This week’s Open Mic guest is, Minnesota Congresswoman Angie Craig. The 2^nd District Democrat is a staunch supporter of both farm and nutrition programs and recognizes the challenge of meeting the needs of the nation while keeping an eye on overall spending. Craig supports Title 1 spending in the farm bill as well as crop insurance but says the biggest obstacle in writing new farm policy is protecting the interest of small and beginning farmers. Craig admits the nutrition title has a hefty price tag but doesn’t believe this is a time for Washington to turn its back on families in need. Craig supports renewable fuels and will again work in the new Congress to bring higher renewable blends to the nation’s consumers.  Craig isn’t satisfied with the EPA’s new Waters of the U.S. definition and would like to see a stronger push by the Biden administration on gaining market access for the nation’s farmers and ranchers.

This week’s Open Mic guest is Greg Tyler, President and CEO of the US Poultry and Egg Export Council. Our conversation took place while Greg was on a tour of Asian customers and dealing first hand 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 critical to grow market access in the presence of HPAI as well as deal with production practices and vaccines that might further limit global market access.

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 states and countries are considering various restrictions on food packaging and waste disposal that would be very challenging for growers, shippers and packers to meet. Kelly says the packaging industry continues to research biobased packaging materials, but says thus far none have proven effective or affordable for retailers or consumers. 

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 greenhouse gas reductions throughout the entire livestock value chain with an overall goal of greater environmental sustainability for animal agriculture. 

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 soy products. Sutter says production sustainability is becoming a greater priority in some markets which is a big advantage for U.S. soybean farmers and he sees increases in both global demand and production of oilseeds. 

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 solar generation to the base load capacity of the system. At the state and federal level, Highley says rural cooperatives need faster permitting, less regulatory red tape, and better access to funds to assist in generating and delivering power to rural America.