Barn Talk - The Heart & Soil of Iowa: Unveiling the Power of Corn Farming w/Craig Floss

Episode Date: April 15, 2024

Welcome to Barn Talk! In this episode, Craig Floss joins the show, an expert working on policies for farmers, delves into the multifaceted world of Iowa's corn industry. From the intricacies of the check-off program and its impact on advocacy to the innovative use of genetically modified corn for higher yields and food production, this conversation offers a deep dive into modern agriculture. Listeners will learn about the importance of public awareness and the efforts of Iowa farmers in international market development, as well as the potential for renewable materials in fashion. Craig, the new CEO of Iowa Corn, also sheds light on infrastructure challenges, government involvement, and the exciting future of corn-derived products. To learn more about Iowa Corn go to:https://www.iowacorn.org/iowa-corn-home Use code BARNTALK for 10% OFF your next order https://farmergrade.com SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST ➱ https://bit.ly/3a7r3nR   SUBSCRIBE TO THIS’LL DO FARM ➱ https://bit.ly/2X8g45c  SUBSCRIBE TO BARN TALK CLIPS ➱ https://bit.ly/3BlZnqq   LISTEN ON: SPOTIFY ➱ https://open.spotify.com/show/3icVr4KWq4eUDl7Oy60YMY  ITUNES ➱ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/barn-talk/id1574395049 Follow Behind The Scenes👇🏻 ● This’ll Do Farm Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/30KPBNk   ● Barn Talk TikTok ➱ https://bit.ly/3qciekS   ● Sawyer’s Instagram  ➱ https://bit.ly/3BtX0n4   ● Tork’s Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/3LGZJxS    00:00 1980s shaped mindset; Thrived in agriculture. 05:17 Influential advisor led farm kid to success. 12:37 Short stint at college/prison led to opportunities. 19:31 Sponsor Heartland whiskey contest to promote corn. 26:02 International market development through public-private partnership. 31:22 Corn growers promote diversity, collaborate with meat industries. 34:32 Farmers unite to work on policy and promotion. 42:32 Farming challenges and need for a louder voice. 45:18 Ensuring the regulatory environment respects farmers and science. 53:28 Challenges in export markets and infrastructure investing. 54:51 New CEO of Iowa corn discusses infrastructure. 01:01:14 Iowa corn technology sold for commercialization. 01:07:57 Advocacy for livestock and poultry in Iowa. ------------------------------- ***PLEASE NOTE*** Barn Talk is a significant break from the typical content viewers have come to expect from This’ll Do Farm. Please be advised that we will be exploring a wide variety of topics (some adult-themed) and our younger viewers (and their parents) should be advised that some topics will be for mature audiences only. ⚠NO FINANCIAL ADVICE / DISCLAIMER⚠  The Information discussed and shared on Barn Talk is provided for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, without any express or implied warranty of any kind, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, or success for any particular purpose. The Information contained in or provided from or through this podcast is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, investment advice, trading advice, or any other advice. The Information on this podcast and provided from or through our content is general in nature and is not specific to you, the user or anyone else. You should not make any decision, financial, investment, trading or otherwise, based on any of the information presented on this podcast without undertaking independent due diligence and consultation with a professiona... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All of the food we eat and much of the clothing we wear comes from plants and animals that are raised on farms. Farms are different in type, in size, and even in name. Welcome to Barn Talk. What happens at the barn? Stays in the barn, but not today. We're going to let it all out for you guys. Today is a guest episode. We've got another guest coming down to Southeast Iowa to have a conversation with us today. Before we get into it, you guys know the show with those, you know.

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It continue to do that if you haven't left a review. Last thing you can do to help support BarnTalk is you can head over to pharmagrade.com. and buy some meat from our direct-to-consumer meat business. We got pasture-raised poultry on there. We got American Wagyu. We got Black Angus beef, pork that we raise here on our farm, all available for you to buy all the cart. We want to do something special for you, Barn Talk, listener of viewers. If you use the code Barn Talk to save 10% on your order, we're going to choose one person that uses that discount code Barn Talk and send them a whole free box full of meat on us, so they kind of get a two-four for one deal. So you might be one of those lucky winners if you use the code barn talk. So that's awful

nice of you. I know. I'm in the giving season. Well, that's good. Yeah, please go, head over to Farmer Grade because Sawyer tells me that if he can finally make a buck off of that, he's going to start paying me. That'd be kind of nice because I haven't had a legitimate job now in like five and a half years. So it'd be kind of nice to, you know, get a little something. Yeah, I want to get you that silver coozy someday. Awesome. That's awesome. It's good to be needed. And today, like Sawyer said, we got a guest, and we're going to talk about corn. Down where we live, that's pretty important. We grow it. We feed it. We feed a lot of it. All that farmer-grade meat, pretty much got to have corn to make that possible.

And so we have a guest from the Iowa Corn Growers Association that's going to be here. and we're going to talk about everything corn and about the markets and about the big picture. We ship corn all over the world, and it gets turned into a lot more stuff than just feed, but we're going to talk about any and all of it. So let's get going. Craig Floss, welcome to Barn Talk. Thank you for having me. It's great to see you again, Tork, and great to meet you, Soria.

I really appreciate you having me down. Yeah, great to meet you as well. Well, so why don't you just start and give us a little background about yourself and talk about your role at Iowa corn? Sure. So I grew up in central Iowa, Jasper County is my home county. Baxter is my hometown. Grew up on a diversified corn, soy, alfalfa rotation. We had a cowcalf herd. A small, typical, 100, 125 cowcalf pears fed those out. We had a Faroe to Finish hog operation. This was the 70s and early 80s. So that means. meant pretty small farrowing operation, and we got out of that in the 80s, continued to feed pigs. In fact, it was pigs that put me through college.

So that was my college fund, and dad gave me a pretty good deal on the corn and everything else. So I was able to raise feeder pigs, and that was the basis for me getting to go to Iowa State University. Yep, the mortgage lifter. The mortgage lifter, indeed. And I am a product of the 80s, so what does that mean? for me, the 80s definitely shaped how I think and how I view agriculture. Our family farm obviously survived and it thrived, but it was not an easy time. So for me, going to Iowa State, I was advised not to go into agriculture, not to come back to the farm because it was tough.

