Agri-Pulse Open Mic Interview

With the need to feed an estimated nine billion people by 2050, the U.S. government is taking a more comprehensive approach to addressing food security issues. Jonathan Shrier, the acting Special Representative for Global Food Security and Deputy Coordinator of Diplomacy at the State Department, describes the 'Feed the Future' initiative, which involves ten agencies, led by the Agency for Internat...

Dr. John Boozman, a Republican from Arkansas, is in his first term in the U.S. Senate following five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. He serves on the Agriculture Committee and is keenly aware of the needs of Arkansas farmers who grow a wide variety of crops. Boozman addresses the long process of getting the Farm, Food and Jobs bill through Congress and delves into specifics on commodit...

Paul Hammes is Vice President and General Manager for Agricultural Shipping at the Union Pacific Railroad. He joined UP ten years ago in a period of merger and transition in the rail industry. Hammes previously held various trading, asset management and transportation roles with Cargill. He has served as chair of the National Grain and Feed Association's Shipper/Receiver Committee and is a trustee...

Who would have thought that a self-made man who started as a truck driver would become one of the biggest thorns in the side of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)? Forrest Lucas, president of Lucas Oil, launched a new organization, Protect the Harvest, (www.protecttheharvest.com), to fight HSUS and others trying to negatively impact animal agriculture. Lucas is a strong voice for free...

Dr. Keith Collins served in the federal government for 32 years, working with several Agriculture Secretaries as USDA's Chief Economist for the last 15 years of his career before retiring in 2008. During his tenure, federal crop insurance evolved to be the primary safety net for the majority of U.S. farmers. Collins, now a consultant for the crop insurance industry, discusses how crop insurance is...

Congressman Mike Conaway is a Republican from a rural and agricultural district of west central Texas. He is the subcommittee chair for general farm commodities and risk management of the agriculture committee. Conaway sits just below the four principal negotiators on the conference committee for the farm, food and jobs bill that is currently being negotiated. He stated last week that he disagreed...

Congressman Steve Southerland is a Republican from Florida. He may be best known for an amendment to the 2013 House Farm Legislation that required a work component for a certain sector of recipients to continue receiving food aid. The "Southerland Amendment", upon party line passage, caused Democrat support to disintegrate and the the first defeat of farm legislation since it originated in the 193...

In the 1960's, Dr. Mary Del Chilton, a biologist, had an interest in a bacterium that would snip the genes of a tobacco plant and allow scientific manipulation or gene splicing. She was not sure it was anything that had commercial viability until CIBA-GEIGY (now Syngenta) came to see her at Washington University in St. Louis, where she was teaching. They convinced her to bring her skills to the fl...

As House and Senate leaders head into a farm bill conference meeting this week, Sen. Amy Klobuchar provides keen insight on the negotiations. She says the challenge is to merge the reductions in spending, contained in the House of Representatives Farm Bill, with the more moderate reductions in the Senate bill and to mediate those provisions in the final bill. She discusses the prospect of rolling...

Ray Offenheiser is President of Oxfam America, a Non-Governmental Organization that focuses on food aid to developing countries. Oxfam is a member of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network and favors major reform in the food aid system, moving away from shipping grain in more costly American flag vessels to buying food near the area of famine to support the region, citing proposals offered by...

Jo Ann Emerson recently became the CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperatives after a distinguished seventeen year career as a U.S. Representative from Missouri. She is only the fifth leader of the NRECA since it's inception. Major concerns of Rural Electric Coop's, and their members, include the need for Congressional assistance to serve low population areas and increased regulation and othe...

Ambassador Kenneth Quinn, President of the World Food Prize, joins us for a wide-ranging interview on Open Mic. This week, the WFP event will be held in Des Moines, Iowa with many internationally acclaimed speakers including Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Roman Catholic Cardinal Peter Turkson from Ghana. The WFP honors three scientists in 2013 who dedicated their careers to commercia...

