The pace of change in Washington with the new administration is staggering. American Soybean Growers Association Chairman Josh Gackle cites the downsizing in the government workforce, including the impact on local Farm Service Agency offices. The Make America Healthy Again movement and the influence on pesticide use is a talking point. “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and some of the positions he’s taken on agriculture are things that we have some concern about.” Gackle, who farms at Kulm, North Dakota, says all of these issues are being discussed at Commodity Classic. The impact of a trade war in 2018 also remains top-of-mind. “We heard the news of tariffs and possible retaliation from China at a Commodity Classic event and we remember what happened with the immediate market prices and profitability. We also saw the long-term damage, telling China that the U.S. may not be the most reliable supplier and China invested in Brazil and other countries to source soybeans and protein.”