It was tough. And for those who went through it, everybody understands that really well. I am so glad that I didn't listen to those who said that I shouldn't be involved in agriculture. because I think, quite frankly, it's one of the best industries in the world to be engaged in, and I have been able to work globally, and I can give you more of that background in a minute. But for me personally, being in the ag industry, getting to work for farmers, absolutely the best thing that I get to do. I personally believe I have the best job in the world because of the diversity of what I get to do each and every day.

So you make the decision you're going to go to Iowa State. Yes, sir. And what was your mindset, knowing that there really wasn't a place for you on the farm? So what were your interests? What were you thinking, all right, what am I going to do? So I was really interested in the international aspect and sort of ag business, but I also had a really big interest in ag law. And a guy by the name of Neil Harrell set my dad and mom and I down at Iowa State University

and convinced me Iowa State was where I should go, believe it or not. And I bet he spent two hours with us for just a farm kid from Baxter, Iowa, and here's this guy that's world-renowned in the ag space. Now, not everyone always agreed with what Neil did or didn't do, right? But he was a very genuine individual, and he knew, I mean, he was at the forefront of the law scene and agriculture, and so listening to him, I thought, you know, this is the kind of thing I wanted. do. Ultimately, though, international side took over. So I wound up with a double major, and my secondary

major was international agriculture, because that intrigued me more than maybe the legal side of what agriculture was all about. So is any point in there, did you ever return to the farm, or do you have a desire to return to the farm? So that's interesting. So I've always stayed close, but never had an active role until 2016. So my dad is going to be 81 this year. He still technically farms and I work with him. My mother passed away in 2016 and she was of course full partner in the farming operation. And she did all of the bookwork and accounting work, which was never my dad's favorite thing to do. So he said it's said, would you help me out with that piece? And so for me, I live only about 35 minutes from the farm. which is great.

And I help him with all of the record keeping, the bookkeeping. He's involved me a lot more on all the decision making for planting and harvest issues. We have a good friend and neighbor that puts the crop in, takes the crop out. And we've got a local co-op. We're all cover crops, no-till. And the co-op does all the spring. I do all the bookwork. And I often say to my dad exactly, what is it that you're still doing?

He laughs. And he says, well, I have all the risk. And so that's a fair. So yes, so always an interest of mine, and now I actually get to participate in the process much closer. And for me and my day job, working for Iowa's corn farmers, super helpful to be able to actually be a part of something where you feel like you got a little skin in the game and it's not just sort of theoretical when we're off building policy that farmers tell us they want. This really enables me to see it firsthand. Yeah. Before we go forward to jump back one slot, how many people your age and around there have that conversation about Neal? That guy, I mean, I didn't go to Iowa State, but I know a fair amount of people that when you ask them a question about kind of what shaped their interest, a conversation. He, like the fact that he spent that time with you, he was, he was a guy. he spent so much time with so many young kids. Basically, he was like the, he should have been like a part-time admissions director because he kind of, he sold a lot of people on,

on the ag program at Iowa State. He really did. And I think because it was a tough time in agriculture, he had an ability to, I think, see a little further ahead of what things could be. It wasn't, all things are cyclical, as we well know in ag and production egg. And so for him to be able to help a young high school kid

understand the bigger picture, I think that's probably the value that he brought. And again, I know he spent the better part of 90 minutes to two hours with us. And we all walked away going, why did he do that? He didn't have to do that. And honestly, though, it was a big influence for me,

and it's why I wound up going to Iowa State and making sure that I stuck in the agricultural curriculum. And I didn't vary from that. Because, again, a lot of folks saying, now's not the time to do that. Just study something else. Go do something else. And I am so glad, as I said earlier, that I didn't do it.

For those that don't know who Neil is, who is Neil? Dr. Neil Harrell is probably really one of the earliest leaders in the agricultural law area. So he really set the tone and the tenor for what the law in the agriculture. cultural context was. So he's a longtime Iowa State professor and taught the ag law course. If he went through Iowa State, you had him for ag law at Iowa State, if he had any kind of an ag major. And again, he wrote a lot of the textbooks, if you will, on how the law applied to ag and how ag could use the law in the proper way. Yeah. I don't know what you might add to that. No, just and a great promoter of both Iowa State and Iowa agriculture.

Absolutely. And just made a big impression on a lot of people. He really did. And so there were so many influences like that that you have along the way that really sets you on the course. And for me personally to wind up at Iowa corn, when I graduated from Iowa State, I didn't know that I'd ever be back in Iowa. Again, because the ag economy was so tough.

So I wound up going to, well, this is an interesting side story that I'll share first. My wife, who I met on an overseas study program in Wales, happened to be an Iowa farm girl, of all things. She went to Central College, and I went through Central College's program for part of my international ag degree at Iowa State. In the 80s, Iowa State did not have a solid program for international, experiences and central college at Pella had one of the best in the country. They had nine different overseas programs and so I chose Wales mostly because they spoke a form of English there and so for me that was going to be one of the easiest things to do. And I happened to meet my wife Karen there in 1987.

Okay. So when we we came back to the states, she was a year older than I was, she went off to do grad work. And ultimately, before I graduated from Iowa State, she got her first position in Duluth, Minnesota. Oh, boy. So Duluth, Minnesota, I thought, hey, I've got an ag degree. I'm going to graduate. I know that they ship grain through there. There's going to be a job. Let's see, in 1988, 88, 89, there were no jobs in Duluth, Minnesota for an ag guy. But I had a teaching degree. My primary major was ag education, secondary major international agriculture. And so I wound up with a position teaching horticulture and landscape design at the federal prison. Oh, wow.

Yeah. So I like to tell folks I was in and out of prison back in 89. So for that summer, basically, it was an experimental program where inmates could get college credit for this horticulture class with the local community college. So I started to, I did that with never an intent to be there for very long. But it was a great experience. It was a great experience because I had to report to folks at the community college. I had to report to folks at the prison.