Right Honorable Ambassador Mike Moore serves the New Zealand government from the embassy in Washington, D.C. He is a former Director General of the World Trade Organization, In that capacity, he initiated the Doha Round of the WTO and saw the assention of China into the trade body. He expresses regret at the inaction of the WTO but has hope it remains a means to negotiate disputes. Amb. Moore is a...

Recognized as one of the most influential people in bioenergy, James C. Collins, Jr. is senior vice president for DuPont, in charge of Industrial Biosciences, Performance Polymers and Packaging & Industrial Polymers businesses. He is leading the effort to bring advanced biofuels to market, especially through a new generation cellulosic ethanol plant in Nevada, Iowa. Collins will testify this w...

With international trade negotiations offering the potential for stronger ag exports, it's important to understand some of the key differences between the U.S. and other trading partners. In this week's Open Mic, John Dardis tells how the Irish view some of the trade barriers on both sides of the Atlantic. Dardis is a fifth generation farmer, who trained as a plant breeder, and currently serves as...

The Chair of the Senate Agriculture, Committee, Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), is ready to bring the 2013 farm bill to closure. She expressed frustration with delays in the House of Representatives and stands strongly on the side of providing food assistance to those in need. Stabenow explains the politics of the bill and how the President is monitoring the legislation. Action by the House to appoint con...

Agricultural Research Service Administrator Edward B. Knipling guided nearly 2,000 scientists with a focus on the Agricultural Research Service as the working arm of USDA science and an organization of national responsibility. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack said it best: "Dr. Knipling retires with 46 years of service to the American people through the advancement of science.'' In a prestigious career de...

Mark Jackson is President of the Iowa Soybean Association and like many farmers, is uncertain about the size of this year's soybean crop. He's also frustrated by the lack of action on a farm bill and the implications of not having legislation in place to provide food security for the United States. In this week's Open Mic, he also shares how his association has been very active in reaching out to...

Sen. Mitch McConnell has been the Minority Leader of the Senate since January 3, 2007 and is the longest serving U.S. Senator in Kentucky history, but he's facing tough re-election battles heading into 2014. On this week's Open Mic, he talks about the challenges associated with passing a new farm bill and why going back to the 1949 permanent law would be "insane." In this wide-ranging interview, h...

Brett Stuart is President of Global AgriTrends. He was formerly with the U.S. Meat Export Federation before becoming an independent consultant in the meat trade. Stuart's view is that China and Russia do not want "cheap" imports of meat and grain because it reduces their ability to be self sufficient in food production. He examines the politics and the economics of China and Russia and the role th...

Bill Wykes is a soybean farmer and the past chair of the Illinois Soybean Association. He is a strong advocate of biotechnology and utilization of science and innovation in agriculture. Wykes is concerned about regulatory and trade issues facing biotechnology and has encouraged the ISA to host a symposium on the dynamics of international biotechnology. Bill Wykes

Lynn Jenkins is the second district U.S. Representative from Kansas. She grew up on a dairy farm near Holton. She is in her third term and has risen to vice-chair of the Republican house conference. Jenkins speaks out about federal agencies and their heavy handed approach in regulating business and industry. She has co-sponsored legislation to allow citizens to have a stronger defense against a go...

Congressman Dave Loebsack, who recently hosted Rep. Collin Peterson, the ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, in his southeastern Iowa district, explains why he and other Democrats could not support the split farm bill that passed the House a few weeks ago with only GOP votes. Loebsack is quite concerned about failure to get a farm bill through Congress this year and cites his conc...

Dr Richard Raymond is a former Undersecretary for Food Safety with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He addresses the social and political ramifications of use of antibiotics and growth promotants in livestock. Dr Raymond sees a direct correlation between the rise of social media and the rise in consumer fears of antibiotic use in livestock, lean finely textured meat and ractopamine. He offers c...

Fresh from voting on a split farm bill that creates a new permanent farm law, Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas, tells why GOP leaders decided to pursue this path. Neugebauer represents the 19th Congressional District of Texas that covers several counties of the Texas Panhandle and the cities of Abilene and Lubbock and serves as a senior member on the Agriculture Committee. He describes last week's f...