Consumer Demands

Are You Leaving Growth On The Table?

Wed, 19 Mar 2025 17:13:13 GMT

Do you use SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) as a strategy process? If so, you are leaving growth on the table. Successful strategy is not just about reacting to the market but proactively managing key business pressures. The PTA (Pressures, Trends, Actions) Assessment provides a framework to focus your growth strategy where it matters most.

Competitive Pressure
1. List your top competitors and their strengths and vulnerabilities. Using that, build out action steps for sales and marketing to neutralize their strengths and exploit their vulnerabilities.
2. Evaluate your products and services against competitors. Identify and leverage your unique advantages.
3. Conduct customer depth interviews to discover what truly influences buying decisions.
Vendor and Supplier Pressure
1. Evaluate the abundance or scarcity of quality suppliers, assess their strength — can they drive up prices or limit supply?
2. Strengthen partnerships where mutual advantages exist and negotiate leverage where they don’t.
3. Evaluate alternatives to mitigate reliance on a single supplier.
Customer Pressure
1. Analyze how easily customers can switch to competitors and build strategies to increase loyalty. Evaluate the cost for customers to switch to competitors.
2. Develop retention programs and incentives that make your offering “stickier.”
3. Identify untapped market segments and define steps to capture them.
The Pressure and Potential of New Competition or Alternatives
1. Assess the likelihood and ease with which new competitors could enter your market.
2. Increase barriers to entry by strengthening brand recognition, patents or proprietary processes.
3. Monitor emerging technologies that could disrupt your industry and take preemptive action.
Employee and Talent Pressures
1. Identify workforce pressures — are you facing skill shortages, retention issues or union demands?
2. Evaluate whether your talent advantage comes from hiring top-tier candidates or from developing internal expertise.
3. Invest in unique training and development programs to build a workforce that is a strategic asset not a liability.
Substitution Pressure
1. Determine how easily customers would be able to replace your offering with another solution.
2. Find ways to increase reliance on your company by becoming the most valuable or only provider of a key service.
3. Strengthen your brand to ensure customers view you as the default choice.
Pressure From Technological and Resource Changes
1. Identify critical technologies and data sources that are evolving in your industry.
2. Protect or gain ownership over essential information or tech assets.
3. Develop proprietary systems or solutions that can create a sustainable competitive advantage.

The PTA Strategy Process: Turning Pressure into Action

Analyze Past Trends
1. Identify shifts over the past three to 10 years in competition, supply chain, customer behavior and technology.
2. Have your competitive pressures intensified? Have suppliers gained leverage?
Assess Current Trends
1. What trends are dominating today? Are competitors consolidating or expanding?
2. Are customers demanding lower prices or higher customization?
Predict Future Trends
1. What’s next? Is artificial intelligence (AI) about to disrupt your sector? Will new regulations reshape your supply chain?
2. Identify potential threats and strategize proactive responses.
Prioritize Strategic Actions
1. Develop jujitsu-like strategies to turn external pressures into internal advantages.
2. Prioritize actions that are going to enhance profitability and market leadership.

My PTA Assessment lets you lead rather than react. Strategy means learning the forces shaping your industry and using them to create advantage. Prioritize, take action and dominate your market.

Remember, an annual strategic planning retreat is an event and an oxymoron, while self-assessment like the above is a process. As the leader, it’s best for you to begin the above privately with outside guidance and then facilitate a process. Call me, I’m glad to help.

Mark Faust
(513) 621-8000
mark@em1990.com
@markfaustsr

New Report Reveals Ag Isn't On Track To Meet Rising Demand

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 18:43:36 GMT

Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences recently released its 2024 Global Agricultural Productivity (GAP) report , showing global agriculture productivity is falling behind the curve.

“Global agricultural productivity growth has slowed from 1.9% annually during 2001-2010 to 0.7% annually during 2013-2022,” said Tom Thompson, the report’s executive editor, associate dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and director of CALS Global at Virginia Tech. “This dramatic slowdown will prevent us from reaching our agricultural production and sustainability goals by 2050, with potentially dire impacts on food and nutrition security, unless we reverse this trend.”

Agricultural productivity growth during this period was even lower in the U.S. – averaging 0.21% annually. The report’s authors attribute this in part to the lack of public funding in agricultural research and development. At the same time, South Asia led progress at 1.4%.

“South Asia’s TFP growth highlights the critical role of innovation and investment,” said Tabila Nakelse, the report’s research lead. “Achieving sustainable productivity growth requires bridging the gap between research and widespread adoption. This lesson is vital for all regions seeking to overcome challenges and boost agricultural efficiency.”

Global total factor productivity should be at 1.91% annually to meet the demand projected in 2050, according to the report. But due to current productivity being so far below that level, it may actually need to rise to 2%.

“Tackling agricultural productivity growth will require cooperation across political and philosophical lines throughout the food system,” said Jessica Agnew, associate director of CALS Global and the report’s managing editor. “Using our resources wisely and most efficiently is applicable to every farmer, in every farming system, at every scale of production.”

Some of the risks of not ramping up growth include:

Reduced competitiveness in global agricultural markets
Deterred investment in the agricultural sector
Increased inequalities, particularly for smaller farms and rural communities
Limited ability to adapt to climate change
Higher food prices
Overuse of inputs or natural resources

5 Recommended Priorities To Help Bridge The Gap
In order to meet these growth goals, the report emphasizes the importance of closing the disconnect between the development of new innovations and their delivery to producers, something the authors call “the valley of death”.

It outlines five main priorities to help solve this issue and drive agricultural productivity growth:

Invest in agricultural innovation systems, including the infrastructure, human capital and skills development, financial systems, partnerships, socio-cultural considerations and environmental conditions required for producers at all scales of production.
Expand market access so all levels of producers can access competitive input and output markets to make informed decisions.
Strengthen regional and global trade.
Reduce food loss and improve output quality as climate, pest, disease and resource challenges intensify.
Cultivate partnerships to accelerate the development and dissemination of technologies, practices, and knowledge.

Government Price Controls Didn't Work The First Time, And They Won't Now Either

Fri, 20 Sep 2024 19:38:11 GMT

Do you ever get the feeling that you may be living in a time warp? I mean, doesn’t it seem just a little weird that bell-bottom pants and Marcia Brady hairstyles are the latest rage? I don’t know about you, but one trip through the 1970s was good enough for me.

Unfortunately, bad fashion sense and bad hairdos are not the only bad idea that has been resurrected from this tumultuous decade. Recently, the idea of reviving government price controls on food and other consumer staples has been injected into the public forum.

Why Now?
It’s an election year, and a presidential election year at that. We all know politicians will say almost anything if it will mean just one more vote come election day.

On Friday, August 16, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris floated a public policy that hasn’t been tried since the Nixon administration. To address rising food prices, Harris proposed a federal ban on price gouging, focusing on “excessive” and “unfair” mergers and acquisitions that give big food companies the power to “jack up” food and grocery prices.

There is a reason that such a heavy-hand tampering by the government in the supply and demand workings of the marketplace was banished from the political landscape as we know it. Former president Richard Nixon tried it, and it failed miserably! It would have been prudent for Vice President Harris to have brushed up on her history before rolling out this bad batch of political candy to lure the last group of undecided voters.

The twist of historical irony is that Nixon rolled out his first series of economic control measures, including wage and price freezes, almost 53 years to the day that Harris publicly floated her ideas. On August 15, 1971, in a nationally televised address, Nixon announced, “I am today ordering a freeze on all prices and wages throughout the United States.”

After a 90-day freeze, increases would have to be approved by a pay board and a price commission, with an eye toward eventually lifting controls — conveniently, after the 1972 election. Unfortunately the American people would pay the price — but not until after Nixon coasted to a landslide re-election in 1972 over Democratic Senator George McGovern.

Not Then, Not Now
By the time Nixon reimposed a temporary freeze in June 1973, Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw explain in “The Commanding Heights: Battle for the World Economy,” it was obvious price controls didn’t work: “Ranchers stopped shipping their cattle to market, farmers drowned their chickens, and consumers emptied the shelves of supermarkets.”

When price controls were implemented in 1971, inflation stood at 5.8%. By the summer of 1975 it had ballooned to 8.7%. For the rest of the decade, inflation totally derailed the U.S. economy. The real pain came with what it took to ultimately slow that train. The Federal Reserve took the Fed Funds rate from a low of 3.75% in 1971 to an astronomical 19.29% in 1981.

For U.S. agriculture, these were the worst of times. As interest rates rose and land and commodity prices bottomed, U.S. agriculture endured one of the darkest periods in modern history. The final governmental gut punch came in 1979 with President Jimmy Carter imposing a grain embargo on the Soviet Union, resulting in a 20% decline in agricultural exports.

Farmers saw the rally cry to “plant fencerow to fencerow” and “feed the world” turn into prayers so that they could feed their family. Bankruptcies and suicides became all too common as the fabric of rural America ripped apart. Government had failed them, and their best hope was that Willie Nelson would show up to do another Farm Aid concert in their back 40.

With farm income expected to record its largest year-to-year dollar drop in history, now is not the time to roll out love me ’til election day economic proposals. Still reeling from supply chain chaos caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, U.S. agriculture is in a weakened state.

The Real Drivers
It is important that all links of the U.S. food supply chain remain strong. With average profits of less than 3% for farms and only 1.6% for grocery stores, one has to wonder who the government is going to have to squeeze if price controls were implemented. Vice President Harris specifically pointed her finger at large corporate food processing companies and suppliers.

