The Business of Agriculture Podcast

Why do American farmers pay significantly more for seed and crop protection products than farmers in Brazil? A new study commissioned by the National Corn Growers Association finds that U.S. farmers face substantially higher crop input prices, with some products costing nearly twice as much as comparable inputs in Brazil. In this episode, Damian Mason speaks with NCGA Chief Economist Krista Swanson about the economic, regulatory, and market forces behind the price gap. They examine regulatory compliance costs, patent protections that can delay generic competition, market concentration among seed and crop protection companies, and the potential influence of U.S. farm payment programs on input pricing. Krista also explains what NCGA means when it calls for greater transparency from agricultural input suppliers and why pricing visibility matters for farmers, agribusiness professionals, and policymakers. This conversation provides a detailed look at crop input costs, agricultural competition, seed pricing, crop protection markets, and the economic pressures affecting the competitiveness of American agriculture.

The Business of Agriculture with Damian Mason is brought to you by:

• Ag View Solutions
• Tidal Grow Agriscience
• Nano-Yield
• Life Scientific

Also, make sure to check out DamianMason.com, XtremeAg's The Cutting The Curve Podcast and The Granary.

This content is protected. ©Damian Mason, all rights reserved.

More than 200 million acres of the American South are covered in timber. The South produces one-third of America's lumber, with paper and cardboard as an important by-product. Bobby Dobson, timber investor and land broker, and Spencer Smith of Saunders Real Estate join Damian Mason to break down an industry that looks remarkably familiar to anyone who follows corn and soybean economics. Pulpwood prices down 46% from their peak. Ten major mills closed in three years. Sawmills running below capacity. Brazil growing a merchantable timber tree in half the time we can. The next generation of loggers opting out of the business. Yet timberland values are up nearly 50% since 2018. Outside investors are pouring in. Recreational buyers are paying premium prices to hunt whitetail or just own their piece of the country. Sound familiar? The commodity is struggling. The land underneath keeps going up. The parallels to Midwest row crop agriculture are impossible to ignore.

The Business of Agriculture with Damian Mason is brought to you by:

• Ag View Solutions
• Tidal Grow Agriscience
• Nano-Yield
• Life Scientific

Also, make sure to check out DamianMason.com, XtremeAg's The Cutting The Curve Podcast and The Granary.

This content is protected. ©Damian Mason, all rights reserved.

Could a new federal tax incentive reshape investment in rural America?

Most agricultural producers, landowners, and agribusiness professionals have never heard of Rural Opportunity Zones, yet this new federal program could unlock billions of dollars in private investment for agriculture and rural communities.

In this episode, Damian Mason sits down with Chris Rawley, CEO of Harvest Returns, to explain how Rural Opportunity Zones work and why they may become one of the most significant agricultural investment opportunities in years.

Whether you are an investor with capital gains from farmland, a business sale, stocks, or other appreciated assets, or an agricultural entrepreneur seeking funding for expansion, this episode explains how the program is designed to connect investment capital with rural development projects.

Topics include:

• How Rural Opportunity Zones differ from Opportunity Zones
• Capital gains tax deferral and potential tax reduction benefits
• Eliminating capital gains tax on future appreciation after a qualifying 10-year investment
• Funding opportunities for grain handling, cold storage, food processing, agricultural manufacturing, livestock facilities, and rural infrastructure
• Why traditional agricultural financing often cannot provide this type of equity capital
• How farmers, ranchers, landowners, and agribusiness operators can determine whether their projects qualify

The boundaries for these new Rural Opportunity Zones are being established now, making this an important time to understand how the legislation could affect both investors and agricultural businesses.

If you are interested in agricultural investing, rural economic development, farmland, tax strategies, agribusiness financing, or expanding your operation, this conversation provides an early look at a program that could significantly influence rural America for years to come.

Learn more about Rural Opportunity Zones here: https://www.harvestreturns.com/opportunity-zone-fund

The Business of Agriculture with Damian Mason is brought to you by:

• Ag View Solutions
• Tidal Grow Agriscience
• Nano-Yield
• Life Scientific

Also, make sure to check out DamianMason.com, XtremeAg's The Cutting The Curve Podcast and The Granary.

This content is protected. ©Damian Mason, all rights reserved.

