This week's guest on Open Mic is Donnell Rehagen, CEO of the National Biodiesel Board. The renewable biodiesel industry has seen much growth in production capacity and market demand, but is still short of its 2022 goal of a tenth of domestic diesel volume.  This exclusive interview reveals a need for legislative attention to tax extenders, a continued call for a shift of tax benefits from producers to blenders and a desire for predictable volume standards from the EPA for biodiesel. 

Jeff Nalley

Donnell Rehagen, CEO of the National Biodiesel Board

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. Washington has proven that financial support for renewable fuels as well as electricity from solar and wind sources can influence growth. Moving forward, the question remains which energy sources will see favor from Capitol Hill and what agricultural practices investors will support toward a greener environment and stronger food security. 

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 of uncertainty surrounding the farm bill, tax policy and tariffs. Despite challenges, Conner believes legislators will take action on taxes and hopefully a new set of farm and nutrition programs. 

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 debt ceiling, which are all critical issues facing the 119^th Congress.

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 glyphosate are limiting the company’s investments in innovation and may result in eliminating the sale of a herbicide that many farmers consider essential to sustainable production. 

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 a bright future for growth in the use of soil microbes to increase productivity, reduce nutrient costs and boost producer sustainability.