Although the Harris proposal was light on specifics, it marshals the Federal Trade Commission and state attorney generals with new authority to “impose strict new penalties” on companies that price gouge. She also said her administration would address “unfair mergers and acquisitions” that contribute to higher priced food and groceries.

One would hope if these government agencies were currently doing their day job, then the above mentioned issues should not be a problem in the first place. We don’t need a governmental “grocery czar” telling us what a box of Cheerios should or shouldn’t cost.

Our government needs to look in the mirror to see the key factors that have really driven up grocery prices. Energy costs and interest rates are two of the biggest. Both have a huge impact on food production costs and the price paid at the grocery store. Over the past four years, the consumer price index for energy has risen 32%. In that same time, the prime interest rate has gone from 3.25% to 8.50%.

Even Captain Obvious could connect the economic dots from the current administration’s policies and legislative actions to the reality that is happening to consumers at the checkout line. On day one in office, President Biden canceled the Keystone XL pipeline, and he and Harris have continued for the past three-and-a-half years to throttle the traditional fossil fuel industry at every turn. Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office projects that under Biden’s four-year term $7.902 trillion will have been added to our overall national debt. Such actions and polices have been a lead foot on the gas pedal that is driving inflation.

It’s That Bad
So, before we grant our government Wizard of Oz powers over the nation’s food supply chain, it might behoove Vice President Harris and her economic advisers to address the root cause of inflation. Instead of trying to fix it artificially through failed policies of the past and election year pandering, they should address the real issues behind high food prices and inflation as a whole. When friendly press allies such as the New York Times, Washington Post and CNN all shot the Harris plan down from the moment it left her lips — you know it’s bad. The Washington Post called it a “populist gimmick”, and personal finance guru Dave Ramsey said, “It’s not sustainable because it’s artificial.”

Let us hope and pray that such policies will forever remain as a footnote in our history books and not become part of our future economic reality. Whenever I hear something like this I’m always reminded of what Ronald Reagan considered the nine most terrifying words of the English language, “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help!”

Celebrating World Milk Day and the Farmers Who Make Its Enjoyment Possible

Tue, 04 Jun 2024 12:38:10 GMT

By Rory Christie: Newton Stewart, Scotland, United Kingdom

Nobody drinks or eats the soil—but the quality of every glass of milk begins with the health of the soil, including the efficiencies that farmers can put into it and draw out of it.

As we approach World Milk Day on June 1, we should celebrate a nutritious beverage. At the same time, this is an opportunity to recognize the farmers who make its enjoyment possible and everything that goes into what they do.

When people think about dairy farmers, they tend to think about the milking of cows. That makes sense. On my farm in Scotland, we manage a herd of more than 1,100 milking cows. These animals and milk they produce are at the heart of our business.

Yet successful dairy farming requires more than cows. It starts with the soil and its blend of minerals, moisture, and microorganisms. We invest a significant amount of time and energy on keeping it optimal. This has been true for as long as we’ve farmed, but we’re always updating our knowledge and techniques and adapting to circumstances.

Soil in optimum health supports healthier crops, which means heathier cows producing nutritious milk.

Here’s an example. To make sure our cows have good forage for grazing, we used to plough 300 acres per year. Then we discovered new technologies that have allowed us to eliminate our ploughing almost entirely. Instead of ripping up the ground when we put seeds in the soil, we now use a method of direct drilling for our grass and cereals. This keeps disruption at a minimum—and boosts the soil’s health.

We have always worked hard to manage the soil’s acidity, which we measure in units of pH , from zero to 14. The lower the number, the higher the acidity. Two decades ago, we aimed for a pH of 5.2 to 6.0. Today, with our direct drilling, reduced artificial fertilizer use and variable-rate lime spreading, we try to achieve 6.7 pH, which is almost exactly in the middle of the scale—and a level that allows us to cut back on inputs even as we grow the same amount of grass or more.

That’s the first benefit. There are plenty of others.

When heavy equipment moves across fields, it compacts the soil structures that allow roots to thrive. Because we’ve limited our tillage, we now drive our tractors less and thereby reduce compaction. We’ve also cut back on our use of fuel. That’s an economic savings for us that also decreases our farms greenhouse gas emission.

Growing more grass means we’re doing a better job of promoting the biogenic carbon cycle , which involves taking carbon from the atmosphere, where it poses a problem, and putting it in the soil, where it contributes to the flourishing of plants. This is an important part of sustainable agriculture. With smart policies, it could even create a new gold rush for farmers.

We’re also trying to breed better cows, based on traits such as milk volume and quality. We take the calves from the cows in the top 25 percent and use them to replace the cows in the bottom 25 percent as we cull the herd. We’re one of the first dairy farms to do this with crossbred milking cows and we believe it will introduce even more efficiencies into our operation.

Our farm also is committed to renewable energy. We have installed 250 kw of solar panels and our wind turbine adds another 33 kw. We don’t have a connection to the national electricity grid because right now it is economically prohibitive to buy one. Because we must use everything we produce, we continue to invest in power balancing and put considerable thought and effort into setting up systems that use our power efficiently. This investment in renewable energy has cut our electricity costs by 30 percent.

My experience as a dairy farmer has taught me that economic and environmental goals are not at odds with each other. Instead, they are often symbiotic. As our carbon footprint shrinks our profits rise because we’re becoming more efficient with our resources. We can always do better: If supply chains and consumers were to appreciate that food prices should reflect more than merely the cost of production, farmers like me would have new capital to invest in the soil, biodiversity, and renewable energy.

My hope is that drinking and eating our nature-friendly milk and cheese gives you a delicious and healthy diet—and it helps me do well by doing good.

Rory Christie is part of a progressive and innovative family-run business that specializes in pastoral dairy and intensive pig production in Scotland. Rory is a member of the Global Farmer Network. www.globalfarmernetwork.org

8 Factors Shaping the Rural Economy in 2024

Mon, 18 Dec 2023 16:31:33 GMT

CoBank has released their 2024 outlook report , which takes a look at the key themes the organization expects to shape agricultural and the rural economy in the coming year.

Director of CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange Rob Fox shares that while the U.S. economy is still in good shape overall, high prices are expected to continue to take a toll.

Here are the top eight factors to watch in 2024.

1. Global Slowdown
Global growth in 2023 is estimated at 2.5%, which is less than half of the average growth between 2000 to 2018. This trend is expected to continue into next year.

CoBank recommends accounting for permanently slower global economic growth in your business plan moving forward.

2. Prices Remain Elevated
While inflation and the unemployment rate are down, higher prices appear to be sticking.

According to the report, the price of food at home has risen by 25% in the past three years and has affected consumer shopping behavior as a result. Retail spending has fallen in all but two months through the past year – which is expected to continue.

“Consumers are increasingly feeling the pinch of higher prices for food, housing and other essential goods. People have anchored mental expectations about what prices should be and those anchors take a long time to move,” Fox says. “Consumers are beginning to realize some prices aren’t going back to where they were three years ago and changing their purchasing behaviors to reduce spending. That will create stronger headwinds for the U.S. economy in 2024.”

3. Slowed Government Progress Continues
With slim majorities in both the House and Senate, shutdown deadlines continue to loom. Little progress has been made on major legislation such as the Farm Bill.

While CoBank shares the work already put into the Farm Bill could incentivize committees to pass it before 2025, the election of a new Senate Chair and the inexperience of many members of Congress may limit progress.

4. Lower Profitability Resulting From Several Factors
Commodity prices have seen the effect on high interest rates, a strong U.S. dollar and the resiliency of the U.S. economy. And despite the drop in fertilizer prices, the cost of production for agriculture commodities remains high.

CoBank is anticipating ag commodities to benefit from more upside price risk than down in 2024 due to tight inventories and a strong El Nino weather pattern during the growing season.

5. An Increase of Planted Soybean Acres
An expansion of soybean acreage is expected for two reasons: 2023’s smaller soybean harvest in the U.S. and an increase in biofuel demand.

USDA’s early release of its Agricultural Projections to 2033 points to planted soybean acreage rising 4% YoY to 87 million acres this spring.

Current 2024 futures prices suggest a decline in prices for the sector, but the outlook relies heavily on the value of the U.S. dollar, conditions of wheat in Russia and South America’s corn and soybean harvests.

6. Livestock Growth Plans Put On Hold
Lower feed costs and domestic demand should help profitability a bit in the livestock sector, but costs are still high. CoBank expects the industry to focus heavily on efficiency, technology and risk management.

7. Uncertainty In The Dairy Industry
Increased prices for consumers could keep sales growth at a slow rate, though they’re still expected to grow. International demand will play a large role in profitability and lower feed costs paired with improved cow productivity should increase milk production to meet the need.

8. Power, Energy And Broadband Sectors Face Obstacles
Global conflicts create uncertainty for commodity markets and energy prices. While oil prices have fallen by 5% in the fourth quarter, CoBank does not anticipate this environment to last.

As for broadband, investment continues to flow into the industry. However, it will not be without challenges due to a tight labor market, tight credit conditions and a difficult permit process.

Click here to read CoBank’s full report.

Keeping the Politics Out of Labels

Sun, 17 Dec 2023 13:00:00 GMT

By Jenny Holtermann: Wasco, California USA

We slap labels and warnings and disclaimers on everything these days—and the more we do it, the less we seem to pay attention.

