Dan Cathy has taken an active role in his family's business since he was a small child scraping gum from underneath the counter of his father's small restaurant outside Atlanta.

Today Cathy serves as the president of the Chick-fil-A his family started in 1946. The business has grown into a chain of more than 1,200 restaurants in the U.S.

Cathy served as the keynote speaker of the 31st annual Lancaster Chamber of Commerce & Industry Agriculture Industry Banquet Thursday night, highlighting the importance of continuing family legacies in both business and agriculture.

He said less than a third of family businesses today make it to a second generation as succeeding generations feel the need to branch into other enterprises.

"We don't even realize how much (information) has been poured into us all these years — all those breakfast conversations, dinner conversations," Cathy said.

The annual banquet that brings together hundreds of representatives from industry, agriculture and politics also highlights local farmers through such honors as the Century Farm Award.

This year two families — Dean E. Bare of Bird-in-Hand and John, Paul and Mae Kline of Lititz — received acknowledgment for farming the same land for more than 100 years.

The Kline family has been continuously farming their land north of Lititz on Snyder Hill Road since 1741, raising tobacco from 1875 to 1969 and poultry from 1968 until 2002. Today they grow corn, soybeans, barley and hay and have a small flock of sheep.

"Lancaster County's worldwide reputation has been cultivated and planted by the people that are in this room tonight," Chamber president Tom Baldridge said.

State Sen. Mike Brubaker was honored with the George C. Delp Award, given annually to a Lancaster County resident who has made significant contributions to agriculture.

Brubaker serves as the chairman of the state Senate Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee and previously owned Brubaker Consulting Group Inc., which grew into the fifth-largest agricultural consulting company in the United States.

"I can't imagine a better place to live, to work and a better place to serve than in Lancaster County," Brubaker said.

Mary Henry, chair of the Lancaster Chamber agriculture committee, said the local agricultural community is facing serious questions in the near future, including what role renewable energy will play in the market, how to turn excess manure into an asset instead of a detriment and finding a reliable work force to maintain fields and barns.

Henry said Lancaster County continues to be one of the most agriculturally productive areas in the world.

"Each of our farms and our ag businesses are essential components of our county's economy," Henry said.

E-mail: myoder@lnpnews.com