Agri-Pulse Open Mic Interview

This week’s Open Mic guest is U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. On the sidelines of a meeting with constituents early last week, the senior Senator from Kentucky took time to discuss the nation’s fiscal policy, infrastructure spending, the conflict in Afghanistan, climate and voter rights issues. McConnell discusses the political climate in Washington and the nation’s energy policy as well as the state of the hemp industry following the 2018 farm bill.

This week’s Open Mic guest is Rita Hite, Executive Vice President for External Relations and Policy for the American Forest Foundation. As the nation’s leaders draw attention to climate change and carbon sequestration, the American Forest Foundation touts the role families and individual forest land owners can play in pulling carbon from the atmosphere. While crop and livestock producers may offer more immediate results, Hite says forest lands can easily double their benefit to the atmosphere. Improved results may be slower in coming but the end result is greater returns for rural economies and verified results from wooded acres.

This week’s Open Mic guest is Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D. As a member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations and ranking member on the agriculture subcommittee, the former governor of North Dakota has led a bipartisan effort to bring financial relief to drought-stricken farmers and ranchers in his state. He’s counting on additional short-term assistance from the USDA and is hopeful the budget process will deliver much-needed resources before the end of the year. Hoeven is concerned over the price tag and tax provisions included in the Majority’s budget reconciliation proposal and hopes those concerns are shared by Moderate Democrats on Capitol Hill.

This week’s Open Mic guest is Greg Hanes, CEO of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board. As the nation’s cattle producers gather in Nashville this week, the Beef Board will be celebrating the 35th anniversary of the beef checkoff. Hanes believes producer promotion and research have helped to solidify beef’s place in the diet and its overall value is helping grow demand domestically and around the globe. Hanes speaks to the legal challenges facing checkoff programs, changing consumer influences and the opportunities ahead for the industry.

This week’s Open Mic guest is Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn. In a state noted for its lakes and natural beauty, dry weather remains a huge issue for livestock and crop farmers alike. Smith says additional federal support may be needed in her state and others. In this interview, Smith discusses the two infrastructure packages at play on Capitol Hill as well as concerns over federal spending. Smith is a strong supporter of the Renewable Fuel Standard but agrees with a balanced “all of the above” attitude toward the nation’s energy needs. She shares concerns over cattle price discovery and sees labor issues as a top priority for the ag industry.

This week’s Open Mic guest is U.S. Senator Charles Grassley. The Iowa ag leader is in the thick of issues from renewable fuel policy to global trade agreements. Grassley wants a government response to cattle price discovery and offers a willingness to compromise on policy options. The meatpacking industry will be the focus of a pair of hearings this week, one by the Senate Judiciary Committee, and another by a House Agriculture subcommittee. He also offers insights on confined animal feeding operations, interstate commerce, sustainable agriculture, EPA and USTR.

This week’s Open Mic guest is Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont. As a third-generation farmer, Tester and his wife are seeing firsthand the devastating impact of drought in the West. Tester supports infrastructure spending and government outlays to pull the country out of the pandemic-induced recession. In this interview, he speaks to the issues of consolidation, competition and transparency in the cattle market as well as California’s Proposition 12 and recently proposed legislation to eliminate CAFOs by 2040.

This week’s Open Mic guest is Tracy Zea, president and CEO of the Waterways Council, Inc. Formed about 20 years ago WCI’s mission is to lobby for improvements to the nation’s inland waterways system. Zea says an outdated and antiquated locks and dams infrastructure continues to support a large percentage of the nation’s GDP. While legislation authorizing the upgrade of a number of facilities has been approved by Congress, funding has been lacking to see actual work begin on these projects. Zea and WCI are hopeful President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan will include much-needed dollars to upgrade the river transportation system.

This week’s Open Mic guest is Karsten Temme, CEO of Pivot Bio. Genetic engineering of commercial crops has brought tremendous increases in productivity and sustainability. Microbial science is proving its worth in preserving plant health and providing much-needed nutrients for sustainable production. Pivot Bio offers biological solutions to plant nutrition to displace synthetic fertilizer with nitrogen from the atmosphere. In this interview, Temme outlines the science that could provide tremendous strides in productivity and sustainability.

This week’s Open Mic guest is Leslie Sarasin, president and CEO of FMI-The Food Industry Association. The COVID-19 pandemic brought a tremendous strain on nearly every aspect of the food industry and seemingly overnight changes in consumer shopping patterns. Sarasin suggests many of those new paradigms are here to stay. FMI’s Grocery Shopper Trends survey indicates technology will play a greater role in how consumers shop for food and some well-defined differences in shopper attitudes and motivations. Sarasin suggests the farmer’s role in sustainable food production has an even greater role in consumer food selection.