Kirk Leeds Chief Executive Officer, Iowa Soybean Association kleeds@iasoybeans.com, Twitter @kirkleeds
Digging out of this mess 2019 has been a rough year. Huge carryover, low prices, production challenges, record prevented-planted acres, lower yields, fears of an early frost, trade wars and African swine fever. Throw in a dysfunctional Congress and executive branch, political chaos, lack of any signs of civility between people who disagree with each other and more people running to be president than were in my high school graduation class. Then there was a curve ball from a pest threat called “gall midge” and what is turning out to be a disappointing year for my beloved Chicago Cubs baseball team. It's easy to see why people are stressed and more than a bit testy. There must better days ahead, right? September marked my 30th year on the Iowa Soybean Association staff. Over the years, I've seen agriculture go through many cycles. There have been some lean years and other years of growth and profitability. These cycles are part of agriculture and farmers much older than me remind me of this all the time. I didn’t work for soybean farmers in the 80s, but I was involved in family-owned businesses in several rural Iowa communities at the time. We felt the impact caused by the consolidation and lack of
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profitability in agriculture. I saw many of my high school classmates, who had grown up on family farms, have to leave the farm. I even ran for a seat in the Iowa legislature in the mid-1980s because I wanted to see if could help the state I love turn the economy around so that “all the best and brightest” didn’t feel compelled to leave to find better opportunities. After all, I wanted to think that I was one of those “best and brightest,” and I certainly didn’t want to leave! So how do we dig ourselves out the current mess? I will leave most of the above list of challenges we face for others to solve (particularly the political chaos and lack of civility), but I do think there are a number of things we can and must do in the soybean industry to move forward. First, we must double our efforts to find markets to replace the loss of sales to China. The good news is, soybean farmers — through investments from the checkoff and federal government — are already working hard on this one. We still have a long way to go to replace lost sales to the world’s largest market. But we have seen real growth in Southeast Asia, Europe, Central America, Egypt and other parts of Africa. Assuming we ever get Congress to approve the new
agreement with Canada and Mexico, we'll continue to see good growth. A new agreement with Japan could also help. Second, we must redouble efforts to find new uses for soybeans and pull out all stops to grow the demand for soybean oil-based biodiesel. The increased demand for more plant-based proteins by a segment of consumers could also prove to be important. We must also continue to support efforts to lower production costs in an environmentally sustainable way to compete for market share with competitors in South America. Finally, we must never lose focus on the most important market for Iowa soybeans — the domestic livestock market. Iowa is a leader in hog and egg production and a major player in turkeys, poultry, dairy and beef cattle. Adding value to Iowa soybeans by feeding them to poultry and livestock is still the best path forward, both for domestic consumption and for a global market that is hungry for high-quality proteins. So how do we dig out of this mess? One shovel at a time and one bushel at a time. It’s hard work, but it’s the only way.