When was the last time you read the long legal notice that asked for your consent before you upgraded your phone’s operating system? Have you ever made a joke about getting arrested by the mattress police because you removed a tag, supposedly “under penalty of law”? (Spoiler alert: It’s okay for buyers to remove mattress tags.) And don’t get me started on the reckless overuse of “non-GMO” labels, especially when they involve salt —a mineral that can’t be GMO or non-GMO because it doesn’t even have genes.

Each of these examples owes its existence to anxious lawyers, meddlesome regulators, or misleading marketers.

What they rarely consider are the basic needs of ordinary consumers for accurate and useful information.

That’s why I’m so encouraged by a new federal court ruling that blocks my home state of California from mandating a bad and inappropriate label on a popular agricultural product.

Last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said it was unconstitutional for California’s government to require the placement of cancer warning labels on glyphosate, a crop-protection tool that helps farmers and gardeners fight weeds.

Glyphosate is one of the oldest, most popular, and most effective herbicides in the world. Regulatory agencies everywhere have deemed it safe. That includes the Environmental Protection Agency here in the United States, as well as the European Food Safety Authority and the European Chemicals Agency , plus the Food Safety Commission of Japan and agencies in Canada and in Australia

and New Zealand .

This is the very definition of a scientific consensus: A result found to be true and confirmed repeatedly by international teams of researchers.

So why would a single state like California seek to require a warning label that is essentially a false alarm? The answer is simple: Labels have become political. Many of them are no longer about what people need to know, but rather what special-interest groups seek to impose—in this case, environmental activists who want to raise costs and uncertainties among farmers and consumers.

The federal judges slapped down California’s regulation because public officials chose to play politics instead of following sound science.

We need good labels, of course—and especially when it comes to our food. The “ Nutrition Facts ” label required by the Food and Drug Administration makes sense. It provides data on calories, ingredients, and serving sizes in a form that people can understand as they decide what to buy and eat.

We need proper warning labels, too. The FDA requires labels on safe products that may be found in kitchens everywhere, such as Clorox Bleach . Keep it out of the reach of children!

Crop-protection products such as glyphosate need labels that offer usage instructions. They provide helpful information on wearing gear such as long-sleeved shirts during application, washing hand thoroughly afterward, and how to dispose of empty containers.

On my almond farm in California, we use safe crop-protection products to protect our trees and nuts from pests and disease. We study and take required tests to receive certificates and licenses that indicate we are prepared to use these important tools safely. We also enroll in continuing-education classes to make sure we’re up to date on best practices.

All of this preparation is important to us as we work together to grow the healthy and nutritious food that our customers expect, always putting safety first. We also do it because it’s good for almond trees, keeping them healthy during the productive lives, which can last as long as 30 years. Most of all, we do it for our family: My children live and play in our fields, and we’d never put them in harm’s way.

When public officials play politics with labels, however, they put everything at risk because they encourage people not to take their words and warnings with the seriousness that appropriate labels deserve.

The federals judges saw the threat—and they wisely struck a blow against the proliferation of pointless labels.

Their wisdom recalls a famous line from the movie “The Incredibles.” Confronted with the platitude that “everyone is special,” a kid replies: “Which is another way of saying no one is.”

In other words, when everything carries a label, then nothing does—and the surest way to get consumers to stop paying attention to labels is to overwhelm them with labels full of confusing, useless, and deceptive information.

Jenny Holtermann is a 4^th generation family farmer, working with her husband’s father, brother, and families to grow almonds in California. She is an avid agvocate for agriculture and water management. Jenny is a member of the Global Farmer Network. www.globalfarmernetwork.org

ADM: Sustainability Important for Consumer Trust and Purchases

Wed, 08 Nov 2023 20:53:21 GMT

In a recently published report , ADM shares new insights for consumer behavior regarding regenerative agriculture.

The company surveyed consumers and decision-makers in the retail and consumer-packaged goods (CPG) sectors in July via their online platform, “Outside Voice.” Some of their key insights and takeaways include consumer trust, purchase consideration, and future regenerative agriculture trends for CPGs and retailers.

Consumer Insights
ADM surveyed over 1,500 adults in their research and found that nearly three-quarters of them agreed they would prefer for over half of their food and beverage options to be sustainably sourced.

More than 70% of the consumers said they expect companies to sustainably source ingredients and products, while 65% said they are more likely to purchase products that have been sustainably sourced.

These preferences play a factor in not only what products consumers are buying, but also who they are buying them from.

Once provided with more information on regenerative agriculture, 73% of the consumers shared they would be more likely to trust retailers and brands using regenerative agriculture programs. At the same time, 72% said they would be more likely to purchase products from those companies.

Retailer and CPG Insights
Along with consumers, over 300 CPG and retail decision-makers were surveyed.

Close to three-quarters of CPG executives and nearly half of retailers shared their company already uses at least one type of regenerative agriculture program. As far as what’s important when beginning one of these programs, 90% of the respondents with a program in place agree finding the right partner was key.

They also shared what qualities the right partner possesses.

Of the remaining decision-makers, 65% say their organization plans to adopt a regenerative agriculture program in the next five years – though more than half of them say their company isn’t moving fast enough on implementation.

Overall, the CPG and retail decision-makers surveyed agreed regenerative agriculture programs have a positive impact on several areas of their businesses.

“Our new research clearly shows that consumers are more interested in products that come from companies involved in regenerative agriculture – and executives understand the urgency to be one of those companies,” said Conrad Givers, ADM’s vice president of strategic differentiation. “From our relationships with hundreds of thousands of farmers around the globe, to our unparalleled R&D and formulation expertise, to our unmatched global footprint, ADM is uniquely positioned to partner with both farmers and downstream customers to meet those growing consumer needs.”

Protecting Bees for the Good of Agriculture

Mon, 25 Sep 2023 17:31:26 GMT

By Mark Wagoner: Touchet, Washington USA

The beekeepers who raise the world’s most beloved bugs have a message for everyone who adores them: “The best thing you could do for honeybees right now is not take up beekeeping.”

That’s what a professional beekeeper in Slovenian recently told the New York Times.

This paradox shows that threats can come from people who just want to help. I’ve seen this firsthand on my farm in Washington state, where I rely on bees for the pollination of my alfalfa seed crops.

Honeybees in fact are flourishing. “There are more honeybees on the planet than there have ever been in human history,” said Scott Hoffman Black, executive director of the Xerxes Society for Invertebrate Conservation, a nonprofit group based in Oregon.

Hobbyists, however, pose problems when they build artificial hives. They may think they’re helping Mother Nature, but instead they’re succumbing to the law of untended consequences. In some areas, overcrowding has become severe. Elsewhere—including my own farm—honeybees push out other pollinators.

Three years ago, a report from the Royal Botanic Gardens in London issued a warning : “Beekeeping to save bees could actually be having the opposite effect.” It prompted the New Yorker to ask a surprising question last month in a headline : “Is Beekeeping Wrong?”

Like many people, I love honeybees. They make delicious food. They pollinate plants and trees around the world. And they perform amazing “waggle dances” that are both a form of sophisticated communication and the subject of entertaining videos .

I hope they thrive—but I also hope they stay away from my farm.

Although they are essential for a lot of agriculture, honeybees can hurt my alfalfa seed plants. When they visit these crops, they take the plant’s nectar and fail to trip its pollination. The problem involves their anatomy and the mechanics of how they feed.

So I don’t want them on my farm.

My alfalfa seed crops depend on different bees. They look a lot like honey bees, with black and yellow stripes, but alkali bees don’t make honey. They also dig tunnels, live underground rather than in hives and are native to the arid western United States.

And they do something honeybees can’t: They make it possible for my alfalfa plants to pollinate. My farm depends on them as much as it depends on sun, soil, and water. I manage acres of habitat for alkali bees and defend them from threats.

An ongoing threat comes from people who insist that pollinators and crop-protection products can’t co-exist.

Environmentalists once made a big push to ban a popular pesticide that I use to guard my alfalfa against pests and disease. They were worried about something called “ colony collapse disorder ”—a phenomenon in which worker bees suddenly disappeared, causing whole colonies of honey bees to fail. They blamed much of the problem on farmers like me.

Eight years ago, I wrote a column about the controversy, arguing that the causes of colony collapse disorder were poorly understood and most likely due to varroa mites—tiny parasites that attach to bees and suck the life out of them.

We survived that fight, but today we’re facing a new one that involves lygus bugs . These pests attack my alfalfa fields as well as fruit trees, which they can devastate. The best way to control them is with a crop-protection product that is also deadly to alkali bees.

Now some regulators want to ban it as well.

Through trial-and-error, however, we’ve discovered a way to use this tool against lygus bugs without hurting bees: We apply it early in the night, when the alkali bees have retreated to their tunnels. It kills the pests and then its chemical components break down in just a few hours. When the sun rises and the alkali bees emerge for a new day of pollination, they’re safe.

The success of this approach is an example of what farmers call “integrated pest management.” It reveals that the best solutions to problems are sometimes the most surprising ones.

So the next time you’re tempted to build a beehive in your backyard, think twice. And instead of resorting to thoughtless prohibitions in the name of favored insects, let’s look for creative innovations that rely on sound science and modern technology—and trust farmers to do the right thing.

Mark Wagoner grows alfalfa seed and wheat on a family farm in Washington State. He volunteers as a board member for the Global Farmer Network www.globalfarmernetwork.org

Airlines Push Jet Fuel Subsidies to Help Corn Growers

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 21:49:49 GMT

United Airlines announced in May it’s on track to use 10 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel in 2023, which is 10 times more than it consumed in 2019. Multiple airlines are showing their interest in SAF for climate reasons and to keep corn growers relevant in the rise of electric vehicles. But environmental activists are pushing back, causing a divide in the White House.

