Open Mic Replay - An Extensive Catalog of Our Audio Interviews



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Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., one of the four House and Senate lawmakers who developed a farm bill package for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, tells us the week of 1/23/12 why he believes Congress will pass new farm legislation in 2012. The top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee endorses the concept of safety net options for "program" crops and comments on competing ideas being floated by North Dakota Democratic Senator Kent Conrad and the American Farm Bureau Federation. Peterson also talks about GOP efforts to undo the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, the congressional response to the MF Global bankruptcy, and the Obama Administration's Memorandum of Understanding with the State of Minnesota on environmental regulation of agriculture.
On Open Mic the week of 01/16/12, a conversation with the president and CEO of one of America's largest farm lenders. John Ryan of Rabo AgriFinance discusses the outlook for commodity supply, demand and prices and explains how the banking industry is using lessons it learned from the 1980s collapse in farmland values to guide loan decision-making during the current land boom. Ryan also talks about what large ag operations want from lenders today and how a likely move away from direct payments in the next farm bill will impact producers' balance sheets.
With U.S. agriculture in good economic shape, the nation's largest farm organization believes now is the time to look into the mirror to determine how it must change to remain relevant to a new generation of farmers and ranchers. On the opening day of the American Farm Bureau Federation's 93rd annual meeting out in Hawaii, President Bob Stallman sat down with us to discuss the current mood of his membership, the biggest threats to modern U.S. agriculture, and the need for a new approach to farm policy. Stallman indicated he's still "having fun" after 12 years at the helm of AFBF, and despite some whispers to the contrary, he offered no hint that this year's election would be the last time he'd ask delegates for another two-year term in office.
We kicked off 2012 with a conversation with Bart Chilton, a member of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Chilton insists the CFTC is a long way from answering key questions about giant broker MF Globals demise, but hes already identified several corrective steps that the agency and Congress can take to better protect customer funds. Chilton speculates on how long itll take the Commission to fully implement controversial financial regulatory reform legislation, explains why its easier these days to catch futures market cheaters, and comments on a proposal to establish options trading on the outcome of the most important national election results in 2012.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is presiding over arguably the most profitable period in the history of U.S. agriculture. On a special year-end edition of Open Mic, Vilsack explains what USDA needs to do to keep the good times going and also discusses the political fortunes for farmers and ranchers, as well as for President Obama in rural America. The USDA Chief is readying a number of announcements early in the new year with respect to the size, structure and scope of USDA that he suggests will impact both the Department and its stakeholders for decades to come. In the meantime, he remains committed to brokering peace between biotech, conventional and organic producers and expresses doubt that a new farm bill will be enacted in 2012.
Michael Dwyer is one of the most sought-after speakers on the topic of world agriculture. On Open Mic, the director of global policy analysis in the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service tells us what hes telling money managers and foreign governments: ag commodity prices will stay above historical levels for the next ten years. A doubling of the middle class in developing countries, persistent weakness in the value of the dollar, and a dramatic rise in the adoption of biotechnology are just a few of the factors that Dwyer says will keep the profitability of agriculture high.
John Block headed USDA during perhaps the darkest days in the history of U.S. agriculture - the Farm Crisis of the 1980s. On Open Mic the week of 12/5/11, Block painfully recalls this "really difficult" period and reviews some of the policy moves the Reagan USDA implemented to combat it. He has better memories of his meeting with President-elect Reagan about the Ag Secretary post and the first Reagan cabinet meeting. Block has remained active in issues related to farm policy in the quarter-century since he left USDA, so it should come as no surprise that he has some thoughts about what the next farm bill safety net should look like.
The Chairman of the House Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee was our guest on Open Mic the week of 11/28/11. Georgia Republican Jack Kingston reviews the just-enacted USDA spending bill for fiscal 2012 and explains how the contentious floor debate on the House version of the bill served as a preview of the 2012 Farm Bill debate. Kingston offers some thoughts on how Congress should tackle deficit reduction following the breakdown of the Super Committee process, and he also talks about the need for farmer-friendly reforms to the H-2A ag guest worker program.
The U.S. ethanol industry is healthy and should be able to maintain current production volumes without the nearly $5 billion a year Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit, according to the chief executive officer of Growth Energy, an industry trade association. On Open Mic the week of 11/21/11, Tom Buis promises a strong industry effort to defeat legislation backed by animal ag interests that would roll back corn ethanol use in periods of tight U.S. corn stocks. With the first cellulosic ethanol plants scheduled to break ground in 2012, Buis says while industry supporters would welcome federal funding to construct a dedicated biofuels pipeline and install blender pumps, what's needed most from Washington is the removal of regulatory roadblocks to a truly open market for transportation fuels.
Kansas GOP Senator Jerry Moran talks about Senate and House negotiations on a bill covering FY2012 spending for USDA on Open Mic the week of 11/14/11. Moran says his goal as a member of the conference committee is to send a message to executive branch agencies that are proposing changes to livestock and poultry marketing and the use of child labor on farms. He weighs in on the process for writing a new farm bill and expresses concern about ag research funding as well as the growing influence of animal welfare extremists in ag policymaking.
On Open Mic the week of 11/7/11, Daren Coppock, President and CEO of the Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA), says his members are being strangled by government regulation and are hopeful that Congress comes to the rescue on such issues as Agriculture Hours-of-Service, Clean Water Act permits for pesticide applications, and GPS interference. In addition to sharing ARA's priorities for the 2012 Farm Bill, Coppock discusses the likelihood of more consolidation in the ag retailing sector and how retailers are adapting to the changing structure of U.S. agriculture.
On Open Mic the week of 10/31/11 we heard about the Obama Administration's approach to ensuring the safety of meat and poultry from Dr. Elisabeth Hagen, USDA Undersecretary for Food Safety. Hagen previews an upcoming FSIS effort to persuade beef producers to control pathogens in the pre-harvest setting and changes to the national sampling program for drug residues in meat. The USDA Undersecretary talks about belt-tightening at the agency and which of its nearly 8,000 employees wont be eliminated, and she also goes into detail about FSIS's stepped-up enforcement of humane handling and slaughter of livestock regulations.
The financial condition of the Farm Credit System (FCS), the outlook for farmland values and interest rates, and the banking industry's view of potential changes to the farm safety net are just some of the issues we covered on Open Mic the week of 10/24/11 with Leland Strom, chairman and CEO of the Farm Credit Administration. Strom suggests the worst is over for livestock and poultry producers and he thinks a "rather significant" correction in land prices is possible within five years.
Sustainable farming advocate Ferd Hoefner was our guest on Open Mic the week of 10/17/11. Hoefner, policy director at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, discusses the Senate and House Ag Committees' deficit-cutting recommendation to the congressional debt reduction panel, streamlining of the farm bill Conservation Title, needed reforms to farm subsidy programs and payments, and more federal help for aspiring farmers.
Count U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson among those who hope the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction exceeds its deficit-cutting mandate. The Idaho Republican says for that to happen, funding for the 2012 Farm Bill will have to be reduced substantially. That's one reason why he has joined efforts to overhaul federal dairy policy. Simpson, chairman of the House Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, defends his use of the appropriations process to reform the Endangered Species Act, and he also makes no apologies for the GOP campaign to force a "time out" on EPA regulations.


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