North Dakota Congressman Rick Berg joins us on this week's Open Mic to discuss his frustration over the stalled 2012 farm bill and his eleventh hour efforts to try to whip votes before the House or Representatives headed home to campaign. Failure to pass the bill has become a political hot button for the North Dakota Republican, who serves on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, and is now running for Senate in a hotly contested race against Heidi Heitkamp. He also talks about his early ...
Oct 01, 2012
This week's Open Mic guest is Paul Schickler, President of DuPont Pioneer, a role he's held since 2007. He talks about the ongoing challenges with getting new seed products registered around the globe, the benefits of competition in the seed industry, as well as the firms ongoing legal battles with Monsanto. The Iowa-based company is breeding more stress tolerance into crops and reports on how those plants performed during a year of record drought. Schickler also talks about future technology th...
Sep 24, 2012
Dr. Clayton Yeutter has long-served as a public servant in the federal government and held several different leadership positions within the private sector, where he is currently a Senior Advisor at Hogan Lovells LLP in Washington D.C. In 1978, he became president of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. In July 1985 President Reagan appointed Yeutter as U.S. Trade Representative. On February 16, 1989, Yeutter was sworn in as the Secretary of Agriculture, where he helped develop the 1990 farm bill. I...
Sep 03, 2012
With USDA projecting another record year for farm exports, we interviewed Jim Sutter, the Chief Executive Officer of the U.S. Soybean Export Council, for Agri-Pulse Open Mic. Sutter comes from a strong background in soybean merchandising and is eager to sell more U.S. soybeans into the world market even as buyers are concerned about tight supplies and high prices. He explains the relationship between the Export Council, the United Soybean Board, the American Soybean Association and the USDA Fore...
Sep 03, 2012
Rick Tolman, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Association of Corn Growers for the last 12 years, is our guest on Agri-Pulse Open Mic. As a member of the "Farm Bill Now" coalition, Tolman talks about his group's disapointment that members of Congress can't get the job done. He also talks about how ethanol has allowed agriculture to be a bright light in the national economy and explains how, from a technical standpoint, NCGA needs to be supportive of those who want to petition the EPA f...
Aug 20, 2012
With incredible heat and drought conditions across much of the U.S., some have compared this time period to previous record-breaking droughts dating back to the 1930's Dust Bowl years. Yet with new technologies and conservation techniques, USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment Ann Mills explains how farmers and ranchers are preserving precious resources despite the weather-related challenges and how new conservation innovation grants might lead to even better practice...
Aug 20, 2012
This week's guest on Agri-Pulse Open Mic is Jon Scholl, President of the American Farmland Trust, the nation's leading farmland conservation organization. Previously, he served as Counselor to the Administrator for Agricultural Policy at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and talks about his experiences connecting farmers to consumers and the importance of being good stewards of the land, especially in critical watersheds like the Cheseapeake Bay. Scholl gives his perspective on the conser...
Aug 13, 2012
Joe Jobe, the Chief Executive Officer for the National Biodiesel Board joins us on Agri-Pulse Open Mic to discuss the current state of his industry and the important roles that the biodiesel tax credit and the Renewable Fuels Standard play in supporting biodiesel production in the U.S. Jobe, who grew up on a farm in central Missouri, also explains how biodiesel, which is the only advanced biofuel in commercial production, is very diverse in terms of technology and feedstock sources and represent...
Aug 06, 2012
Steve King, a five-term U.S. Representative from western Iowa, joins us on Agri-Pulse Open Mic to talk about how the House plans to consider livestock disaster assistance and a one-year extension of the 2008 farm bill this week. The fourth-ranking Republican on the House AgricultureCommittee talks about his efforts to prevent states from imposing trade barriers on livestock production methods against other states. King, a small business owner who says he has probably built more terraces than any...
Jul 30, 2012
Karl Brooks has worked as a lawyer, Idaho state senator, University of Kansas professor, environmental author and most recently was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agencys (EPA) Region 7, based in Kansas City. In this weeks Agri-Pulse Open Mic, he talks about the controversial topic of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) flyovers of confined animal feeding operations, where small airplanes are used to check for potential violations ...
Jul 09, 2012
This week's guest is Steve Griffin. Griffin is president of CVision Corporation. He holds degrees from Oklahoma State University and Iowa State University in agricultural economics and has over twenty five years of experience in public and private service. He has developed startup companies and created historic firsts in the federal crop insurance program. Griffin specializes in crop risk management and insurance product development with pricing and reinsurance as a part of that enterprise. Grif...