Under the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden administration is targeting at least 3 billion gallons (11.4 billion liters) of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production per year in the U.S. by 2030 as part of its broader push to fight climate change.

“These tax credits, which encourage the use of more eco-friendly fuels, could make or break the prospects of corn ethanol as a sustainable aviation fuel. Airlines, biofuel refiners and oil companies are lobbying for more generous tax credits for ethanol-based fuels that reduce emissions,” says Jim Wiesemeyer, ProFarmer policy analyst.

Ethanol proponents and climate activists disagree over how to measure emission reductions and, therefore, credits.

The ethanol industry is asking the administration to use a methodology to calculate emissions developed by the Department of Energy called GREET that shows ethanol has a lighter carbon footprint as a SAF than when compared to the methodology proscribed by IRA. The method outlined in the IRA was developed by the International Civil Aviation Organization.

Environmentalists, on the other hand, advocate for the Corsia standard, which penalizes fuels more for changes in land use linked to crop planting. Critics argue that supporting ethanol could hinder investments in advanced, less carbon-intensive alternatives to SAF. They say ethanol would increase reliance on older, less efficient fuels.

Wiesemeyer says the White House is divided in which model—GREET or Corsia—to use.

“If tax credits are extended to ethanol, despite its lower emissions reduction compared to alternatives, it could significantly expand the supply of sustainable aviation fuel, making it more accessible and affordable for airlines. This move could help airlines meet emissions targets while avoiding higher costs that come with investing in newer, more expensive sustainable fuels,” says Wiesemeyer.

Pasture to Plate: A Culture-Driven Beef Business

Wed, 26 Jul 2023 17:09:52 GMT

The Ducheneaux family reconnects consumers with their food source

Kelsey Ducheneaux-Scott sat on her front porch, stared out across rolling pastures and thought, “What the hell did I do?” She had just heaved box after box into freezers in the living room, kitchen and laundry room — carefully dispensing 1,700 lb. of ground beef.

Exhausted from the haul (and hoping the circuits wouldn’t blow due to strategically placed freezers) Ducheneaux-Scott couldn’t believe the sheer amount of work before her. How was she going to sell so much grass-fed burger in three months, before her next butcher appointment? Anxiety and stress seeped in during that cold March night in 2020. Little did she know how quickly that product would move.

“COVID hit and there was no beef in any of our stores,” Ducheneaux-Scott recalls. “We sold out of that 1,700 lb. in a matter of three weeks. People realized how easily local grocery stores can be disrupted here in rural South Dakota.”

PASTURE TO PLATE

With a focus on feeding those around her, Ducheneaux-Scott is leading a transformation of her family’s operation. DX Ranch was established in the 1930s near Eagle Butte, S.D., on the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation. It began with beef cattle and draft horses.

Today, Ducheneaux-Scott and her husband, Monte Scott, work alongside her family raising quarter horses and 280 head of cow-calf pairs in a regenerative production system.

“I am a fourth-generation rancher on DX Ranch, and I’m the 125th generation to steward this landscape,” Ducheneaux-Scott says. “We’ve focused on ensuring we’re not just thinking about the livestock above ground but also thinking about the livestock below ground.”

FATHER-DAUGHTER DUO

For her entire life, Ducheneaux-Scott has worked alongside her father, Zach Ducheneaux. That was until early 2021, when Ducheneaux was selected by the Biden administration to serve as the Farm Service Agency administrator (he received the call for the position while they were at the sale barn).

Luckily, Ducheneaux had prepared his daughter to be a leader on the ranch and in life. They are members of the Lakota tribe, which is a matriarchal society.

“My dad never let me think I couldn’t do something because I was a girl,” Ducheneaux-Scott says. “He empowered me to believe I could do things better because I was a girl and had a different perspective.”

After college, Ducheneaux-Scott wanted to be a rancher and bought into the family’s cowherd in 2016.

“I was obsessive in watching those calves grow that year,” she says. “I might as well have had names and birth certificates for every calf.”

After selling that calf crop, Ducheneaux-Scott headed back to the ranch and pondered the future.

“I drove through two counties that face food insecurity,” she says. “I thought, golly, the system is so broken. We have up to 80,000 head of cattle grazing on 3.2 million acres here on the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation, and there isn’t any local beef being packaged and made available for purchase. The beef grown here is phenomenal, but none of us get to actually eat it.”

At home, she scribbled down a bunch of ideas and started a business plan. That plan morphed into DX Beef , which has a simple mission: Provide nutritious and local beef that improves its communities.

The direct-to-consumer business featuring their 100% grass-fed beef has expanded in the past two years and is helping the family move away from the commodity market model.

“For the first 90 years of our existence, we’d largely been victim to the commodity markets just like everyone else,” Ducheneaux says. “Behind the effort of Kelsey, in 2020, for the first time, we sold more beef in the box than we did on the hoof. A tremendous advocate for buying, selling and serving

locally, she’s found a way to provide healthier, grass-finished beef to our fellow reservation residents at a price they can afford.”

In 2019, the family sold 12 head of cattle through their business. In 2020, they sold close to 80. This year the total will top 110.

All beef is processed and mostly sold through their online store. To meet local needs, it is sold by the pound or portion of the whole beef. They even do wholesale orders for nearby restaurants.

CULTURE AND TRADITION

The hurdles of small-scale direct marketing are difficult to overcome. Yet Ducheneaux-Scott is seeing great success thanks to her marketing and organizational skills. Through storytelling, which is rooted in their Lakota culture, the family uses technology to share the story of their ranch and products.

“Family comes before the dollar in this operation,” Ducheneaux says. “We’re not solely about monetizing the value of that product, and we realize there are other values to our beef.”

Their story is shaped by their love and respect for the 7,000 acres of tribal land they manage through a tribal lease.

“I’m a grass and soil nerd,” Ducheneaux-Scott says. “Soil health is so critical to a resilient ecosystem. Our grazing system is focused on mimicking nature. This ecosystem evolved from having cloven-hoofed bison and other wildlife graze at a pace that allowed for a robust rest period, so we practice rotational grazing.”

The DX Ranch herd is an Angus base, influenced with breeds that will help the cattle handle the sometimes-brutal central South Dakota climate, Ducheneaux-Scott says. From changing their calving season to May to decrease cattle stress to steadily increasing soil health, the Ducheneaux family aims to work with Mother Nature.

“We have flexibility in our management so we can listen to what the landscape is telling us because she knows better than we do,” Ducheneaux-Scott says. “We

are simply another biological species that’s a part of this greater ecosystem.”

Listen as Kelsey Ducheneaux-Scott discusses her operation with Andrew McCrea on the “Farming the Countryside” podcast:

OTHERS BEFORE ONESELF

As a producer, business owner and member of her nation, Ducheneaux-Scott says she is driven by the opportunity and honor to feed others.

“I’ve come to appreciate having someone tell say your beef tasted good or how they brought their family together around our product,” she says. “Those are the experiences that make feeding cows in a blizzard, slopping through the mud to check calves and sleepless nights all worth it.”

Snapshot of DX Ranch

Operation: DX Ranch includes quarter horses and 280 head of cow-calf pairs in a regenerative production system on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation near Eagle Butte, S.D. The ranch is also home to DX Beef, a direct-to-consumer business featuring their 100% grass-fed beef.

Family: Following in the footsteps of her father, Zach Ducheneaux, Kelsey Ducheneaux-Scott is the fourth generation of her family to ranch. She and her husband, Monte Scott, work with several members of her family in the operation.

Leadership: Ducheneaux-Scott is the director of programs for the Intertribal Agriculture Council, which provides a voice for the Native American community on ag policy and programs. In 2021, Ducheneaux was selected to lead the Farm Service Agency, where he oversees 10,000 employees.

Travel to Gettysburg, S.D., and virtually visit DX Ranch.

3 Consumer Trends Farmers Can’t Afford to Ignore

Fri, 21 Jul 2023 18:10:21 GMT

Consumer preferences can totter between fads and trends (think emus versus plant-based meat). For farmers to capitalize on consumer demands, they must be able to sort out what is an of the moment fad or a significant shift, says Rob Dongoski, Ernst & Young food and agriculture leader.

“This is a big challenge in agriculture, since it takes so much time to change course,” he says. “You really have to find the end market first.”

As a partner at Ernst & Young, Dongoski has over 20 years of experience serving clients in the food and agribusiness sectors. He works with a number of Fortune 500, Global 1000 and private companies in advisory and transaction capacities.

Dongoski will speak at the 2023 Top Producer Summit , which runs Jan. 23-25 in Nashville. Register now.

Listen to Rob Dongoski discuss food trends with AgriTalk’s Chip Flory:

In helping clients develop growth strategies, complete buy-side and sell-side transactions and lead significant enterprise transformations, Dongoski has his pulse on some key trends. Here are three he believes farmers should monitor.

Consumers want fresh and uncomplicated food. Overall, Dongoski says, consumers are starting to shift to diets with more fresh food and foods with limited ingredients. “These are things at the perimeter of the grocery store,” he says.
Food miles are becoming mainstream. Local has been thrown around frequently in the last decade in terms of consumer trends. Dongoski says it is now mainstream. “Consumers are tracking food miles, as in how far does it take for strawberry to get to my grocery store? You know, 1,800 miles doesn’t sound very local,” he says.
Younger generations are willing to pay more for food. Baby boomers and Generation X have different views on food than their younger counterparts, Dongoski says. While older generations are not willing to pay more for organic or regenerately grown food, Generation Z and Millennials are willing to do so.