It was an experiment. And so they wanted to make sure it was going to be successful ultimately. And so there were lots of eyes on the program. And it really taught me a lot about how to manage multiple bosses, which I now joke working for Iowa corn and a couple of different boards and all the farmer bosses that I have. It was good training ground to have that many people overseeing everything that I was doing. So I started there and I was only there about four months and then got a call from Iowa State that said, hey, there is a position in Chicago that I think you ought to look at. And I

interviewed and it was with a company called spraying systems. And if you've ever used T-Jet spray products on the farm on any of your sprayers, that is the company. Okay. So I started out as a domestic marketing specialist doing all of the trade shows and the big technical product. catalogs and things, basically sales marketing position. A year into the position, my dream opportunity opened up. The company, Spraying Systems, was going through a transition of wanting to buy back the agricultural business from their international distributors. So spraying systems had, they were probably in 40 or 50 different types of markets. Any place that you spray fluid through or need to spray fluid through, they had a nozzle that fit into that industry.

And agriculture was their single biggest, single biggest market. But the industrial distributors in Europe primarily had used it as a way to essentially make their big margins there. And fight it out on the commercial side. Consequently, spraying systems went and T-Jet spray products went from a 50 plus percent market share down to less than 10 percent in the European market. So the company decided that they were going to reorganize, and I was in the right place at the right time. So 24, 25 years old, and a VP said to me, would you be interested in this international piece? Because I had an international I degree. I wasn't afraid to dial 011, which is the international prefix to dial an international number. And I said, absolutely, jumped at the chance.

So I became director of international sales and marketing. We bought out 17 distributors, industrial distributors in Europe. We created four agricultural sales offices that were company-owned and reported in to us then in the Chicago area. So I spent lots of time doing all of that and then building relationships with all the customers that essentially we had lost. because they were off with other manufacturers, right? Other people supplying nozzles, valves, guns, et cetera, for their spraying operations. And from then, after we set that up in Europe for the next six or seven years,

took the same model, did that in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and I was working in Southeast Asia doing the same thing, when I got the call to come to Iowa corn. Wow. So it was pretty fun and great opportunity for me. It becomes difficult, though, when you start having children. And you actually want to be there for your kids, and that probably was one of our biggest motivators.

My wife and I were like, she was very busy in her chosen field, which was cardiac rehabilitation. She worked at a hospital for a group of cardiologists, extremely busy. I was traveling a couple weeks at a time, internationally. every other month I would be gone. And so it's like, okay, we're going to have to make some changes.

So I got the call and wanted to ask me if I wanted to interview for this job at Iowa Corn. And I'm like, well, I'm intrigued. I'm intrigued because, gosh, it's back in Iowa. It's not far from the home farm. But at the end of the day, I don't have any political experience. I haven't run a not-for-profit. I'm a sales and marketing guy with some good strategic planning skills.

but I don't really have those things which I thought they might want the most. Turns out they said, we can teach you a lot of that. And so I interviewed and the rest is history. That was 1997 and I've now been at Iowa corn for 27 years. See, that's a great story. That's way better than, you know, the way I, you know how I got on Iowa corn? How? Mark Nup called me up and said, hey, we got this group of guys that get together every once in a while.

and Iowa corn usually pays the bar tab. He goes, you like to talk. I think this would be great for you. And see, that was all it took. But your story's way better. Way better. Yeah, well, you know, it's interesting. Over the years,

beer is not what brought me to Iowa corn by any shape of the magic. But I will tell you that today, beer is something that we like to talk about because there's corn in it. Absolutely. And I know one of your earlier episodes was about the Bud Light debacle during the Super Bowl.

And so many of us were just livid about what happened. And we responded very forcefully, and it wound up that we got their attention, as it turns out. And we even hosted the CEO of Coors and did a round in Iowa where they were promoting their corn-based beer. And I'm a home brewer. I enjoy that just on the side. And I use corn in every single one of my brews, even if it's just the corn sugar, to go in for the fermentation process. So beer, we've done some interesting collaborations with exile brewing in Des Moines.

We've done Peastree brewing. We did a cornucopia. In fact, after that debacle with Bud Light and their anti-corn commercial, Peastree wanted to come out with a corn-based beer. And we had one of our directors from the Knoxville area that we brought corn in, and it was a Belgian-based beer made from Iowa corn, and it was awesome, called Cornucopia, and we released it the fall after.

So it's a cool way to promote the many uses of corn, and that ultimately is the story. So whether there's somebody you're coming to a meeting for and somebody pays the bar tab, there's still corn in there, so it's legit. I'm going to say it's legit. Whiskey too. Can't forget about whiskey.

Yep, absolutely. Early, got to have it all. I mean, that's the only reason that I started drinking it was to support the corn market. There you go. Maybe. So, yeah, and we actually sponsor the Heartland Burbin contest, or actually it's a Heartland whiskey contest together with about eight other corn states and the National Corn Growers Association.

And again, why do we do that? We do that because we think it is very useful to bring in a whole new, different group of people into understanding, again, the many uses of corn. And so we are about six, seven years into that. Every state then has entrance into the whiskey contest, and ultimately there is a national winner, there's a state winner, and it's been very successful. So we've got winners from all over the country and a way to showcase corn in a different form. Yeah, absolutely. When you think of, okay, national corn growers, Iowa corn growers, which came first in that deal? Like when did corn promotions start

and I guess I'm assuming that it probably started in a state before it became the national, or maybe it became the national first. So this is a uniquely Iowa story, and I really enjoy telling this story because there are a lot of folks who don't know much about it. It all started in Iowa in 1957 with a guy by the name of Walter Gepinger, of Boone, Iowa. Now, Walter was a very global thinking kind of person, and we were growing, guess what, more corn than we had market for. And he decided that he wanted to start the National Corn Growers Association to figure out how to market corn more broadly. So the National Corn Growers Association officially founded in Boone, Iowa, 1957. So we're coming up on nearly 70 years of the National Corn Growers Association.