Jul 09, 2012
USDA's Chief Economist Dr. Joe Glauber joins us this week on Agri-Pulse Open Mic to discuss the drought that's dramatically cutting yields across the Midwest and how high participation in the crop insurance program in that region will protect many farmers from a total financial loss. Glauber, who oversees the World Agricultural Outlook Board, also talks about recent changes in the USDA's supply and demand reports, the potential implications of farm program changes included in the Senate and Hous...
Jul 09, 2012
With the world's population expected to grow to nearly nine billion by 2050, the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization predicts that global food production must double by that time. Our guest this week on Agri-Pulse Open Mic, Jay Vroom, talks about the important role that science-based, modern farming practices, which use fewer inputs while leading to increased productivity, can play in feeding a growing, hungry world. As President and CEO of CropLife America, he also talks about cha...
Jun 24, 2012
Rep. Glenn Thompson, who represents Pennsylvania's most rural district, also chairs the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Energy & Forestry. In this weeks' Agri-Pulse Open Mic, the GOP Congressman talks about the 2012 farm bill that's expected to move forward in the House Agriculture Committee on July 11 and how he hopes to strengthen voluntary, conservation programs in what will be his first farm bill. Thompson, who describes farmers as "the original environmentalists" also ca...
Jun 24, 2012
With 2012 designated as the International Year of Cooperatives, Chuck Conner, CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives has been busy sharing the benefits of farmer-owned cooperatives. In this weeks Open Mic, taped June 1, he also talks about the need to resolve regional differences in the 2012 farm bill writing process. Conner brings a unique perspective to this issue. For nearly 20 years, he served on the staff of Senator Richard Lugar and was the staff director of the Senate Agricult...
Jun 18, 2012
Six years ago, Amy Klobuchar became the first woman elected to represent the State of Minnesota in the U.S. Senate. Today, the former chief prosecutor in the states largest county joins us on Agri-Pulse Open Mic. As a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, she talks about the vote last week to advance the 2012 farm bill and her expectations for amendments on crop insurance and other issues. She also points to the importance of getting a farm bill passed this year in order to keep the rural ...
Jun 11, 2012
Our guest this week on Agri-Pulse Open Mic is Arkansas Senator John Boozman, a freshman member of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, who voted against passage of the 2012 Farm Bill in committee. He talks about ongoing negotiations in the U.S. Senate and his expectations for a southern farm safety net that offers more flexibility for growers of all types. The former cattle rancher also shares his concerns over food stamps, crop insurance and other aspects of the farm bill, ...
Jun 04, 2012
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack is our guest this week on Agri-Pulse Open Mic. Broadcaster Ken Root sat down with Vilsack to discuss his approach to on-farm regulatory issues and efforts to improve water quality, including the potential for ecosystem markets. He talks about the 2012 Farm Bill and differences between the House and Senate version and details the Obama Administrations views on trimming crop insurance subsidies. While the farm economy is currently booming, the former Iowa Gover...
May 28, 2012
Mike Johanns is an Iowa farm boy who headed west to Nebraska to serve as governor before heading east to serve as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture in the GW Bush administration before heading back to win an open U.S. Senate seat almost four years ago. He spoke about the politics of the pending farm bill and the challenges caused by geographical conflict. He also talked about the changing landscape for revered Republicans who are losing out to more conservative opponents and the surprising victory o...
May 20, 2012
Bill Northey is a fourth generation farmer from Spirit Lake, Iowa who serves as Iowa Secretary of Agriculture and also as President of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture. Taking a break from planting, he explains NASDA's perspective on the 2012 Farm Bill and discusses future challenges ahead with conservation and water quality. He also talks about the impact that social media and other communication tools has had on lean finely textured beef, Bovine Spongiform Encephalo...
May 13, 2012
In this week’s edition of Open Mic, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway discusses what promises to be a frantic start to December as the U.S. Congress faces a deadline to approve omnibus appropriations legislation. Chairman Conaway is intent to see protection from budget cuts for the farm bill and crop insurance. In this interview, Conaway calls for administrative changes in the farm bill to help cotton farmers, discusses how the threat of trade retaliation from COOL is already aff...
Jan 01, 2000