How Farms Can Cash in On Trends

Dongoski says farms of all sizes can capitalize on their trends, but in different ways. Large farms have the ability to scale and work with large companies, while small farms can specialize and find niche markets.

The other big trend shaping the future of farming is the technology used to do it.

“There’s going to be folks who will continue to play a big role in the dirt and there’s going to be farmers who are going to play big roles probably under glass,” he says. “We’ve reached a point where greenhouses, vertical farms and aquaponics play a potential role in our in our food system.”

In either system, Dongoski says data will be key.

Learn more from Dongoski about the future of farming, consumer trends and more at the 2023 Top Producer Summit. Register now!

3 Trends that Will Drive the Food System of the Future

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 18:30:46 GMT

These three tenets will drive the industry and impact farms

The food system is being reimagined today and farmers can benefit by thinking about how to improve their ability to take advantage of opportunities in the process, says Rob Dongoski, partner and food and agribusiness leader at Ernst and Young. He says the food system will be based around the following three tenets.

1. Consumer Centric
This transition was underway and received a big boost from the COVID-19 pandemic. Dongoski anticipates the transformation will be significant in the next five to 10 years.

Consumers are increasingly listening to what product marketers are telling them rather than scientists.

“Marketers are winning the communication battle because they are better funded,” he says.

Part of what’s at play is significant changes in consumer demographics. Dongoski says the most populous generations in the workforce today are Millennials and Gen Z.

“While Boomers and Gen Xers think about cars and houses as status symbols, Gen Z and Millennials think, ‘I grocery shop at Whole Foods. I cook at home. I go to the farmer’s market.’ Their experience with food is very different,” he says.

2. Planet Friendly

“Farmers are land stewards as land continues to be the largest asset on their balance sheet,” Dongoski says. “As their stewardship practices become more understood by consumers, I think it will bring new light to the definition of sustainable food.”

Still, he does believe farmers have opportunities to be more conscious of practices that are planet friendly.

“There are many opportunities to care for livestock differently, for example,” he says. “The pendulum can shift to extremes, but I do think we can be smarter.”

3. Connected System

“When I think about the future of food, I believe the food system will look retro,” Dongoski says. “The future is a place farmers and consumers have been before.”

Decades ago, he says, consumers had a butcher and a baker on the corner, and milk was delivered to their home. Consumers knew their food producers and processors.

In the future, that personal connection won’t be based on geography, instead it will be based on data.

Today consumers get glimpses of farmers’ production practices in grocery store aisles and on menus, as stores and restaurants feature names, photographs and information on the farmers who produced the food.

“That’s how consumers will have insights into your operations and practices, which will influence consumers,” he says.

Listen to Rob Dongoski share trends on the “Farming the Countryside” podcast:

Read more stories from the 2023 Top Producer Summit:

Preventative Maintenance for Your People: How to Reduce Turnover and Boost Morale

How to Run An Innovation Sprint on Your Farm

Nominate Outstanding Farmers for Awards from Top Producer

Take Time to Celebrate Accomplishments

5 Business Principles That Define Success

Farming Boom or Bust in the Decade Ahead? How to Manage Price Cycles

Be Inspired by Five Remarkable Farm Operations

Ideas Big and Small: Create a Culture of Creativity on Your Farm

8 State Requests for Year-Round E15 Reviewed by US Budget Office

Mon, 27 Feb 2023 20:03:52 GMT

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on Friday completed its review of eight states requests to remove the volatility waiver provided under law for ethanol blends—the Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) waiver of 1 pound per square inch (PSI). Removing the waiver would allow sales of E15 fuel year-round in the states.

Related article: Renewable Fuel’s Big Week: EPA’s RFS Proposal And Year-Round E15 Legislation

Background

Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin made their requests early in 2022 and EPA sent forward its proposed rule Dec. 5, 2022.

Now what?

EPA can now release the proposed rule. The timing of the comment period associated with the proposed rule may dictate whether or not the waivers, if granted, can be in place for the 2023 summer driving season which starts June 1 and runs through Sept. 15.

Related article: E30 Ethanol Blend Inches Closer to Pumps with EPA’s Latest Actions

Without the waiver, states will be unable to sell E15 fuel in the summer months.

3 Tenets Of A Decade-Forward View of the U.S. Food System

Wed, 25 Jan 2023 18:10:29 GMT

The U.S. food system is being reimagined today and farmers can benefit from thinking about how to improve their ability – and agility – to take advantage of opportunities in the process, according to Rob Dongoski.

“We’re taking a decade-forward view of the entire food system, and most of the folks in this room are key players,” he told farmers attending the 2023 Top Producer Summit on Tuesday in Nashville.

He says the food system will increasingly be based around three tenets according to Dongoski, founder of the Ernst & Young Global Agribusiness Center. The three tenets are:

1. The food system is in the process of moving from being a commodity-driven supply chain focused on scale to a more personal, consumer-centric system.

Dongoski says the transition was already underway when it got a big boost from the Covid pandemic. He anticipates the transformation underway will continue for the next five to 10 years.

“Consumers are getting really loud about what they want,” he says. “’I’m not sure about all those processed foods. I like to know what’s in my food’
are just two of the messages they’re giving us.”

Dongoski says consumers are also increasingly listening and buying into what product marketers are telling them rather than scientists. Science doesn’t hold as much sway. “Marketers are winning the communication battle because they are better funded,” he says.

Part of what’s at play in the marketplace are significant changes in consumer demographics.

Dongoski says the most populous generations in the workforce today aren’t Gen Xers and Baby Boomers. Instead, the Millennials and Gen Z generations have increasing influence, and they think about food in very different ways from their predecessors.

“While Boomers and Gen Xers think about cars and houses as status symbols, Gen Z and Millennials think, ‘I grocery shop at Whole Foods. I don’t go to the fast, casual dinner outlets. I cook at home. I go to the farmers market.’ Their experience with food is very, very different,” he says.

Despite the myriad changes underway, some things remain from the past regarding how consumers evaluate their food purchases. “They have always and will always consider two key criteria – affordability and taste,” Dongoski says.

2. The second tenet is food will need to be increasingly planet friendly.

Dongoski says he always enjoys hearing from people when they come back from global environmental events such as the Davos Conference and COP27 and tell him to think about “all the damage your industry does.”

His response to them: “I think you mischaracterize most of the people that do the hard work on the land. I’ve never met a farmer or anybody that owns land who is thinking, ‘Man, what I really (want) to do is destroy it.’”

Still, he does believe farmers have opportunities to be more conscious of practices that are planet friendly.

“There are many opportunities to take care of livestock differently,” he contends. “The pendulum can shift to extremes, but I do think we can be smarter. When I see things in the grocery store like plastic-wrapped bananas, that just seems kind of silly to me,” he adds.

3. The third tenet of the future: food will be based around a more connected system.

“When I think about the future of food, I believe the food system will look retro,” he says. “The future is a place farmers and consumers have been before.”

Decades ago, he says consumers had a butcher and a baker on the corner, and milk was delivered to their home. “We had home delivery decades ago, folks. It’s not new,” he says. “We’re going back to that scenario where consumers know their food producers.”

A key difference, he says, is the future system won’t be geographically based. Rather, the personal connections between consumers and producers will be based on data.

Today, consumers get glimpses of farmers and their production practices when they walk down grocery store aisles and eat in restaurants. Stores and restaurants often feature names, photographs and information on the individuals and families who produced the food the consumer plans to purchase.

“That’s how consumers will have insights into your operations and practices that you’re willing to expose and be proud of, that will influence a consumer,” he says.

Watch the 2023 Top Producer Awards Banquet

See 8 Farmer-First Startups at Top Producer Summit

3 Consumer Trends Farmers Can’t Afford to Ignore

Recession or Not: The Consumer Has Reached Their Breaking Point

Fri, 11 Nov 2022 17:39:40 GMT

Whether we are in a recession or not is to be determined, but I think we all can agree that we are feeling the impacts of a looming recession. Tanner Ehmke, a leading dairy economist with CoBank, says that we are not in a recession—not quite just yet.

“We’re going to be in one, probably soon,” he says. “That’s mixed news for those of us in agriculture. We want a strong consumer to buy our products. At the same time, we’re also competing for labor.”

Speaking of consumers, Ehmke says they are feeling the pinch every time they walk into the grocery store. The consumer has hit the level of how much price absorption they can take.

“We’ve hit that level,” Ehmke says. “The consumer is not going to take any more cost increase.”

The savings that the consumer was able to accumulate throughout the pandemic has dwindled thanks to higher fuel, higher rents, higher groceries and more.

“Through higher costs of everything now, those savings have been depleted,” Ehmke says. “Credit card debt is now going up. And that’s an indication for a lot of people that they’ve run out of cash.”

With all that being said, people no longer can absorb higher costs. Ehmke says that lighter foot traffic is seen in some grocery stores, while discount retailers have seen a significant increase in foot traffic.

“Even your wealthier consumers have decided that they cannot afford cost increases anymore,” he shares. “For their shopping, they’re trading down from branded products to private label store brands. They’re trading down from premium products to lower-priced commodity products. After they’ve done all of those things -- shifted retailers, shifted from brands to private label, shifted to commodity versus premium -- the next step then is for them to reduce how much volume they buy.”