Okay. Now, for about the first 10 years or so, it was primarily Iowans. It was Walter's friends and neighbors and acquaintances. And then it started to grow and people said, hey, you're on to something here. And of course, one of the earliest friendly rivalries was with our neighbors to the east with Illinois corn. And in about, it was 1967, the first state corn growers association was formed and it was the Iowa Corn Growers Association. So Walter was our official first NCGA president and then our first president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association. And quickly then other states began to follow suit and they begin to collaborate and sometimes compete. Yeah. Right? Good friendly competition. It wasn't until 1977 that the Iowa Corn Promotion Board came in to be and we were the first

checkoff for corn in the country. There is a debate between us and Kansas. One legislature passed the enabling legislation before the other, and one started it collecting before the other. For this podcast, we're just going to say Iowa was first. I think you're safe from that. Plain and simple. So today we have 27 corn states that have associations for the policy side, checkoffs for the market development side, and, of course, our new. National Corn Growers Association. We are a very bottoms up group, meaning that everything starts at the local level and then to the state and ultimately to the national. Every state checkoff in the country is a state-run check-off. We do not have a national check-off. So every state has a

different rate, et cetera, and we can certainly talk through all of the history of how that all came to be, if you'd like. I'd happy to visit about all that too. Well, yeah, I think that's kind of interesting in the fact that when you start from scratch and you, in the beginning, I mean, there was no, basically he was funding this. It was funded by donations, pretty much. And at what point and how difficult was it, do you know how long it took from the time that idea was floated that we should have a checkoff to it actually be? being set up and done? So I don't know exactly how long it took, but I know that it was several years before it was actually passed, and then farmers voted to do it.

I'm going to go back, though, because I think it's interesting to highlight Walter Gepinger a little more, because in 1957 when he started the corn growers, there was another event that was really pivotal, and many people don't know this story either. there was a major typhoon in 1959 in Japan and so there's something that many people have heard of but don't know the story it's called the Iowa hog lift well what is that the Iowa hoglift was an initiative they said hey there's been this terrible devastating typhoon in japan we are going to send bread

pigs and corn to japan and they literally put them in the pot about the the pot about the of a big C-130 big old plane and they island hopped all the way from the U.S. to Japan and they took them, I think it was 35 sows that were bred and corn to start and repopulate the pork industry in Japan. Why is that important today? Well, number one, incredible humanitarian effort, but it was the forerunner of the foreign ag service. Sure. It was the forerunner of us marketing our corn outside the U.S. This was Walter Gepinger's original goal. What can we do to build markets outside the U.S. because we'd saturated what we could do with our corn here. So that was the beginning of the cooperator program. Ultimately in 1960, the U.S. Grain's Council, or it was then

called the U.S. Feed Grains Council, was formed. And that was actually started primarily and funded. There was farmer involvement. Walter Gapinger was very much involved in that, but there were no dollars available. So the dollars were coming from agribusiness, and our own in-state pioneer company was a big funder of that initiative. And so that actually helped set the stage then for international market development because there was an appetite. Hey, once they started growing those pigs in Japan, and they like the corn that was being fed to them, them, let's send them more corn, let's build the herd, let's take that model and move that out into other things. That was also the forerunner to ultimately the U.S. Meat Export Federation,

which was the mid-70s, about 1976, I believe, USMEF came into play. And by that point, then the U.S. government was also starting to cooperate with those players helping provide matching funds, a great public-private partnership where the government puts dollars in, private dollars coming for farmers, and you do really successful international market development programs. So that's why then ultimately, to get to your question torque on the checkoffs, when did that all start, we had to figure out a way to fund those initiatives. It was working, but there wasn't enough dollars collectively to be able to take it to the next level. And you had to be able to prove a course to farmers, hey, if I put something in, am I going to get more than I

put it back? That always has to be the key. So initially, in the mid-1970s, there were a couple of attempts. There was a lot of work by the Iowa Corn Growers Association to start the Iowa Corn Promotion Board. And finally, in 1976, it passed. And in 1977, then we began collecting initially one-tenth of a cent per bushel was the checkoff and it was refundable so a farmer could participate but if didn't like what the Iowa corn promotion board was doing you asked for your money back and that's still the same to this day yeah so one-tenth of a cent it started and then through farmer referendum it's been raised several times went to a quarter cent in 1985 to half a cent in 1995 and in 2008 it went to three quarters and then in 2012 which was our last farmer referendum was

three to a full penny yeah and that's where we sit today one penny per bushel a refundable checkoff that is in place for the state of iowa well that's a good segue so why should farmers become involved in iowa corn what are the benefits to it question i would say the most important reason is it gives everyone individually a collective seat at the table what we probably are able to do better than anyone else. And I say anyone else, I mean, all of our ag organizations do an awesome job of helping create opportunity

by being at tables where you can't be as an individual farmer. The single biggest reason to join and to pay your check off is to be able to do collectively what you can't do alone. There is no other better way to do it, I believe. Well, I will admit, you know, there are just in our county, I've got neighbors that have been involved in Iowa corn for a long time, basically since they started farming, a lot of them, you know, when they came back from college. And I was very late to get involved just because of everything that I was involved with off the farm. but the we raise a lot of pigs and washing county is a corn deficit state or corn deficit county in the fact that all we think about here is growing corn and feeding pigs pretty much we feed

fair amount of cattle too but um i feel like people don't and it's it's different in different counties around the state obviously you go you go north you go close to where ethanol is, those counties, ethanol is, that's what they think about because most of their corn goes for that. But I think the most surprising thing that I had no idea when I became involved is the number of products, the number of things that corn is in, you would have no, like, you have no idea. And then the very unique markets that are out there that and products that use corn and so when you think about your time what do you think what are some of the biggest changes from from the promotion side that you've seen in your 20 some

years of being involved so i'm going to answer that in a second but i can't i can't miss the opportunity to put in a plug here there are over 4,000 products that corn is in that's how diverse when you think about sweeteners and starches. It winds up in your tires. It winds up in batteries. It winds up in your clothing. Obviously, we burn it. It's fuel. It's food. My favorite is bacon, right? I mean, who doesn't like a nice big plate of bacon? And that's the best place that corn goes, in my opinion. But there's so many places that you find corn and helping people understand just how diverse the places that that corn goes. That's important because ultimately then it leads to it leads to all the other opportunities that exist. And I want to tie this together with why should

