Speakers: Profits Await Those Who Adapt
Published: Friday, March 12, 2021
The world will encounter many problems agriculture can help solve over the next 20 years. However, as the demand for food increases, the number of producers decreases and factors like soil health and climate change become more concerning, the role farmers play could be significantly different by 2041.
Whatever transpires over the next two decades, four top global agribusiness executives charged with looking into their crystal balls at last week's virtual Commodity Classic agreed that farmers are going to have to be adaptable and willing participants in affecting change.
During the "Crop Production Industry Outlook: What do the Next 20 Years Look Like in American Agriculture?" panel discussion, Judd O'Connor, president of U.S. commercial business for Corteva Agriscience, said farmers are already doing a good job of looking forward.
"We've made tremendous progress but I think the next step is, whatever we do going forward we've all got to work together to make sure that it's profitable and sustainable for our farmer customers," he said. "Can we get lined up as an industry and choose to do some things?
"Farmers have been the best stewards of the land for the last X-number of hundreds of years. How do we get quality that allows them to choose the right means instead of mandating things?"
Sustainable farming is arguably the biggest trend in agriculture and it doesn't appear that will change any time soon. New Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack closed the Commodity Classic, which originated in St. Louis, on Friday by echoing the panel's views on climate-smart practices, carbon sequestration and soil health.
American ag, however, is playing catch-up when it comes to addressing environment- and consumer-friendly practices.
As a Switzerland-based company, Syngenta Seeds has long approached agriculture by starting at the farm level and "working back through it," said Justin Wolfe, Syngenta's North America regional director operation out of Chicago. "The good news for us, and maybe because we're anchored in Europe from a headquarters perspective, is this isn't a new issue for us.
"We've been working on how to solve climate change for probably more than a decade and the challenge hasn't changed. We've got to help farmers be successful, stay safe and help the environment."
Wolfe said billionaire Bill Gates' book, "How to Avoid a Climate Disaster" is instructive when it comes to understanding the challenge of dropping the number of tons of greenhouse gasses emitted each year through human activity around the world from 51 billion tons to zero.
"It certainly isn't going to be solved just with driving greener cars," Wolfe said. "You've got to look at all aspects not just in developed countries, but developing countries as well to solve it. It's going to take significant investment and I think it will take some time to get it, but it needs to start today. We can't wait."
Since its very beginning, agriculture has been the answer to so many of the world's problems, in addition to feeding and clothing humans. Today, it's at the forefront of clean energy with biofuels, plant-based lubricants and developing alternative products that aren't dependent on petroleum.
Scott Kay, vice president of U.S. crop protection for BASF Agriculture Solutions, North America, believes farming can best defend its interests by actively participating in the process.
"I think it all starts with (knowing) that ag has a major role to play in sustainability and in climate," Kay said. "Ag can really lead the entire nation in this dialogue. Ag is going to be a major player sitting at the table and demonstrating how we've already been down this path and are willing and able.
"We can continue to help farmers, and farmers ought to be part of the story, for sure. Having a sustainable yield is happening today and it will continue to only improve. What's our role from a climate perspective? For us, it's all-inclusive.
BASF is leading by example by trying to achieve the goal of a 30-percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.
"It's full steam ahead in terms of what we're doing to do our part for the environment," Kay said. "The other area is bringing those sustainable farming practices. We look at that now from both a trait that's going to help farmers achieve it, to crop protection. Are there things there we can do to aid no-till (because) we already know that that's a topic, but can we make it an even better solution for farmers.?
"What else can we do and learn for the next 20 years? We've got to have really strong goals."
Bayer Ag recently wrapped up its first pilot program that incentivized farmers to capture carbon in cropland soils, also known as carbon farming. In creating a new revenue source, farmers who implemented climate-smart practices such as no-till, strip-till and cover crops received cash.
Bayer is also working toward meeting the carbon sequestration objectives outlined by the Biden administration while creating added value to its customers, according to Chris Turner, the U.S. Country Division Head within Bayer's Crop Science division.
"We're now in the commercial-launch phase," Turner said. "We'll go from a pilot of a few hundred thousand acres to a launch that will be in the millions. This is going to bring an added revenue opportunity for our customers.
"Today's offer is a $9-per-acre added income opportunity for participating farmers in the 17 states."
New technology is being developed every day to reduce overall usage of pesticides, Turner said.
"More precise spraying is where I would want to go and make sure we are able to deliver on it," Kay said. "We know Mother Nature hasn't given up on resistance, and so we think it's important we continue to address that, and smart spraying is going to help us with that."
Collaboration and partnerships crossing traditional industry lines while reaching into non-ag sectors, such as medicine, are going to be essential to dealing with crop protection and climate change in the future, according to Wolfe.
"How do we partner and bring artificial intelligence to be able to find new pesticides that are better for the environment, are more concentrated and meet the needs of farmers?" he asked. "This AI technology is going to be really critical both in crop protection and help us speed up the rate at which we bring product and technology to market, and do it in a way that takes the environmental aspect into play as well."
Said Kay, "Maybe one of these days the panelists here will all get together and think of ways to eradicate waterhemp and pigweed. I know farmers got that on their minds this year—I hope it's not 20 years from now."
Bayer, Turner said, is also continuing work on developing short-stature corn which is 3 feet shorter than conventional corn, planted in higher densities for more weight of corn per acre and is better suited to controlling greenhouse gasses.
Farming in the not-so-distant future will involve diversifying genetics for traits like drought tolerance, and that will require "precision science and digital capabilities to elevate this stuff and move it more quickly," Wolfe said.
Producers are also going to have to become savvier in the way they market the sustainability factors they're employing into their final products, especially as the rural-urban divide increases and more and more consumers are removed from farming.
"How do you have (consumers) be extremely confident that what we do every day is really good for the environment, for sustainability and the safety of food?" O'Connor asked. "'Social license' is a term that you should all be making all the way throughout the production chain."
As the Baby Boomer generation gives way to Millennials, who know increasingly less about where the food they buy comes from, farmers have to be able to speak their language.
"The ways they purchase and buy are completely different from the way I purchased and bought growing up," Wolfe said. "I like the art of the deal; they want to know that what we're producing matters and is good for the environment. No. 1, we need to understand our segment and No. 2, we need to be able to communicate with that segment in a way that resonates and is believable."
Kay talked about North Carolina farmers selling their cotton based on eight stainability markers used in promotional material and product labeling.
"That's really where this is all going and why we want to be more rooted in that soil health," he said. "Farmers got a great story to tell (and) transparency is not a problem. I think that's what's really going to propel the ag industry into being a leader.
"Whether it's cotton now, or the ingredients in your flour or your corn meal, or whatever that is, when it comes from a sustainable farming operation that has good soil health, I think the consumer is going to want to hear that, and we're all going to benefit from it."
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