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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Sunday, February 23, 2025
This week’s Open Mic guest is Andy LaVigne, President and CEO of the American Seed Trade Association. For almost a century and a half members of ASTA have worked to improve seed genetics for farmers around the world. LaVigne says opportunities to advance seed genetics are improving with the advent of genetic modification and gene editing. The limitation includes that of consumer acceptance and government approval. LaVigne says consumer desire for healthier and better food are a catalyst for growth, while the industry battles an outdated regulatory system to keep up with new plant traits. ASTA believes better seed can lead to improved sustainability practices and increased production to meet the needs of a growing planet.
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 in machine repairs as well as more efficient field operations. Case-IH supports farmer repairs to their machines. Coffey says proposed tariffs on Canadian imports as well as tariffs on steel could impact their operating margins in the year ahead.
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 Trump’s first term and now as a member of the Trump Cabinet. Speaking on the sidelines of her first event outside the Beltway as Secretary, Rollins shared thoughts on building her team at USDA, working with other cabinet members and how downsizing government may impact the work of the USDA.
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 the number of institutions and farmers since the farm crisis of the 1980’s, but the amount of debt continues to climb. He discusses softer farmland values in some areas, the interest rate environment, and future areas of focus for the FCA.
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 future. Missouri landowners are facing property rights issues as the private Grain Belt Express has been given the power of eminent domain to run transmission lines across the state.
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 as easy to develop as the process involves creating molecules of actual jet fuel instead of simply blending the product. Favorable regulations, incentives, subsidies and carbon sequestration will all have to be accomplished in order to open this new opportunity for farmers and the ag industry.