Mike North, president with Ever.Ag, concurs with Ehmke and says that the looming recession is naturally top of mind for everyone. North also says that while consumers are very notably showing changes in spending, the dairy case has performed very well relative to other protein categories.

“Moreover, down trading in the food service universe can still include a lot of cheese as fine dining frequency is substituted with quick casual and delivery,” North says. “However, this may come at the expense of other fats/creams.”

Ehmke says it is going to be a balancing act between the farmers and processors going forward.

“You simply can’t pass that cost on to the consumer anymore,” he says. “It’s just going to compress margins.”

North says yes, the recession is a big story and advises producers to be mindful of normal seasonal demands that will taper into the new calendar year.

China Cites U.S. Ag for Why It's Chosen Not to Invade Taiwan

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 19:32:58 GMT

Can U.S. agriculture stand between China and a war in Taiwan? According to economists, it can and is.

“China’s own military released a report maybe two months ago that said the single main reason for us not to intervene in Taiwan directly is that the U.S. might see this as an excuse to impose sanctions if we do not bring in food from outside China,” Chris Kuehl, Armada Corporate Intelligence chief economist said in an episode of Farming the Countryside.

Also in the report, China acknowledged that they are only 20% independent in soybeans and buy 80% of what it needs.

China’s military report comes as the country grapples with a protein shortage .

Up the Pork Ante

In October, China sold 200,000 metric tons of pork from state reserves to help ease surging domestic pork prices.

Jim Wiesemeyer, Pro Farmer policy analyst, says China announced it now plans to release its seventh batch of frozen pork from reserves.

Increasing pork production might be the country’s main tactic to tackle low pork numbers.

China’s sow herd grew 2% in September versus the prior month to 43.62 million head, according to the country’s ag ministry. The hog herd increased 3.1% from the prior month to 443.94 million head and was up 1.4% from year-ago.

Will History Repeat Itself?

With the herd increase and reserves in tow, will the resources be enough to curb China’s imports of U.S. protein and allow the country to invade Taiwan? Kuehl isn’t convinced.

He says the choice to hold off on war in Taiwan is based on a page from China’s history books.

“In the last 2,500 years, every Chinese government that has fallen, has fallen over food,” says Kuehl. “They need those import markets—be it from the U.S, Canada, Brazil, Argentina or Australia.”

China can likely “get along” without U.S. imports, as Kuehl thinks they would seek out other countries. However, he doesn’t feel their exports could handle a riff with the U.S. due to its sales stake in stores such as Walmart and Target.

Exploring Other Avenues

Any hope for becoming less dependent on imports is useless in China, according to Kuehl, who says almost two-thirds of its land is “useless.”

“As far as ag, China is desert, mountains and simply not up for this—they’re actually quite resource poor,” he says. “They import oil and many precious metals that they need. Some things they have independence with, but not many.”

U.S.’s Trade Tactics

The news in China comes as the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced next steps in its four-year review of tariff actions in China.

USTR will open an electronic portal on Nov. 15 to gather information on the impacts of China’s acts, policies and practices in technology transfer, intellectual property and innovation.

According to USTR, the electronic portal will be open to the public, with the questions in the portal made available to respondents sometime this week.

More on trade:

New Legislation Could Halt Gas Exports When Prices are High
Mexico to Proceed with GMO Corn Ban
Saudi Arabia Accuses Unnamed Countries of Using Emergency Oil Reserves to Manipulate Markets

How USDA's $2.8 Billion Climate-Smart Investment Might Impact Your Operation

Tue, 20 Sep 2022 06:20:07 GMT

After months of talking about climate-smart agriculture and working with a handful of funding recipients, USDA is now investing up to $2.8 billion in 70 projects under the first Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities funding pool. The projects, which seek funds ranging from $5 million to $100 million, include everything from flood control to building carbon markets.

After sifting through 450 proposals, USDA’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities funding recipients include:

Government entities
Farmer coops
Conservation, energy and environmental groups
Universities
Small businesses
Large corporations

Trust In Food™ , the sustainability division of Farm Journal , is among the USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities project recipients for its coalition-driven Connected Ag Project.

The Impact of USDA Climate Funding

According to Tom Vilsack, USDA secretary, these efforts will “increase the competitive advantage of U.S. agriculture both domestically and internationally,” while building wealth in rural America.

“Through today’s announcement of initial selections for the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, USDA is delivering on our promise to build and expand these market opportunities for American agriculture and be global leaders in climate-smart agricultural production,” he says.

USDA’s press release says, from the funding, farmers can expect:

1. Technical and financial assistance to implement voluntary climate-smart practices.

2. Methods to quantify, monitor, report and verify greenhouse gas benefits.

3. New markets and promotion in climate-smart commodities.

With this new funding in place, USDA anticipates the projects will:

Provide hundreds of expanded markets and revenue streams for producers and commodities ranging from traditional corn to specialty crops.
Reach more than 50,000 farms, encompassing 20 to 25 million acres of working land engaged in climate-smart production practices such as cover crops, no-till and nutrient management.
Sequester upward of 50 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent over the lives of the projects. This is equivalent to removing more than 10 million gasoline-powered passenger vehicles from the road for one year.
Engage more than 50 universities to help advance projects, especially with outreach and monitoring, measurement, reporting and verification.

Proposals for the 70 projects include plans to match 50% of the federal investment with nonfederal funds.

Who Will Provide the Funds?

The Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities funding will be pulled from USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) funds in two pools. USDA says the projects announced today are part of the first funding pool.

The CCC has been tapped numerous times in the past year, such as a March announcement to put $250 million toward American-made fertilizer to give U.S. farmers more choices in the marketplace. Some, including Jim Wiesemeyer, Pro Farmer policy analyst, feel the CCC is more of an “ATM machine for aggies” than a tool used to stabilize, support and protect farm income and prices, as it was originally created for.

When asked about why USDA chose to pull more funds from the CCC, Vilsack said it was a matter of timing.

“We track expenditures from the CCC on a monthly basis. We are within a couple of weeks from the end of the fiscal year and there are significant resources left in the CCC account,” he says. “We won’t require any action from Congress to replenish the CCC. We will be able to adequately fund this initiative, as well as some nutrition announcements made today, and still have billions of dollars left in reserve in the account through the remainder of the fiscal year.”

The Agency says the second funding pool will be announced later this year.

How Funds Will Be Used

In the first pool of funding, numerous projects were selected with funding ceilings from $70 to $95 million. According to USDA, some of the individual projects that will span several states include:

1. Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation), led by Truterra, LLC

This project, which will reach across 28 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits.

2. The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative, led by Field to Market

This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to an array of producers across commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment.

3. Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project, led by Farm Journal, Inc.

This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance and data management strategies to row crop, beef, dairy, pork and other producers to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies.

4. Scaling Methane Emissions Reductions and Soil Carbon Sequestration, led by the Dairy Farmers of America, Inc.

Through this project, Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) climate-smart pilots will directly connect on-farm greenhouse gas reductions with the low-carbon dairy market. DFA will use its cooperative business model to ensure the collective financial benefits are captured at the farm, creating a compelling opportunity to establish a powerful self-sustaining circular economy model benefiting U.S. agriculture.

5. The Soil Inventory Project Partnership for Impact and Demand, led by The Meridian Institute

This project will build climate-smart markets, streamline field data collection and combine sample results with modeling to make impact quantifications accurate and locally specific but also scalable. Targeted farms produce value-added and direct-to-consumer specialty crops as well as the 19 most common row crops in the U.S.

Details on the other projects can be found here .

More on ag policy:

Biden Administration Presses Unions, Railroads to Avoid Shutdown

More than Hangry: What’s Really at Stake in Global Food Insecurity?

More than Hangry: What’s Really at Stake in Global Food Insecurity?

Thu, 08 Sep 2022 01:55:33 GMT

Do you remember what a trip to the grocery store was like at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, or thereafter?

Store shelves sat void of product as packers and shippers were unable to keep up with consumer demand. Trade slowed to a pace that led to a bottleneck of ships and trucks at ports and warehouses respectively.

D.C. made note of these supply chain downfalls and tried to pivot with funding, pop-up ports and weakened transportation regulations. While some of those supply chain links have been soldered in the past year, Russia’s war against Ukraine has added new pressure to global food security.

But the pressure doesn’t stop short of the supply chain, according to many government officials.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), someone known to say, “food security is national security,” shared a conversation with Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen, along with a panel of policy, science and agricultural experts in Ames, Iowa, on Thursday to break down what’s really at stake in rising global food security.

Food Fuels Peace

The United Nations estimates that world hunger increased 1.5 percent in 2020 to roughly 800 million people.

With rising world hunger numbers, Ernst points to the war in Ukraine, extreme weather and the COVID-19 pandemic as fuel on the food insecurity fire. Ernst, along with Larry Sailer, an Iowa farmer and a farmer ambassador with Farm Journal Foundation, say these challenges pose an increasing threat to national security.

“Agriculture is the first building block of any economy, so maintaining a vibrant and innovative farming sector is absolutely critical to lift people out of poverty, build strong economies and eliminate hunger,” said Sailer. “A hungry person is not a peaceful person. National security for all countries depends on less hunger.”

Minimizing Global Hunger

The answer, according to Katie Lee, vice president of government affairs at Farm Journal Foundation, is rooted in ag research and development.

“The challenges we are seeing today, and the resulting impact on food prices and global hunger, should be a wakeup call that we need to invest more in agricultural research and development,” said Lee.