The U.S. butchers 600,000 head of cattle, 2.5 million hogs, and 185 million broilers every single week. Where all that product goes — and what it means for prices and profitability — is more complicated than most people realize. Michael DiSabato, animal protein analyst and founder of Highline Consulting Group, breaks down the economics, the numbers, and the outlook for beef, pork, and chicken in one of the most data-rich episodes The Business of Agriculture has produced. The consumer was supposed to trade down when beef prices went through the roof. They didn't. The fake meat companies were supposed to steal market share. They flopped. And now protein snacks — jerky, bars, shakes — are a multi-billion dollar growth category that's adding consumption occasions without cannibalizing the dinner plate. Michael and Damian dig into the K-shaped economy and what it means for premium cuts, why beef prices aren't coming down anytime soon, the surprising inversion in chicken pricing where thigh meat now costs more than breast, the pork industry's missed innovation opportunity, and why the only real long-term threat to protein consumption is one nobody in agriculture wants to talk about — fewer people. If animal agriculture is the bright spot in an otherwise tough ag economy right now, this episode explains exactly why — and how long it can last.

The Business of Agriculture with Damian Mason is brought to you by:

• Ag View Solutions
• Tidal Grow Agriscience
• Nano-Yield
• Life Scientific

Also, make sure to check out DamianMason.com, XtremeAg's The Cutting The Curve Podcast and The Granary.

This content is protected. ©Damian Mason, all rights reserved.

A map went viral on X showing Iowa — one of America's most productive agricultural states — imports 90% of its food. Cue the outrage. Cue the gubernatorial candidates. Cue the narrative that our food system must be broken. But is it? Damian Mason brings back specialty crop grower Steve Strasheim to work through the real reasons big ag states don't feed themselves. Climate. Infrastructure. Economics. Distribution. Processing. Consumer behavior. The answers are less inflammatory than the Twitter thread that started this conversation — and a lot more interesting. Steve grows 45 different vegetable crops on five acres in rural Iowa, runs an on-farm retail store, and has watched the direct-to-consumer market change dramatically since COVID. He knows firsthand what it takes to actually move from bulk commodity production to crops that directly feed consumers. Will a 65-year-old corn and soybean farmer climb out of their air-conditioned, self-driving tractor to grow and sell lettuce to the general public? Not likely, and that's just one of the problems with the "Ag states should feed themselves" argument. Can Iowa feed itself? Probably not entirely. Should it? That's a better question.

The Business of Agriculture with Damian Mason is brought to you by:

• Ag View Solutions
• Tidal Grow Agriscience
• Nano-Yield
• Life Scientific

Also, make sure to check out DamianMason.com, XtremeAg's The Cutting The Curve Podcast and The Granary.

This content is protected. ©Damian Mason, all rights reserved.

Paul Ehrlich Is Dead. But the "Feed the World" Panic He Unleashed In 1968 Is Still Costing Agriculture.

Stanford professor of biology Paul Ehrlich predicted mass starvation, water and food rationing in America and the disappearance of England as a country. His apocalyptic forecast for an overpopulated, food insecure world were laid out in his 1968 book "Population Bomb," then reiterated over 1,000s of media appearances for decades. None of it happened. Everything Ehrlich predicted was wrong. Today we produce 60% more calories than humanity needs — and waste a third of what we grow. We're literally discarding food surpluses 58 years after Ehrlich called for population control to reduce futurefood shortages. And the population has climbed from 3.5 billion humans on Earth to 8 billion since his book's publication. How did this happen? Because Agriculture responded to this unfounded panic exactly the way you'd expect producers to respond. We planted fencerow to fencerow and "got big or got out" as then Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz commanded, in response to the panic. Within 13 years of Ehrlich's book, we glutted the world with food crops, triggering one of the worst farm crises in American history. Much of what ails the Business of Agriculture today, began with Ehrlich's influential hysteria. Paul Ehrlich was widely written up in media this spring after his passing. The fact that none of his starvation predictions came to fruition is due to another scientist who garnered much less media: Norman Borlaug, father of the Green Revolution and Nobel Peace Prize winner. That contrast tells you everything.

The Business of Agriculture with Damian Mason is brought to you by:

• Ag View Solutions
• Tidal Grow Agriscience
• Nano-Yield
• Life Scientific

Also, make sure to check out DamianMason.com, XtremeAg's The Cutting The Curve Podcast and The Granary.

This content is protected. ©Damian Mason, all rights reserved.

Agriculture prides itself on resilience, innovation, and hard work. But is the industry as willing to accept feedback as it is to overcome adversity?

In this episode of the Business of Agriculture, Damian Mason is joined by Zach Johnson, better known as the Millennial Farmer, for a candid discussion about feedback, accountability, and the blind spots that can limit both individual farms and the broader agriculture industry.

