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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Sunday, February 02, 2025
This week’s guest on Open Mic is Roger Johnson, President of the National Farmers Union. As Washington appears closer to approving new farm policy, Johnson fears the policy won’t be enough to protect farmers in the current market environment. He offers a strong opinion on the Trump administration’s trade policy with China and offers guarded support for the newly signed USMCA. For 2019, Johnson sees an opportunity for better legislation from both sides of the political aisle.
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.
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.