Following a tour of Iowa State University’s Seed Science Center , the largest seed lab in the world, Lee shared that ag innovation, like Iowa State’s, will be “vital” as populations continue to grow and natural resources are strained.

Up the Ante

Global hunger has been addressed for decades by groups like United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme. However, attention has been diverted from science, especially in the public sector, according to Wendy Wintersteen, Iowa State University president.

“Agricultural research and innovation like that happening at Iowa State University impacts nearly every major societal challenge, but this area of science has been massively underfunded for decades,” said Wintersteen. “Increasing our national investment in agricultural research is vital to support the public good and ensure our country’s leadership and competitiveness.”

While private sector research has significantly impacted yields for commodity groups like corn and soybeans, the public sector can support early research to “pave the way for long-term innovations,” according to Farm Journal Foundation’s press release of the event.

“The innovative agricultural research happening at Iowa State University is vital to finding the necessary solutions to combat global hunger,” said Ernst. “Ultimately food security is national security.”

More on trade:

Russia Sparks New Trouble in Grain and Oil Exports
John Phipps: Are Tariffs Part Of The Problem With Inflation?
3 Supply Chain Trends to Look Out for in 2023, According To AEM

Average Cost of a 4th of July Cookout is Down Compared to Last Year

Tue, 13 Jul 2021 20:36:14 GMT

You might save some money on your big 4th of July barbecue this year. The American Farm Bureau reporting the average cost of a summer cookout for 10 people comes in at $59.50, or less than $6 per person.

That’s down 16 cents from last year, but 8% higher compared to 2019. The biggest price increase is with strawberries. Two pints of strawberries came in at $5.30, which is up 22% from last year, due to strong demand and weather events.

Related:

4 Steps to Save Money and Prevent Food Waste

Accidental Success: A Hot Dog that Tastes Like Steak

Tue, 13 Jul 2021 20:36:09 GMT

As you fire up the grills this 4th of July weekend, a hot dog or two might find it onto your plate. But will that hot dog taste like a steak?

Patrick Montgomery is in the business of delivering customers the best steaks they’ll ever eat. Along the way, he may have just created the best hot dog anyone has ever tasted as well. The story of what happened when a steak company’s hot dog sales went through the roof is featured in the American Countryside clips below.

In 2016, Patrick Montgomery began raising wagyu cattle and founded the KC Cattle Company , based on Weston, Mo. He began developing markets for his prime steaks. But of course, those animals produce more than just steak.

The logical first step was high-end hamburgers. But he didn’t want anything to go to waste, continually looking for another use for the beef trimmings.

There are more trimmings than steak, which often has turned into hamburger.

“Hot dogs were one of them, and it was actually one of our worst sellers when we launched it,” Montgomery says. “So, I thought it was a pretty big dud.”

But nonetheless they sent the hot dogs to publications that might review the premium franks and perhaps provide a sales boost. One random Thursday in 2019, after fixing fence, Montgomery suddenly began receiving text alerts on his phone about orders. Once had was back home and refreshed his website, nearly half a million people were on his site.

Food and Wine Magazine had made quite a proclamation about the KC Cattle Company’s hot dogs: It was basically like eating a steak in a bun, or an elevated “tube steak,” if you will. The flavor had real depth and smoky undertones, and the texture and color (darker, more brown than red) was different than most hot dogs—in a good way.

“They proclaimed we had the best hot dog in the world,” Montgomery recalls. “Death by growth was the forefront of my mind because we had 1.5 of us working here at the time.”

Hot dog sales went through the roof, the only problem was they had almost no hot dogs to sell at the time.

“We had 30 packs of hot dogs in stock when this happened, so we had to figure out how to get 10,000 lb. of trim and all of our steaks were back ordered and everything else,” he says. “So, it was definitely a stressful couple of months after it happened.”

Montgomery was honest with his customers, updating them almost once a day. He offered to let them cancel their orders or wait a week or more for the hot dogs. The customers appreciated the honesty and recognized the success ahead for the KC Cattle Company.

Today the company is better able to meet the demand for those hot dog orders and the steaks, as well. Montgomery says those hot dogs and brats do continue to garner quite a bit of attention.

“The hot dog is 100% wagyu,” he says. “For our brats, we mix in some bacon ends to make it a little more forgivable if you throw them on the grill. They are delicious; I mean, you can’t go wrong with bacon, wagyu beef and cheese.”

Montgomery raises his wagyu herd just north of Kansas City, in the hills near the Missouri River. He hopes he can continue to supply folks with great steaks, hot dogs and much more as he grows his business.

Read More
Cattle Company Serves Up Wagyu Beef Produced, Packaged By Veterans

Veteran-Owned Cattle Company Proves Suffering Builds Grit

What Does Food and Fuel Demand Look Like Post-COVID?

Thu, 24 Jun 2021 19:09:14 GMT

As it appears summer consumer behaviors are more normal in 2021 than in 2020, ag economist Michael Swanson from Wells Fargo joined AgriTalk to share his insights for what an ag economy looks like post-COVID.

Regarding restaurants vs. eating at home, Swanson is surprised how quickly the population is spending its food dollar away from home.

“We saw the April numbers from the Bureau of Economic Analysis at $55 billion–that’s kind of their annualized number–and that’s only a billion off the record right before COVID hit. So I’m predicting right now that even when we see the May and June numbers, now that California and New York are opening up again, we’re going to see record spending away from home,” he says. “That shows there’s a pent up demand for having somebody else cook and clean up.”

Listen to the full interview here:

Swanson sees the strength in the supermarket sector softening for two reasons: the increased consumption at restaurants as well as people still eating through the stocked up goods in their pantries and freezers.

“We were talking to sugar people just yesterday,” he says. “And it’s like how many extra 5-pound bags of sugar are sitting in somebody’s pantry right now that they thought it’d be used baking but they didn’t. There’s a lot of canned, dried and frozen goods that are probably gonna have to work their way through.”

While the restaurant industry appears to be on the rebound as a whole, there are some sectors that continue to struggle.

“Quick service restaurants–they’re not back at 100%, because a lot of people still are working from their office. And when people work from their office, they aren’t stopping to get a breakfast sandwich on their way to work. So there’s a lot of nuance about where we eat,” Swanson says.

And as summer travel season approaches, Swanson says there will be a lot more people on the road this year compared with last year.

Gasoline and ethanol consumption will be up in the short-term, but he is predicting a long-term trend toward electrification of the vehicle fleet.

“We saw the rollout of the Ford 150 Lightning and that battery technology. That’s what we’re looking at over the horizon and saying, ‘Well, how much demand destruction going forward will we see?’”

He says it’ll take fleet turnover to bring great change to gasoline consumption, and he says two factors will drive that adoption—federal policy and battery technologies. For example, he says 10 years ago battery powered vehicles had $50,000 in just the batteries. Today, the cost may be $12,000.

“There are 275 million private vehicles on the road today, and they typically have about a 14-year service life,” he explains. “So we add about 17 million vehicles per year; that was kind of the run rate. So it’s going to take a long time, if we go to 4 million or 5 million electric vehicles, that means another 11 million or 12 million gasoline powered vehicles.”

Viral Video Musician Inspired by Indiana Farm Fields at Christmas

Sun, 27 Dec 2020 21:33:27 GMT

The sounds of the season are beautifully struck as a wispy choral of notes float across the strings of Ted Yoder’s hammered dulcimer.

“It just always felt like this was the instrument I was supposed to play,” says Yoder from his home tucked among the farm fields of Goshen, Indiana.

The hammered dulcimer has roots in the folk music of Appalachia, but can be found in a multitude of other nations and iterations.

“It’s used in folk music at best, but typically it’s heard more in mountain music,” says Yoder.

The stringed instrument with its spoon-like hammers has been a part of Ted’s life for more than two decades.

“I play guitar and I play piano, but I just wasn’t drawn to them like the hammered dulcimer,” says Yoder. “There’s just a magic about the instrument and there’s a magic to the sound.”

Lately, he’s been sharing that magic with audiences via social media from his home orchard.

“When I’m going live in the orchard at any point in time, you know, a tractor will go by, a manure spreader or something is happening in the background because of the farmers next door,” says Yoder.

It was that setting in 2016 that pushed Yoder into viral video stardom.

“So the first week I went live, I had like seven viewers I think, and a total of forty-seven views by the by the weekend,” remembers Yoder.

The next week he took a different approach.

“I decided to play a rendition of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears,” says Yoder. “By Sunday I had 54 million views.”

Today that same video has more than 100 million views.

“So that’s what I’m most famous for,” laughs Yoder.

As likely the world’s most famous hammered dulcimer player, he continues to thrill his audiences online and draw inspiration from the fields around him. Capturing little moments that percolate through his newly released winter album and a song called “The Perfect Snow.”

“I was sitting up in my office last November and it was starting to snow, right around Thanksgiving, like it kind of does in Indiana and it was just that, perfect falling snow,” remembers the inspired Yoder.

He wrote a song about it and it’s now included in his latest album “Shadowlight,” a collection of winter and Christmas songs.

This season, while he doesn’t have a spotlight, he does have a way to share his passion across the web of wires and wireless connections online.

“We just you just don’t have a stage anymore right now and I don’t know when it’s coming back,” says Yoder.

Yoder continues to play this interesting instrument from the edges of farm fields of Indiana where he can strike at the heart of the Christmas season and beyond.

“It’s in my blood,” says Yoder. “It’s so unique and I just can’t imagine playing anything else.”

Watch the entire “Christmas in the Country” episode at www.agday.com on December 25, 2020 or on US Farm Report over the weekend.