someone be involved in the corn growers? If you're a big pork producer, why does corn matter to you? Well, obviously it's one of your biggest input costs, number one. But number two, the synergy that is created between our associations together. We work hand in hand with the Iowa pork producers, the Iowa cattlemen, the turkey, the dairy, the poultry, et cetera. And when I say we work with them, I mean, we literally meet with them, we work with them, we cooperate, we invest. Iowa corn is the single biggest grain investor in the U.S. Meat Export Federation. That's a partnership, obviously, export pork and beef outside the U.S. and our corn farmers are significantly engaged and proactive in that group and we work together. We ask the Iowa pork producers, farmer leaders and the Iowa beef folks,

what would you like us to do to invest in your part of the industry? Because the livestock and poultry industry is our number one market when you consider raw grain as well as the distillers grains that come off the ethanol stream. So livestock is paramount for us, and their answer to us is, help us with the international marketing, invest in the U.S. Meat Export Federation. And so Iowa corn farmers have stepped up in a big way. In fact, we just had the first Iowa corn leader that was the chair of the U.S. Meat Export Federation. So Dean Meyer from Northwest Iowa served in that capacity, and I think it demonstrates how the partnership between our grain and our livestock industries is so important.

I was going to segue. I mean, unless you got something to add to that. We got on here, what are some of the biggest misconceptions about the organization? But something that I want to throw in here, the public and GMOs have been came hot topics for corn. Do you have anything you want to say about GMO versus non-GMO? any facts you want to lay on people on that discussion or that topic? Sure. So one of the biggest misconceptions, I'll start with that, and then we'll talk about the GM issue. One of the biggest

misconceptions I believe is who Iowa corn is. If I am a member of the association, am I paying my check off? If I pay my check off, am I a member? So let me just kind of break that down a little bit. first and foremost, there are two separate boards of directors that are all farmer elected and farmer-led. The first, as I've mentioned earlier, is the Iowa Corn Growers Association. That is the policy body. That is a membership organization. That's the group that's working on all the policies that are farmers in the countryside tell us that they want us to work on. So we work on policy in Des Moines at the State House and at the federal level in Washington, D.C., in partnership with our other 27 corn states and the National Corn Growers Association. Then we also have the checkoff, which again, as we mentioned earlier,

is it's what I call our self-help program. It's by farmers, four farmers. It's farmer collected, it's farmer directed, and farmer invested. It's farmer, corn farmer money that's going to help promote corn in all forms both in the U.S. and around the world. Misconception piece comes in to say, well, I am a, I contribute to the checkoff, so therefore I don't have to be a member. I don't need to write a membership check. Here's the key difference between the two that's very important. We cannot by law utilize checkoff funds to lobby.

The only lobbying funds that we have come from membership dollars. So it's important to participate in both. And so if we can help farmers understand that working on both sides is critical to the ultimate mission. You got to have both, but if both aren't working in concert ultimately, it doesn't get you as much as what any of you need. And it's really the same with all of our other commodities as well, whether it's pork or beef or any of the other groups. So the GM issue. Let's talk about the GM issue. This has so, we can go so many directions on GMOs, but let's start with this.

As we all know, if you're close to agriculture, close to production agriculture, there has never been one single human health issue related to a GM crop, period. Globally, pick your crop. We're going to focus on corn today, because that's what I know. There has never been a human health issue. related to a genetically modified organism in corn. I just want to set that stage, right? That's a good point. That's a good starting point. We've never had an issue. We've never had an issue. And yet, when GM first started in the 90s, I think the ground zero, as I really

understand the history here, and that's when I was starting at Iowa corn, and there was already a little bit of an issue in the UK. And it was somebody who said, we're going to have a problem. Maybe we're going to grow a third ear, an extra toe, something like that. But it really set the stage for that to just get blown way out of proportion. Science here is our friend. We now have 25 plus years of GM crops with no human health issues, with all the advantages that help us from a conservation, environmental standpoint, the growth has been phenomenal. You want to feed people? How about a GM corn that continues to yield at the clip of about 1.9 bushels per acre increase year in and year out? You want to grow more on less acres? You want to use less input? Biotechnology and GM has been our way to do that. It has been an incredible

scientific success story. I would argue an incredible human success story because of what we've been able to do to feed people because of increased yields. We've talked about this on many times. We're kind of our own, we've created our own problem in the fact that our civilization has gotten so efficient at producing food that you need so few. people to produce that food that now then there are so few people doing it that the rest of the population starts to think that we don't need it and we don't know anything about it and we don't have we don't have enough people with any connection back to that food production which is exactly why you have to do the promotion side of it. So to go back to when you were talking about the difference

between the checkoff money and the promotion side of it, the law mean side of it, I think as farmers, and this is the same, this is not unique to corn. The pork producers have the same thing. I assume soy and cattle have the same thing. Heck, the turkey guys probably have this. There is, within agriculture, farmers are very, for the most part, very humble people, and they just want to do their job, and they just want to raise a family, and they don't typically like a lot of publicity. And they aren't very good at telling their story, and they're even worse at showing their story, because they don't want to be, they don't want to be seeing, I guess you'd say. But we're at a time in history where to just do the right thing

and to produce a quality, produce quality food, and to raise a family and do all that, if you aren't telling your story, somebody's going to tell it for you, and the people that are going to tell it for you probably don't have your best interest in mind. And to me, I think that was the biggest, that was the biggest, I don't know if you want to say wake up call, but the thing that I realize, and I realize it more now than I did even a few years ago, that that's why you've got to become involved on the other side of it. I don't feel like that it's enough to say that, you know, well, you're already getting my money,

whether I want you to have it or not because of the checkoff, well, yeah, that's fine. But if you want to, it's not just about finding markets and creating markets. If you want to keep the markets that you have, and if you want to, more importantly, have the freedom to operate, I think that's one of the biggest perils that we have in our industry, not just in crops, but in animal agriculture and all of it, is the right to, operate and not have people dictating what you can and cannot do. And if you don't want that, you've got to speak up and you've got to tell your story and you've got to share what you're doing, why you're doing it, why it's the right thing to do. I don't think I could have

