This week’s Open Mic guest is Dave Puglia, president and CEO of Western Growers. Challenges to the fresh produce industry are too numerous to mention, but food safety, an adequate workforce, water supply, crop protection tools and regulations continue to impact the future for Western Growers. Still, Puglia says legislators cannot simply “rubber stamp” an extension of the 2018 farm bill. Puglia laments the passing of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and shares his concern for the leadership shake-up in the House of Representatives.

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. 

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 limit access to drones manufactured by Chinese companies. 

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 delivers quicker help for policyholders. Zacharias says companies are financially sound and ready to provide even greater tools for crop, livestock and specialty crop growers for the season ahead. 

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 commodity donations have decreased. Babineaux-Fontenot says federal nutrition programs should be amended to avoid food “cliffs” and help individuals transition away from assistance programs. 

This week’s Open Mic guest is Ryan Heiniger, Executive Director of the Conservation Technology Information Center and Iowa farmer. He explains why CTIC has high expectations for the Sustainable Agriculture Summit scheduled for this week in Minneapolis. Heiniger discusses government programs and industry interest in helping farmers embrace sustainable agriculture practices. He previews a new "Conservation Connector" which will be introduced this week to help inform producers of assistance to bring cover crops and conservation practices to more acres and reach their 30 million acre goal by 2030.