TraceHarvest Launches A Blockchain For Agriculture

Wed, 18 Nov 2020 19:35:09 GMT

Data from seed to sale to table, that’s the ambition of TraceHarvest, a blockchain network launched by BlockApps.

After two years of testing its supply chain tracing technology with Bayer in the U.S. and Brazil, the startup says it’s ready to expand its digitization of agriculture.

“Blockchain isn’t a shiny tool that people are excited about, it really is the best technology to create an industry wide traceability technology,” says Kieren James-Lubin, President and CEO at BlockApps. “You can do traceability without blockchain, but it requires a lot of coordination across a lot of chains, and input suppliers. To create traceability there needs to be data reconciliation, that includes everyone’s ERP, farm management software, etc. And people have been unwilling or unable to do it to date.”

James-Lubin explains Blockchain automates and simplifies the existing hurdles in data collection, storage and sharing. The goal of TraceHarvest, which is developed as an agricultural-specific blockchain, is to improve supply chain information, with use cases such as carbon offset credits or food safety recalls.

The two-year test program in collaboration with Bayer included corn and soybean crops from sale and planting through harvest.

“The TraceHarvest platform will enable our traditional and non-traditional business partners throughout the food value chain to explore new products, services and business models. Trusting in the stewardship of agricultural products is essential to navigating the complex ecosystem of modern farming,” Michael Pareles, Digital Strategy and Growth Lead at Bayer Crop Science said in a news release. “Using TraceHarvest in production has allowed us to drive operational efficiencies, create value and have greater visibility, transparency and compliance throughout the entire food supply and value chain.”

Sid Siefken, Director of Business Development at BlockApps, says blockchain technology such as TraceHarvest will ensure quality data is easily shared and trusted because the blockchain ensures that even the busiest of seasons can’t allow for a breakdown in the processes and data collection.

“At the distribution and ag retailer level, in the busy spring season, paper records in the warehouse have to be reconciled with the corporate ERP,” Siefken shares as an example. “Or a farmer takes 10% more product than they need just so they don’t run out in the field, and inventory management gets trickier.”

The BlockApps leaders say the two-year testing has also provided them with a good foundation for ease in onboarding users.

On the backend, TraceHarvest uses its company’s cloud-based STRATO platform, which is an Ethereum-based blockchain that can be easily scalable. The company says it also provides excellent data security and it incentivizes greater cooperation and collaboration between the members.

The members, which would include farmers, manufacturers, distributors and processors, select how they share and review the data.

“By enabling the traceability of products throughout the food supply chain, TraceHarvest will provide a basis for new solutions and services around the food quality and transparency questions that are top-of-mind for farmers and consumers,” Sascha Israel, Bayer Crop Science CIO and Head of Digital Transformation, said in a news release.

2020 Mega Trends: Consumer-Driven Demands

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 06:21:58 GMT

Following a decade with the introduction of societal shifters like the smart phone and rapid expansion of social media, 2020 could be the starting block for the fastest technological race in agricultural history. Combining big data with cutting edge science, artificial intelligence and cloud connected technology has the potential revolutionize farming in ways only dreamed up in movies. We asked three farm futurists for their predictions for the next decade.

Regardless of what farmers want, they can be assured consumer pressure will continue in the next decade.

“If we embrace it, I don’t see it as a bad thing,” says Lowell Catlett, futurist, economist and former dean of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at New Mexico State University. “They’re just differentiated segmented markets and I’d rather have a differentiated segmented marketplace than one big mass market because that’s where the profit is.”

“Consumers are going to put increased pressure on the industry over their carbon footprint, their water footprint, and their methane footprint,” says Jack Uldrich, agricultural futurist. “It’s just going to affect farmers in a wide variety of ways and that might be legislation, regulation, or consumers who say they’ll support farmer B over farmer A who is more in line with their values.”

We broke the mega trends down to five key categories. Here are the mega trends for consumer demands.

Food Company/Farm Partnerships

Some of that pressure will come from food companies as they seek to develop more individual farm partnerships that match their business values. From General Mills to Perdue Farms, major food companies are touting and working closer with their farm partners hoping to capitalize on consumer preferences and differentiating their products in an otherwise crowded food market.

“The consumer themselves are going to begin leveraging this data to say I want to buy locally grown produce or meat that came from an operation within 60 or 100 miles,” says Uldrich.

Quick service restaurant chain Chipolte finished the decade announcing it plans to invest in young farmers by offering 3-year contracts to help fill its supply chain with likeminded producers.

Diverging Diets

If you’ve ever tried to host a dinner party of any size, no doubt there were a myriad of dietary demands. Thanks to a plethora of choice, eating today has become a designer buffet rather than a one plate, take it or leave option. From Keto, to Mediterranean, to gluten free, low carb or vegetarian the Amercian diet is an increasingly diverse wasteland of preferences.

“At one point it seemed everybody was on the gluten free diet and then you find out that one half of 1% of the population has any form of celiac disease,” says Catlett.

“Some people will always go for the cheapest, most affordable food and that’s what they have to do but I like seeing people supporting ag in different ways and so to me that’s a really exciting possibility for ag in the next decade,” says Uldrich.

Plant Protein Revolution

The end of the decade was marked with a protein revolution as lab grown and plant based proteins began pushing their way into the meat case. The global plant protein market, estimated anywhere from $8 billion to 18.5 billion in 2019, is forecast to climb above $40 billion by 2025.

“I don’t think that side of the industry expected the whole Beyond Meat trend to explode and accelerate as quickly as it did,” says Jim Carroll, agricultural futurist. “That’s why the industry has to be prepared for probably a lot more volatility.”

Catlett says like other food trends, he expects plant proteins to carve out a two or three percent share.

“I think there’s going to be enough people that want plant based alternative proteins that it’ll be a market, but I think it’ll be like organic or gluten free,” says Catlett. “It’ll be a component of the industry but not a major portion of it.”

If that’s a global share, it’s still a significant amount of money and one the ag industry should recognize as potential disruptors. Even some of agriculture’s biggest companies, Cargill, ADM, and DuPont are targeting the plant protein market for growth and innovation.

“The advances in plant-based protein are going to continue to get better,” says Uldrich. “They are on the verge of making animal free milk and vegan cheese and while those products won’t necessarily appeal to 100% of consumers they will appeal to a number of people.”

Social Media Mandates

Agriculture can expect keyboard warriors and social media posse’s to ride hard through the next decade. Be it under cover videos, fanatical posts by pseudo scientists or even viral shares from a perfect day on the farm, the social scene is going to drive attention, both positively and negatively in the years ahead.

“It’s going to accelerate and the unfortunate thing is a lot of that is going to be based on valid concerns and a lot of that is going to be driven by stupid stuff,” says Carroll. “I think sadly the impact of our social media driven world is a lot of unintelligent people can make unintelligent decisions based upon unintelligent information.”

While the comments will mostly certainly continue to fly, some agriculturalists are finding ways to land real perspective from the farm in the hands of interested people.

“I met a young farmer a couple of months ago that said his YouTube videos now make as much as my dairy operation,” says Catlett. “He’s showing people how he milks cows, how he disposes of the manure and everything in a day in the life of a dairy farmer and being paid to do it.”

Read More

2020 Mega Trends: Connected Data

2020 Mega Trends: Conservation Agriculture

Meet our Experts

Dr. Lowell Catlett, Ph.D. is a former Regents Professor in Agricultural Economics and the Dean of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at New Mexico State University. He retired in 2015 and spends time speaking about the future from an agricultural perspective.

Jack Uldrich is a popular author and speaker around the country. One of his core presentation focuses on the future of farming, deciphering trends and challenging his audiences to survive and thrive in an era of unparalleled change. In 2012, he published a book on the trends to watch in 2020.

For the past 25 years Jim Carroll has spent his time focusing on the future from a global stage. He’s a speaker and a leading trends and transformation expert. He has shared his insights with some of the world’s largest companies and leaders regarding the future and how to manage during times of uncertainty.

3 Transformational Food Movements

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 06:13:41 GMT

The rise of farmer’s markets to home-delivery meal kits to niche brands claiming gluten-free and sunshine-fed products are just a few clues the food landscape is cluttered, confusing and changing.

“We have so much more information than ever before, and that leads us to trust everything less,” says Steve Lerch, Google account executive for advocacy and associations. “Trust has declined in the food system.”

Today’s food movements, Lerch says, fall into three categories: purpose, plan and preparation.

Purpose: Consumers are shifting away from focusing on weight loss—strong is the new skinny. “For the first time in Google history, we’re seeing a reduction in interest to ‘get skinny,’ and seeing more focus on ‘get fit,’” Lerch says. In fact, one in three people say physical activity is important to their identity.

Plan: Today, no purchases are considered a low-consideration buy. Consumers are faced with more choices than ever and heavily research items—even low-dollar ones (every week there are millions of Google searches related to toothpaste). Over half of all offline purchases are digitally influenced, Lerch says. Although grocery shopping has been one of the slowest categories to move online, it’s rapidly being adopted. Lerch says 35% of U.S. household will spend at least one-third of their annual grocery budget via online channels.

Preparation: “Food is becoming an increasingly personal thing for people,” Lerch says. “Consumers want to talk about how they are feeding their families.” Consumers use their smartphone as a sous chef, he says, as six out of 10 millennials use their smartphones or tablets to help in the kitchen.

Read More: Google Identifies Three Marketing Trends Affecting Pork Consumption