wrote those talking points any better than what you just articulated. That's fantastic. And there's so many things that you just said that I think we could unpack in this conversation. So, let's start with one of the biggest challenges. I think we is an industry face. And I concur with you, Tork, it's not just corn. It is all of our commodity groups, and I would argue it is the agricultural industry as a whole. We have been successful because we have had, historically, so many people connected to our industry. So many people have come from the farm, and they've gotten involved in agribusiness. They continue to farm. themselves, et cetera, but as we get further and further removed from the farm and there's fewer

people with a direct connection, it's one thing to have grown up on the farm when you've, yeah, grandpa and grandma farmed, and then suddenly, yeah, I don't remember a relative that farm. I know they did. I've heard that in my family history, but I don't know that. being able to help people understand what it is that farmers do on behalf of humanity is significant. So our biggest challenge is telling our story and getting people to be involved. The fewer farmers, we need a louder voice than ever, but we have fewer people to do it. We get to amplify our voice through organizations like Iowa corn and Iowa, pork and Iowa beef, Iowa Farm Bureau. All of those groups working together are what will ultimately

help us in whether it's the policy process or even the development process. Being able to go back to what we were talking about earlier, biotechnology, had we been able to tell that story earlier and put a different view on it, I think it would have been a totally different outcome than what we've had to battle over the past 25 years to get this incredible technology that's done so much for, again, for humanity. It is just an incredible technology. And yet we've had to fight every bit of the way because we had people who decided before they even knew about it that it was wrong. So one of the key things I think you said is involvement, telling your story, being an advocate. And the more you can do that, the better. And that's what you guys are doing here.

That's what's great about Barn Talk is you're bringing on people. And hopefully there's non-ag folks listening to the people that you're bringing on and chatting about so that people can learn. Hopefully they're taking the time to learn from what you're doing. I think that's really good. So you talk about the policy side. What are some policies right now for Iowa corn in 2024 that you guys are trying to push through and get done for the betterment of Iowa corn farmers? So I'm going to go back to the, what's the root of what we need the most? And it's corn demand. Absolutely corn demand. We know how to produce corn. Again, that 1.9 bushel per acre yield increase year and year out is phenomenal. History has never seen anything like Iowa farmer's ability to brew both corn and soybeans, quite frankly. And so looking for ways, whether it's through livestock, through trade, international trade, or through industrial uses.

Policies specifically around those areas is where we want to focus. And another thing that you mentioned earlier, TORC, was the freedom to operate. That is another key piece for us, making sure that the regulatory environment is respectful to our broader environment, but also respectful to our farmers' ability to actually produce a crop and raise livestock appropriately, utilizing science. So our policies, we do things that are focused in on those demand pieces and the freedom to operate pieces. Examples, specifically at the federal level, we've been working on E15, which is a 15% blend, or known also as unleaded 88 here in Iowa and the Midwest, getting year-round approval.

for that. We have regulatory issues. Somebody in a cubicle in Washington, D.C. has decided better on how you measure whether or not E15 is okay. It's baffling to me because E85 is just fine and the bulk of the nation's fuel supply, which has cleaned up our air significantly with E10 is just fine. But somehow we can't get E15. Why is that? I won't get into all the details, but suffice it to say it is an oil company way to prevent us from growing our market share. So one of the policies specifically is E15 year-round, which will obviously help us chew up that corn crop. Oh, and by the way, in the process, the more ethanol we produce, the more distillers grains we produce, which goes directly back into the livestock industry. So that's also helpful there.

Yes. I want to jump in on that a little bit. Have you seen any, I guess I would say thaw, thaw would be in the relationship between refiners and ethanol due to our current administration's push towards EVs. In other words, does the petroleum industry have? any are they starting to realize possibly like corn and and hogs work together because it's a common interest do they have any clue that maybe it would be better to not fight so hard because you kind of have a common interest in the fact that we want to move more ethanol but they want to keep, they want to keep, uh, gasoline powered vehicles affordable for people. Is there any, is there any,

uh, I guess is that relationship? Is there any hope of that getting better? There's more to life than finding the perfect car. But finding the perfect car can help you get the most out of life. Like the SUV that handles everything from drop off to off road and the car that hulls groceries and hockey teams or the van that's gone from just practical to practically family. Whatever you want, wherever you're going, start your search at ototrater.ca. Canada's car marketplace. So the oil industry, like any industry, is not completely united. We can say big oil. Others could say big agriculture, big corn. We don't all agree. So the answer to the question is, yes, there has been more partnerships between the liquid fuel suppliers, whether that's coming

from oil or renewable resource like corn or biodiesel coming off the soy market. So there's hope in that there is more cooperation. And if you go back to 2005, 67, when we passed the renewable fuel standard at the federal level, RFS1 and RFS2, it was. jointly determined with the oil industry. It was a combination of the autos, the oil industry, and agriculture that came together to pass that originally. When they were doing it, I don't think they understood just how successful we could be, hence the additional fights that have ensued since. But relative to your point on electrification and EV vehicles specifically, yes, there are some parts of the oil industry who see that there is

synergy working together with renewable fuels with their part of the liquid fuel market. So, you know, we're competing on a global stage market in our commodity, you know, all of our commodities. What is, was it from the history, because you talked about the story of how we sent over corn, sows, over to Japan, and we just kept repeating that process trying to get our product out to the world. Have we just kind of, were we like one of the first to do that? And that's how we, I don't know. How do we like differentiate our product here that we raise in Iowa to be sold globally? Or is it just kind of like the history we've just been doing it the longest and people kind of have a bias towards us? Or how's that all, how's that all work? What do you think we do to separate ourselves?

So I think that if we're talking Iowa specifically, I think we have a very unique position because of being first in things. look the Iowa chop as an example for the pork industry that's not just an Iowa chop in Iowa that's an Iowa shop on the west coast the east coast in Tokyo in Paris it is the Iowa chop if you're going to have a pork shop you want an Iowa chop so I think that's a differentiation piece that we have that we can absolutely take advantage of we also have advantages even in the in the beef industry officially but unofficially known as I-80 beef. It's coming out of Nebraska and Iowa because they know that it's corn fed to tenderness. It's perfect. So both the beef and the pork have an advantage in our international marketing efforts through the U.S. Meat Export Federation.

