Agri-Pulse Open Mic Interview

This week's Open Mic guest is Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman. The Arkansas Republican says updating farm programs under budget reconciliation won't be easy but is a way forward to update risk management tools for farmers. Boozman believes SNAP program funds can be cut without reducing benefits for those in need and discusses President Trump's tariff tactics to bring better trad...

This week's Open Mic guest is Dr. Rob Johansson, Director of Economics and Policy Analysis for the American Sugar Alliance. Johansson says sugar growers are facing the same economic headwinds of high input costs and marginal commodity prices. Growers hope for a new farm bill with updates in crop insurance and marketing loan prices reflective of current market conditions. Johansson says growers sti...

This week's Open Mic guest is Beth Ford, President and CEO of Land O' Lakes. While the cooperative is known for its dairy products, Ford says two thirds of their member enterprises are in other segments of agriculture. Ford says low bulk commodity returns coupled with inflation's impact on inputs have brought financial stress to many operations and uncertainty over global market access further clo...

This week's Open Mic guest is Steve Censky, CEO of the American Soybean Association.  Soybean farmers face surmountable challenges from low crop prices, high input costs and an uncertain future demand outlook. Censky hopes the current trade war is short-lived and brings worthy results. Censky says soybean farmers are watching closely the downsizing at USDA and holding out hope Congress can deliver...

This week's Open Mic guest is Congressman Frank Lucas. The Oklahoma 3rd District representative says covid, global military conflicts and trade have heightened concern surrounding the size of the nation's debt. He believes it is right to question government spending with proper oversight and says the upcoming budget reconciliation process will be the "wildest political rodeo" voters have ever seen...

This week’s Open Mic guest is Adam Bergman, Managing Director at EchoTech Capital. While opinions still widely vary regarding what sustainability really means, Bergman stands in the gap between would be investors and those willing to adopt certain sustainable practices.  In agriculture the topics include regenerative farming,  a vast array of climate smart practices and even indoor farming. Washin...

This week’s Open Mic guest is Chuck Conner, president and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. Conner suggests the nation’s farmer owned cooperatives are well stocked as producers prepare for the 2025 growing season. Conner says many co-ops anticipated tariff issues and took early shipment of supplies for this season. A veteran of Capitol Hill policy debates, he acknowledges plenty...

This week’s Open Mic guest is Bill Hoagland, senior vice president of the Bipartisan Policy Center. In a day where Washington faces mounting issues of government outlays and rising national debt, Hoagland say partisanship must give way to solutions that maintain essential federal programs and services. Hoagland provides key insights on budget reconciliation, DOGE, tax reform, a farm bill and the d...

This week’s Open Mic guest is Bill Anderson, CEO of Bayer AG. The global company is heavily invested in developing innovative technology for farmers around the world. The company’s pursuit of crop genetics, herbicide resistance, chemical crop protection and data management has benefitted farmer goals toward both sustainability and productivity. Anderson tells Agri-Pulse that legal challenges to gl...

This week’s Open Mic guest is Chris Abbott, CEO of Pivot Bio. The California company was formed 15 years ago with a premise of using soil microbes to utilize naturally occurring nitrogen to sustainably feed plants and replace synthetic fertilizers. After going commercial five years ago, the company continues to grow the number of farmers and acres utilizing their gene edited products. Abbott sees...

This week’s guest on Open Mic is U.S. Representative John Garamendi. California's 8th district Democrat is a strong advocate for agriculture, nutrition programs and global humanitarian aid. As a member of the Agriculture Research Caucus, Garamendi believes DOGE cuts in government employees and spending cuts will lead to ill fated consequences for farmers in the form of crop and livestock disease r...

This week’s Open Mic guest is Kurt Coffey, Vice-President, Case IH North America. Reduced farm income has resulted in lower volume sales of large agriculture equipment in the nation.  Coffey expects some improvement if USDA releases disaster and economic assistance funds approved in the continuing resolution in the latter hours of the 118th Congress. Coffey says artificial intelligence is helping...