As one of farming's most recognizable voices, Zach has spent years navigating public opinion, consumer questions, and criticism from more than a million YouTube followers. He shares what he has learned about staying authentic, separating emotion from decision-making, and using feedback as a tool for growth rather than a threat.

Damian and Zach explore why agriculture sometimes struggles to acknowledge weaknesses, how the industry's strong sense of identity can create resistance to outside perspectives, and why listening to consumers may be one of the most important business skills for agriculture's future. They also tackle difficult conversations surrounding soil health, GMOs, farmer mental health, public perception, and the difference between defending agriculture and improving it.

This episode offers valuable insights for farmers, agribusiness professionals, agricultural leaders, and anyone interested in the future of food production. If you care about strengthening agriculture while remaining open to new ideas, this conversation is worth your time.

The Business of Agriculture with Damian Mason is brought to you by:

• Ag View Solutions
• Tidal Grow Agriscience
• Nano-Yield
• Life Scientific

Also, make sure to check out DamianMason.com, XtremeAg's The Cutting The Curve Podcast and The Granary.

This content is protected. ©Damian Mason, all rights reserved.

Autonomous tractors and robotic farm machinery were supposed to transform American agriculture. So why has adoption been so slow? In this episode of The Business of Agriculture, Damian Mason speaks with Chad Fiechter, Assistant Professor of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University, about the economic realities slowing the rollout of autonomous farm equipment. Chad explains findings from his recent research comparing autonomous machinery with conventional human-operated equipment. The discussion explores labor savings, machinery costs, operational efficiency, technology limitations, and the financial hurdles that continue to prevent widespread adoption on American farms. While the promise of labor-reducing innovation remains attractive, the economics and practical challenges are proving more difficult than many anticipated. This episode delivers a realistic look at the future of autonomous agriculture and whether robotic farm equipment can eventually become financially viable for mainstream producers.

The Business of Agriculture with Damian Mason is brought to you by:

• Ag View Solutions
• Tidal Grow Agriscience
• Nano-Yield
• Life Scientific

Also, make sure to check out DamianMason.com, XtremeAg's The Cutting The Curve Podcast and The Granary.

This content is protected. ©Damian Mason, all rights reserved.

Is American Agriculture too dependent on corn and soybean production? Probably. But what is the reasonable alternative? Business of Agriculture host Damian Mason asks Illinois farmer / businessman Marc Severson and StoneX's Ryan Moe: Is meaningful US crop diversification actually feasible? The conversation digs into the real-world economics, government policy, and market forces that keep American farmers locked into the corn-soybean rotation — and whether that's necessarily a bad thing. From ethanol mandates and crop insurance to global competition and infrastructure challenges, Marc and Ryan break down why large-scale crop diversification is harder than it sounds, and what smaller, strategic diversification moves might actually work for today's farm operations.

In this episode:

• Why reducing US corn and soybean production could simply shift market share to foreign competitors - How ethanol policy creates artificial demand that shapes the entire US crop mix
• The real infrastructure and economic barriers to transitioning to alternative crops like flax or specialty crops
• Why small-scale diversification — adding a specialty crop or livestock enterprise — may be the most realistic path forward
• The role of government subsidies and farm policy in either enabling or blocking crop diversification
• Whether you're a row crop farmer, ag entrepreneur, or ag industry professional, this episode delivers a frank, data-driven look at the future of American crop production.

The Business of Agriculture with Damian Mason is brought to you by:

• Ag View Solutions
• Tidal Grow Agriscience
• Nano-Yield
• Life Scientific

Also, make sure to check out DamianMason.com, XtremeAg's The Cutting The Curve Podcast and The Granary.

This content is protected. ©Damian Mason, all rights reserved.

Crop input costs are reaching record levels in 2026, putting added pressure on farm profitability and financial viability. In this episode of The Business of Agriculture, Damian Mason is joined by Brian Adams of Life Scientific to discuss how producers can evaluate seed, fungicides, crop protection products, and off-patent alternatives to reduce spending without compromising agronomic performance.

The Business of Agriculture with Damian Mason is brought to you by:

• Ag View Solutions
• Tidal Grow Agriscience
• Nano-Yield
• Life Scientific

Also, make sure to check out DamianMason.com, XtremeAg's The Cutting The Curve Podcast and The Granary.

This content is protected. ©Damian Mason, all rights reserved.