 President of the Agriculture and Food Fair



 WELCOME TO OUR 11TH ANNUAL AGRICULTURE AND
FOOD FAIR. We are all in this together.
 Our Fair is a pooled mixture of Food Production, Agricultural
Science, Food Science Technology, Education, Business, and
Handicrafts surrounded by a wall of recreation.
 Each year our pool gets deeper, and its ripples become wider
and wider as they increase in number. Our Fair is a tiny mirror of
what can be done and what needs to be done in agriculture, if we
truly want to accomplish our goals of significantly increasing food
production in the Virgin Islands.
 I am happy that so many of you are now seriously considering
the importance of food production in a positive way. Your re-
sponses to our communications and your demands for services is a
strong indication of your desire to become involved in a public
commitment to agriculture development.
 Our Governor, Juan Luis, demonstrated his sincerity by in-
creasing the budget of our Department by over 40%. Though this
will not suffice our needs, it did.however, make it possible for us
to initiate portions of our new agricultural policy. When this policy
becomes fully implemented, the Virgin Islands will have one of the
best frameworks for agricultural development under the U.S. flag.
 On behalf of our Board of Directors, I wish to thank all of our
participants, advertisers and entertainers; the Grand Union and
Pueblo Supermarkets for their cash contributions; Our Governor,
Juan Luis; the 13th Legislature; the employees of our Department
of Agriculture and the land-grant programs of the College of the
Virgin Islands; and the general public who enthusiastically come to
the Fair each year.