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NewslettersMPW Daily

Land O’Lakes CEO Beth Ford on the challenges reshaping American agriculture

Emma Hinchliffe
By
Emma Hinchliffe
Emma Hinchliffe
Most Powerful Women Editor
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Emma Hinchliffe
By
Emma Hinchliffe
Emma Hinchliffe
Most Powerful Women Editor
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October 8, 2026, 1:45 PM ET
Land O'Lakes CEO Beth Ford speaks at MPW
Beth Ford, president and CEO of Land O’Lakes, in conversation with Fortune’s Emma Hinchliffe, at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit on, Oct. 14, 2025.Melissa Flynn—Fortune
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At the Economic Club of New York this week, inside an ornate room upstairs, we got a rundown of many of the United States’ most important problems.

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That’s just a typical afternoon for Land O’Lakes CEO Beth Ford, who spends her days thinking about everything from the lack of hospitals in rural America to U.S. farmers’ competition with Brazil.

After profiling Ford last fall, for an award-winning Fortune piece focused on her work as immigration chair for the Business Roundtable, the Trump administration’s immigration policy and enforcement, and its effects on American agriculture, I wanted to hear the latest. Unsurprisingly, we are dealing with many of the same challenges a year later.

Diesel prices are a bigger problem than they were a year ago, thanks to the Iran war. “Diesel costs at double is difficult,” Ford told us, for truckers, farmers, and “any part of the economy that’s got equipment.”

Another challenge on her mind is the generational handoff of American farms. More farmers are over 75 than under 35. “It’s a math problem, and it’s very difficult,” she explained. At a recent farm auction in Iowa, she noted, out of 400 bidders only two were local farmers. The rest were financial buyers. “Should that concern us?” Ford asks. “Certainly, the fabric of the community changes.”

Speaking of that community, I joined Land O’Lakes again later in the evening for a gathering of its Modern Rural Collective, an effort to improve portrayals of rural America and Americans in film and TV and online. That gathering, hosted by CMO Heather Malenshek, was off the record, so I can’t share too much more (although you can read my piece from a few months ago for more on this genuinely fascinating work!).

It’s a mindset you see reflected across the company. As Ford told her audience: “What a privilege this job is.”

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com

The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world.

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

And the Nobel goes to... Anne Carson just won the Nobel Prize in literature. The Canadian poet was honored for her "bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature." 

The Lakers battle continues. Jeanie Buss's siblings just filed a formal claim objecting to her claim that they don't have the right to sell the family's shares in the Lakers. Buss led the NBA team for years as governor before it was sold to Mark Walter, and then to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger. 

Michelle Obama on Jackie Kennedy. As part of a new series on Substack, the first lady writes about the first lady. "For me, Mrs. Kennedy’s parental model of caring for something without taking ownership is more timeless than any design choice she made within the White House walls," she writes. 

What is going on with Kimberly Guilfoyle? The U.S. ambassador to Greece and ex-fiancée of Donald Trump Jr. is accused of asking a Trump donor to pay her $100,000 Amex bill before her confirmation hearing. 

ON MY RADAR

The woman whose software guided the Apollo missions has died NYT

Anne Hathaway ends her 'renaissance' year with a third No. 1 movie NYT

What are fathers telling their sons about Cornell? The Cut

PARTING WORDS

"It felt like it was my wedding a little bit."

— Olivia Rodrigo on headlining her all-women music festival Daisy Chain Fields after planning it for a year-and-a-half

This is the web version of MPW Daily, a daily newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Sign up to get it delivered free to your inbox.
About the Author
Emma Hinchliffe
By Emma HinchliffeMost Powerful Women Editor
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Emma Hinchliffe is Fortune’s Most Powerful Women editor, overseeing editorial for the longstanding franchise. As a senior writer at Fortune, Emma has covered women in business and gender-lens news across business, politics, and culture. She is the lead author of the Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter (formerly the Broadsheet), Fortune’s daily missive for and about the women leading the business world.

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