We do specific advertising and marketing campaigns with USMEF where they like to put the Iowa corn logo on that marketing campaign. And we send our corn farmers with pork and beef producers overseas to talk about and to meet real consumers. People love to meet a real pork producer, a real cattleman and the corn guy together where you get to talk about how there is this sustainability cycle of utilizing the corn to feed the animal. We use the manure to fertilize the corn crop and it just goes in one big service. consumers really like that and to your point Sawyer I believe that having those kinds of opportunities does differentiate us from other countries around the

world because we've been really good I think of telling that that story internationally the US Grains Council also does a great job of helping tell that story the Grains Council is represents corn sorghum and barley in the overseas markets obviously from our perspective we're investing in the corn piece of that. But we've been able to get our corn into countries for years since the nine, since 1960, as I mentioned earlier. And that has been a great outlet for not only corn, but distillers grains, now ethanol. We've been shipping more ethanol than ever overseas.

Wet gluten or gluten feeds, etc. Products that we can't consume here, we are shipping out. And the grains council is that promotion and marketing. arm that help us do that. I think the U.S. generally has been a leader in that, but the competition is getting tougher. As you guys are fully aware, we've actually been surpassed by the amount of corn exported through Brazil. Brazil has actually overtaken us. They've been able to grow more and ship more overseas. And so we have our work cut out for us. Again, another reason to be a part of what we're doing because we have to get better and stronger at making sure that we maintain that market position. How much does, or I guess a better way to put this, is what's our biggest challenge

when it comes to the export markets with our own infrastructure? Because one of the biggest advantages that we had over most of our competitors was that we had this amazing barge system and load out system in the Gulf. But a lot of age on that and not a lot of money put into it. And one of the things that I think worries a lot of producers, because we all hear about it, is massive infrastructure programs being done in South America, because one of their big hindrances and kind of an advantage to us is that they can harvest these big crops, but traditionally they've had a lot of trouble getting it actually out of the

country because their infrastructure is so bad. But they've been investing at a pretty substantial clip. So that's just going to put more pressure, I think, as we go. Where are we in this country on our own infrastructure and not just really not just improving it, but just doing what needs to be done to make sure that we can stay competitive. It's interesting. One of the first interview that I did after I was hired as the new CEO of Iowa corn, before I even started, I was sitting at my kitchen table in Chicago on the big show, WHO in 1997, and we were talking about the Mississippi River, the locks and dams and the improvements that

were necessary. And the questions were, what are we going to? to do to make sure that that system is upgraded. We have done yeoman's work on trying to move the federal government into increasing monies available to improve and keep that system viable. It has been a tough slog, as we all know. There are still a number of projects that are backed up that need to be that really, in theory, have really their useful life is supposed to have been over. But we're still using things that were built in the 30s and the 40s. Fortunately, good maintenance has kept up on a lot of that.

But to your point, it is what made us successful. That infrastructure system to get our corn out from where we grow it to the rest of the world has been absolutely key. And right now, more investments are happening in Brazil with Chinese money in many cases. it is a real problem for us not keeping up in that regard. Today we actually have the authorization to upgrade, but now we need the ability to actually do it. And it's very difficult. The monies are there in theory, but we just need to get the projects up and rolling. And there's big projects down on the Ohio River that have taken priority over some on the Mississippi. It all needs to get done. Anything we can do to move corn,

efficiently out of the country and also bring our inputs up the river. Never forget that much of our fertilizer comes from other places as well and we need the shipping up just as much as we need the shipping out. So Brazil represents a real threat to us from a global marketing perspective. And I think it's a it's a warning to all of us that we've got to amplify. Again, our voices make them heard that we were successful and we have the position we do because of the investments we made, those investments can't stop. You got to keep doing them. Yeah. Do you think, is there any opportunity there for private investment? Is the government at all, do you think that there's any chance of movement where, I mean, you've got companies like CHS and like Cargill that, I mean,

that is a huge, huge part of their business and they're using kind of a public system. Are they at all interested in, I guess, shouldering more responsibility on that if they can ensure that it's going to make them more productive to get their product out? I can't speak to them directly as companies. I do know that the companies you mentioned and others certainly invest in their own infrastructure on the rivers. right, on their own terminals and places. So they've made massive investments as well.

And I guess I can make an argument that when everybody is investing in the river, everybody benefits in the river. And so I can't speak to whether or not they'd be willing to shoulder more, but I do think it's incumbent upon us as a country to make the proper investments to keep that competitive advantage because it drives all of our economies at the end of the day. Yes, we have domestic use. there's lots of places here that we want to, that we want to grow into. But ultimately, because of our productivity, we have to be able to have that outlet.

And that last 10, 15, 20% of what we can't use domestically. It's what gives us our profit margin at the end of the day as farmers. We have to have the export markets. You're only as good as the weakest link. That's why Sawyer keeps trying to get me to go to the gym. He knows what's the weakest link. Yeah, one day at a time, one day at a time. So what's your next priority?

What's the biggest thing that you want to try to get done? So I think my priority is always the same. Now that might sound counterintuitive, but for me, it's about getting more farmers involved and listening to what their goals are. What do they want? And right now what I've been hearing loud and clear, I'm going to go back to what I said earlier.

It's about corn demand and freedom to operate. Those two key tenants are my priority each and every day. How do we do that? Well, again, we've talked about policy. We've talked about market development. We also go through an extensive, from an Iowa perspective, Iowa corn perspective, we go through an extensive strategic planning initiative every three to five years to make sure that we're still hitting the mark. We went through one of those primary strategic initiatives, two.

years ago now and we're into full implementation of that. So I'm prioritizing making sure that I'm able to help deliver on what our farmers are asking us to do. That revolves around new product innovation as an example. So again, novel, unique ways to utilize the corn stream. One area we really haven't hit on today is the extensive research efforts that Iowa corn has done over the years, utilizing the chemical stream that can come off the corn processing, corn processing area. So for example, we have developed a new corn-derived process for developing MEG or monoethylene glycol. It is a drop-in monomer that goes into plastic bottles. It goes into this. It can go into polyester fabrics. It can go into antifreeze.

