With Secretary of Agriculture Joseph Bartenfelder and Chip Bowling

This is a very important time for our food supply. No one, from farmers and ranchers to supermarket leaders to the consumer can dispute how important agriculture and the universal support of agriculture is. Right now today's episode focuses on the Herculean efforts of two States, Maryland, and California, and the farmers who make those States great through the USFRA's Decade of Ag effort through Earth Day and the public private partnerships, which are all focused on the future of sustainable agriculture.

National Ag Day is a day that recognizes and celebrates the abundance provided by American agriculture. With us today to introduce the Decade of Ag are three of our vitally important leaders, as well as current and past USFRA board chairs Anne Meis, Chip Bowling and Brad Greenway.

One of the biggest problems that many farmers and ranchers have doesn't have anything to do with soil or climate or water. Yes, these are all issues that we must solve, but the one problem that is much easier and quicker to solve has to do with technology specifically connecting rural communities to broadband 5g. 

Today I'm joined by Marci Green. She and her husband Lonnie are the sixth generation on her family's farm in Southeast Spokane County. There are two sons have now joined the farming operation. They raise wheat bluegrass seed, barley, dry peas, lentils and garbanzo beans. 

Our next guest is Sam Kieffer. He serves as the American farm Bureau Federation, vice president of public affairs, where he leads the AFBF public policy advocacy and economic teams in advocating for farmers and ranchers with Congress and the administration. Sam's roots are on his family's grain and beef farm in Pennsylvania. 

The Native American Agriculture Fund provides grants to eligible organizations for business assistance, agriculture education, technical support, and advocacy services to support native farmers and ranchers. Janie Hipp is the president and CEO, and she joins us today. Janie oversees the work of the fund of philanthropic organization, responsible for distributing the remaining funds created by the settlement of the landmark Keepseagle versus Villsack class action lawsuit. Hipp also founded the indigenous food and agriculture initiative at the university of Arkansas school of law. The nation's first law school based initiative, focusing on tribal governance, strategic technical policy assistance, and native youth and professional education that supports native food systems, tribes, tribal enterprises and native entrepreneurs are optimally positioned to move beyond growing crops and raising livestock into the business of putting food in stores and on tables. The Native American agriculture fund proposes the development of 10 regional food hubs in Indian country to provide processing and distribution infrastructure for food grown and raised by tribal farmers and ranchers. With over 59 million acres of native operated farms across the United States, tribal nations and tribal producers will play a critical role in addressing climate change.

Today, it's all about dairy and with us today is Marilyn Hershey, a dairy farmer who operates a 600 cow dairy farm in Pennsylvania with her husband, Duane. She serves as the chair at Dairy Management, Inc. And is also a published author. She's the secretary of the Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association Speaker's Bureau and serves on the national dairy promotion and research board among other various community organization . Marilyn recently joined the USFRA board of directors in 2020. 

Today – we talk about the importance of agriculture research funding. Our guest today is one of the most insightful people I know, Dr. Sally Rockey, the inaugural Executive Director of the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR). Prior to this role, Sally was a leader in federal research, overseeing the operations of the extramural research programs in both agriculture and biomedicine. She spent almost twenty years with the US Department of Agriculture, where she held several positions within the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service including head of Competitive Research Grants and Chief Information Officer. From there, she spent eleven years with the National Institutes of Health (NIH). As the NIH Deputy Director for Extramural Research, she led the operations of the world’s largest extramural research program. Returning to her roots in agriculture, she has seen FFAR through its startup phase and witnessed it grow into a significant force in the agriculture research community through the development of innovative private-public research partnerships. Rockey received her doctorate degree in entomology from the Ohio State University and did postgraduate work at University of Wisconsin. She has devoted her career to improving people’s lives through research and continues this mission today.

