Education Quote by Alan Autry

The line is boosterism with a friendly grin: a pitch for a future where Silicon Valley brainpower doesn’t replace farm country, but upgrades it. Coming from Alan Autry, an actor-turned-public figure, it has the cadence of civic optimism rather than policy precision. The intent is to make “high tech” feel nonthreatening to communities proud of their agricultural identity, especially in places like California’s Central Valley where Autry has political ties and where “tech” can read as coastal, extractive, and culturally alien.

The key move is the phrase “perfect complement.” It smooths over an old fight: innovation versus tradition, laptops versus land. “Complement” implies harmony and mutual benefit, while quietly conceding agriculture’s primacy through “our world-renowned agriculture heritage.” That possessive “our” is doing heavy lifting, signaling allegiance to local pride before inviting outsiders with capital, labs, and manufacturing jobs.

Subtext: this is an economic development argument designed to rebrand a region. It courts companies that do “research, development and production” not just coding, because tangible facilities mean payrolls, tax base, and political wins you can point to. It’s also a gentle nudge to stop seeing agriculture as nostalgic and start treating it as a platform for biotech, irrigation tech, logistics, and food innovation.

What makes it work rhetorically is its coalition-building instinct: it promises modernity without surrender, progress without shame, and a path where the people who feed the country also get to host the next wave of industry.