This week’s Open Mic guest is U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. Less than 24 hours after being sworn in as the 33rd lead of the Department of Agriculture in Washington, Brooke Rollins found herself in Louisville, Kentucky being introduced in Freedom Hall at the Championship Tractor Pull. A native of the small town of Glen Rose, Texas, her career path led to the White House in President Tr...

This week’s Open Mic guest is Jeffery Hall, Board Chairman and CEO of the Farm Credit Administration and the longest serving member of the current FCA board. Hall reports system debt at the end of 2024 at just over $448 billion dollars - just shy of an 8% increase from the end of 2023. Since the beginning of 2020, system debt outstanding has grown over 52%. The FCA has seen a dramatic downturn in...

This week’s Open Mic guest is Garrett Hawkins, President of the Missouri Farm Bureau Federation.  Hawkins says his state’s farmers echo calls to Washington to get a new, modernized farm bill approved as quickly as possible. Hawkins says his state takes issue with the Biden administration’s Green New Deal policies favoring electricity instead of an “all of the above” approach to the nation’s energy...

This week’s Open Mic guest is Paul Bertels, Principal and Senior Consultant for Farmgate Insights. Much attention is given to the potential demand for billions of bushels of row crops should they be included as acceptable feedstocks for sustainable aviation fuel. Drawing from his long career with the National Corn Growers Association and the ethanol industry, Bertles says the SAF market won’t be a...

This week’s Open Mic guest is Bryan Humphreys, CEO of the National Pork Producers Council. Swine producers are coming off a period of negative returns thanks to ample demand from domestic and global consumers. Humphreys says pork producers are concerned about the consequences of potential tariffs on global market access and hope for a farm bill which would include limits on state mandated producti...

This week’s Open Mic guest is Greg Tyler, President and CEO of the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council. Tyler spoke with us while he was visiting Asian customers and dealing firsthand with issues like avian influenza, potential tariffs from the coming Trump administration, as well as a weak global economy and a strong U.S. dollar. Tyler says new trade negotiations and trade enforcement will be crit...

This week’s Open Mic guest is Kevin Kelly, CEO of Emerald Packaging. The global packaging industry is expected to grow to over $600 billion dollars by 2033. Kelly says packaging is essential to limit food waste and maintain fresh produce quality for consumers across the country and around the globe. But just as health experts encourage higher consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, several sta...

This week’s Open Mic guest is Paul Myer, CEO of Athian. The company is creating an industry-led platform to assist in funding carbon projects within the livestock value chain which enables producers to make systemic change while optimizing their operations. The company values both the economic viability of producers and the health of the environment. The platform helps to combine, certify and fund...

This week’s Open Mic guest is Jim Sutter, CEO of the U.S. Soybean Export Council. As trade tensions with China have shifted more of their imports from Brazil, U.S. soybean farmers have successfully diversified their global demand base. Sutter says domestic supplies have higher quality than soybeans from anywhere else in the world and thus prove a better value for customers both in raw beans and in...

This week’s Open Mic guest is Duane Highley, CEO of Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association. This western cooperative is embracing the growing need for electric power among its one million customers and 200,000 square miles of challenging terrain with an “all of the above” approach to power generation. Highley says the cooperative is utilizing advanced battery technology to add wind and...

This week’s Open Mic guest is Mariah Scott, CEO of Rantizo. Drone technology is being utilized at an amazing pace across many aspects of industry and especially agriculture. Spray drones now cover millions of acres of crops and the potential for growth is astronomical. Scott has been instrumental in forming the American Spray Drone Coalition, which is speaking out against legislation that would li...

This week’s Open Mic guest is Dr. Tom Zacharias, President of the National Crop Insurance Services. Crop insurance companies have proven effective in providing risk management resources for farmers and ranchers who have suffered losses from various extreme weather events over the past several months. He outlines many of the changes the industry has undergone and how the public-private partnership...

This week’s guest on Open Mic is Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, CEO of Feeding America. Farmers continue to help feed the hungry, but the number of Americans who are hungry and food insecure is greater today than during the Covid pandemic. Babineaux-Fontenot says the food lines may have moved back inside the buildings, but the need for food continues to grow as contributions are down and federal commo...