Today we're going to have a very serious, frank and enlightened discussion on the importance of collaboration during the pandemic, COVID-19. My guests are Polly Ruhland, CEO of the United Soybean Board and Lynn Rohrscheib. Who's one of the busiest farmers that I know and a true leader during the COVID 19 pandemic. Polly is focused on the future working to identify areas of economic growth for nearly every aspect of the soybean industry, whether it's soy, that's used for animal feed protein, for human use or multitude of industrials and using bio-diesel asphalt, motor oil and even shoes. The Soy Checkoff works on behalf of us soybean farmers to advance agriculture sustainability through research education and promotion programs. Polly in concert with USB's 70 farmer/directors developed programs and partnerships that drive soybean innovation beyond the bushel and increase the preference for US Soy. 

Lynn assists in the day-to-day operations on the farm handling a wide variety of tasks from crop in the input decisions, keeping the books, handling insurance, employee health insurance, taking seed or chemicals to the field, working ground or chopping stocks and everything else that needs to be done. And that's just on the farm. She's also director and part owner of CNR ag supply and serves on the board of USB. She always knew her calling evident from her early days, pulling her red radio flyer wagon around her family's farm and farm supply business, delivering bags of seed or jugs of chemicals. She has the ninth generation to farm her family's farm in Fairmount, Illinois.

Today – its all about natural climate solutions and how they pay off. And to introduce you to a new entity that launched earlier this year that is leading the charge.  

U.S. Nature4Climate is a coalition of 10 conservation, sustainability, and business organizations, including US Farmers and Ranchers in Action that are dedicated to ensuring our forests, farms, ranches, grasslands and wetlands are an important part of the overall strategy to combat climate change.

Their goal is to create a collaborative platform where conservation organizations, the farm and forestry sectors, and corporations can work together to help ensure that Natural Climate Solutions are fully integrated into broader climate action strategies. 

As the U.S. works to address climate change, U.S. Nature4Climate will elevate these nature-based solutions as an integral part of any comprehensive climate action plan.

Natural Climate Solutions improve the health of our natural and working lands, strengthen connections between people and nature, and enhance the well-being of the plants, animals and people they support.  

We have a full house today and you won’t want to miss this episode. Our guides will explain just how important and impactful this effort is, with us are:

Nathan Henry, Project Manager, USN4C
Cathy Macdonald, Steering Committee Chair, USN4C
Kris Johnson, Deputy Director, The Nature Conservancy
Rebecca Tuuk, Forest landowner
Chip Bowling, USFRA Chairman

Today it’s all about our future – our future leaders that is. With us is Alwin Hopf who is working on his masters and PhD in Agriculture and Biological Engineering at the University of Florida and Alice Mei-Wong Dien a masters student at the university of California at Davis and was our YAS 2021 Ag-vocacy winner from the 2019 Honor the Harvest Forum.

There is so much to celebrate with all of the new partnerships, confrontational collaboration (thanks to Polly Ruhland at USB for that term) and focus on the next 30 harvests to create climate-smart, prosperous agriculture in the US.

As marketers deeply invested in food and agriculture, we believe there is even more energy and opportunity to be gained by leveraging the untapped power of consumer engagement on these initiatives. There are large, eager customer and consumer audiences ready to recognize these efforts and celebrate the brands that invest in sustainable supply chain innovations in support of farmers and ranchers … and the larger environment.

Bader Rutter is one of USFRA’s important partners to achieve these goals and help continue to spread the work from Honor the Harvest.

Bader Rutter is the country’s largest agricultural marketing agency. And through nearly 50 years of steady growth, they’ve dreamed big, planned meticulously, and fiercely championed their clients’ success.  

Joining us today on Farm Food Facts is JoDee George and Dennis Ryan who lead the Bader Rutter food and beverage practice which is focused on creating consumer and customer brand value from supply chain sustainability investments.

JoDee has worked for 20 years worked across food and agriculture marketing and strategy for America’s largest food and agriculture companies. She brings this diverse knowledge and passion to creating a sustainable, innovative path for food and agriculture producers, brands and consumers.  

Dennis has spent the better part of his extensive career telling stories for food and beverage brands from every major company in the space. After building an enviable TV-centric CPG advertising career in Chicago, he moved to Minneapolis to learn digital, social, and one-to-one marketing.