And globally, it's growing at a clip of 5 to 6, 7%. It is one of the most significantly used chemicals that have traditionally come from the oil industry. And we have figured out, at Iowa corn specifically, a way to do it from corn in a very competitive way, which makes it renewable and less expensive. And we sold this technology about a year ago to a company called Tech Neep.

they are getting ready to commercialize it. We think it can be a huge demand driver over the next three to five, ten years, and we see it really, again, ramping up because of just how many products MEG can go into. So for me, prioritizing that new demand like that and new products is a key tenet of our strategic plan, and we're really living that out. The other piece in our strategic plan that's important is what we're calling new advocacy 2.0. We've always advocated on behalf of farmers. And we listen to what the farmers want us to advocate and we're out there trying to amplify their voice.

We need to find new ways to do that, which goes back to the earlier part of our conversation, the importance of finding people to get involved and then providing them the tools to do that. we don't all just naturally know how to go out and talk about ourselves, talk about what we want to do. And you've got to kind of help train people up to be able to do that. Give people comfort. Give our farmers comfort to tell their story. So we're building capacity. A big priority for us is building capacity in the countryside to advocate and tell the farmer's story.

Some farmers are going to want to do this. Some farmers aren't going to want to do that. But those farmers who might not want to advocate might be willing. to tell their neighbor about joining Iowa corn and becoming a member. Some of those farmers might want to do simple advocation like just maybe, hey, being at an ethanol pump promotion, let's talk about the importance of using your own product right here in Iowa. Other farmers want to get engaged at the state, the national or the international level. So we have a place for people to get engaged. And if that's really not your thing, you want to be home on the farm and you're just happy

that somebody else is doing it for you, then write your membership check. It's 60 bucks a year. It's the best investment that you can make, 140 for three years. We give you a break for a three-year membership. Join Iowa corn to get all those things done that's going to help your farming operation. Those Sawyer are my priorities each and every day, and they really don't change much year to year. I just want to do everything we can to do what our farmers want us and need us to do. It's a pretty good list. Look at that. All right.

Well, I meant to do this earlier, but we were talking about membership. Look at this. So I got my Iowa corn hat, and I'll just tell you, if you're a farmer, you know,

you got a lot of hats. And I can tell you, I've paid a heck of a lot more money for a hat with some companies out there that remain nameless when you think about, you know, I've got hats that are worth

tens of thousands of dollars that I've paid for that hat. I only had to pay like you said, like 60 bucks and so this is pretty good value i feel like um and i think i think the money that that we spend on our membership it is it comes back to us in spades um i want to jump back to to one thing i think that's very interesting i meant to bring this up earlier and i don't know if you can speak to this or not i feel like you might be a little bit because i don't know if i if I heard you tell this story or not.

So Lulu Lemon. Lulu Lemon is near and dear to a whole generation, your generation. But that fabric, does that fabric not have corn in it or a byproduct that helps them make that fabric? Is that right? What I can tell you is that yes, Lulu Lemon is interested in a renewable source for making their fabric. and it could be possible that Iowa corn wind up in that fabric. Interestingly, another one that you might be, your viewer certainly would be interesting in hearing about,

is that there's also possible conversations with Victoria's Secret, who also is interested in renewable materials to make their clothing items. So both Lululemon and Victoria's Secret are interested in figuring out how to become more sustainable. we think we have a way of helping make that happen. Look at that. On Valentine's Day, you're supporting yourself. Yep, absolutely. I knew you'd like that.

So, that's awesome. Okay, well, is there anything else that we didn't cover today that you'd like to shine a light on or? Well, I would be remiss, Tork and Sawyer, if I didn't thank you for your membership. You know, membership starts one person at a time. we know that members become members 90% of the time because somebody asked them. Somebody asked them to become a member. So I know you're a member.

Sawyer, are you a member? I'm not a member yet, but I'm, Sawyer, I would like to ask you today. This is perfect. Would you become a member of the Iowa Corn Growers Association? I hope I told the story well enough that you're motivated to become a member of Iowa corn. I would be honored if you would be our next member of the Iowa corn growers.

Craig, I will be a member. You have sold me today. That my work is done here today, my work is done here. Membership really is important. And again, thank you for your membership. And thanks, Tork. I think you've done a great job of helping bridge even the differences between the livestock and the grain side, right?

Because you can also historically, we've said, well, should be one or the other. and hopefully through our conversation today, we've been able to demonstrate that we all work very closely together. I haven't mentioned that I've served as the president of the coalition to support Iowa's farmers, which is our livestock coalition. So that is a really important group that's helped make sure Iowa stays in the livestock business. When we were coming out of the late 90s in the debacle that happened with the pork industry then, and all the pressure that was on the livestock. industry. We banded together. We, Farm Bureau, Corn, soy, pork, beef, are dairy, poultry. Gosh, I hope I'm not

forgetting anybody. Turkey. Turkey, thank you. Yes, they are all at that table. I served three years as the president of that group putting myself in there because of how strongly I not only personally believe it's important, but organizationally we believe that it's important to help our livestock and poultry friends and neighbors be successful, making sure that they can continue to operate. Iowa is one of the few states of the Midwest that has been able to maintain such a robust livestock and poultry place. There are a lot of the states around us were curtailed, and I give a lot of credit to the coalition to support Iowa's farmers. I think they've done a really, really nice job of helping communities embrace the livestock industry and not try to keep them out.

That's another great partnership example and something that I think has really made a difference. Absolutely. Last question for you. Where can people find you and learn more about Iowa corn? So obviously on all of our social channels, you can go to Iowa underscore corn. So Iowa underscore corn. And of course, you can find us on the web at Iowa corn.org. Iowa corn.org. We've got tons of materials out there for folks to dive into any of the things that we've

talked about today relative to market development, research, trade. There's a lot of great pieces of information available on our website and we're always available to take phone calls and emails to help people understand the great things that Iowa corn does not only for Iowa, but I would argue the globe. Cool. Cool. Well, I think that's going to wrap it up guys i hope you got some value out of this one if you did please share the show if you're a corn farmer out there sign up for iowa corn i already made my commitment today so you should do the same leave a review on spotify or apple and we love you guys we appreciate it we'll see you back here next week for another episode