This week’s Open Mic guest is EPA Agriculture Advisor, Rod Snyder. The Environmental Protection Agency often finds itself in the middle of converging opinions on pesticides, fuel and clean water issues. With 20 years of experience working for farm groups, farm associations and the chemical industry, Snyder is often the practical voice of reason at the agency’s decision making process. Snyder says flat budgets and a smaller staff make it difficult for the agency to accomplish its heavy work load. On crop protection products, Snyder stands by the work of EPA scientists and the safety protocols they employ. Snyder says his door is open to the agriculture community to voice their support and concerns.

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. 

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 production practices like those in California and Massachusetts. He also discusses the Biden administration's ruling on packer line speeds, ag labor and more. 

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 critical to grow market access in the presence of HPAI.

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.