Name: MPW Summit 2023: Food Security Is Global Security
Uploaded: 2023-10-11
Duration: 15 min 13 s
Description: Beth Ford, President and CEO, Land O’Lakes, Inc. Interviewer: Maria Aspan, FORTUNE

Beth Ford, President and CEO, Land O’Lakes, Inc. Interviewer: Maria Aspan, FORTUNE

MPW Summit 2023: Food Security Is Global Security

Conferences

Business experience represented and we look forward to hearing from you all throughout the course of the program. Now, let's get underway with our first conversation of the day. Beth Ford is president and CEO of Land O Lakes. The century old member owned Cooper that operates in all 50 states and more than 60 countries. It's one of the largest producers of butter and cheese in the US and also makes animal feed and crop protection products. But Beth's work goes beyond the goods on our storefronts and shelves and she's keenly focused on concerns such as technology, sustainability, immigration, global food security and how they all relate to a more secure world. Beth has ranked on Fortune's most powerful woman in business list many times including this year and we congratulate her on that. She joins MP W co-chair and senior writer Maria Aspen for our leadoff conversation today. Please welcome them to the stage. Bye bye, Beth. Thank you so much for being here. It's great to have you back on our stage. Well, thanks for the invitation. Um I want to start off, you know, Land Lakes is at the center of, of our food supply and of so many issues affecting our nation's food supply. You have been raising awareness recently, in particular about national, about food security. You say it's national security and geopolitical security. And obviously we are in a week where we're seeing with the attacks on Israel just increased threats to geopolitical security. Could I ask you to talk a little bit about how you see what's going on in Israel and Gaza and in the wider world affecting our food security right now. Well, the events in Israel and Gaza are just, you know, it unspeakable, just horrible. And um so, you know, when I was, when we were originally having this conversation, we had a conversation about um food, the food supply, the global interconnected nature of the global food supply. And it was related to Ukraine. And now we have another unstable area of the world. I'm going to put the framing actually about um you know, I say food security is national security, but it's also about geopolitical stability. Think of what happened in Ukraine. You saw inflationary pressure. But one of the challenges is that's a breadbasket area of the world. It's a production concentration area, those goods were shipped into North Africa, some of the least stable areas of the world, you know, over 30% of the global population are either food insecure or tremendously, food insecure, starving. And so food security is absolutely critical. That's why we see migration coming in from the south smallholder farmers, they can't beat their families, they're going to do anything. They can just like all of us would to try to make sure that their families are fed as a primary issue. So the reason I speak about this and I'm fortunate we are, you know, a cooper, I work with farmers, but we're a fortune 200 company work around the world. We also have an NGO we're working in Africa and other areas on, on food and on food security, Cooper technology utilization, etc. The reason I speak to this is because we are fortunate as Americans, we are food secure there. That doesn't mean there's not food insecurity in our country. OK. That's an economic issue, a disparity issue but there's food in the country and you go to other parts of the world. That's not true. There is an interconnected nature of the global food supply chain that we all need to understand and have concern with. 1% of the population is involved in agriculture in this country. 1% they feed all of us, they feed the world. We export 20% of the production here in the United States. It is a stabilizer and there are multiple concerns that I have about our investment in food and in technology enablement tied to the food supply chain that I have a significant concern about because it's coming at the same time where for instance, water, water availability, what's the major user of water, agriculture set water demand will outstrip supply by 2030. This is in the near end by 50%. Ok. So technology in agriculture offsets that more drought tolerant seed, for instance, different practices that help us produce food. Yet we don't have these conversations. We don't have this conversation at all because we, we aren't from a period or a place of want necessarily. We don't understand how fragile the global food supply chain is. And so I speak a lot about it. Not just because it's the business of that I'm involved in, but because I feel like I need to, you know, shout about this, really raise alarms about the fragility that we have here, the fact that we're food secure. But at the same time, we are critical as a, as a I guess a place where production happens where we can stabilize different economies. Speaking of threats to the nation's food supply and just global threats, climate change, our business is doing enough to respond to the urgency at this moment. Well, in agriculture, um what we're trying to do and certainly in my own business, we do have a sustainable production business. True. Terra, it's a technology business. But also we are partnered with our agronomist. We have expertise, we have the largest applied research uh platform in North America. Um Are we doing enough? You know, there are transitions in different businesses occurring, there needs to be investment. I sit on the business roundtable board of directors. I'm constantly with other ceos. Folks are focused on this making investment. Is it fast enough? Well, we always ask, is that fast enough? Are we doing enough in agriculture? There is transition that needs to occur? Oftentimes folks will say, why aren't we immediately not doing X versus Y? I think we all want the farmer to be profitable. We want them to make investment in the transition. That's not an immediate change on the acre. It costs probably $60 plus per acre for them to transition to more sustainable practices cover crops, you know, variable rate applications, stabilize stabilizers, etc. So during that transition, we have to say, well, there's an intention and it's going to be a process and there's an urgency but we need to make sure that the farmer is investing appropriately and can only do that if there's profitability. One last comment. And I said 1% of the population involved in agriculture. What you should know is there are about 2 million farmers, for instance, in the United States different times because of commodity price volatility, they make no money, they make no money. 90% could be considered hobby farmers because they have to make their income off the farm to hold their land and do the work that supports all of us. It's important. It's not a rural issue or it's somebody else's problem. It's not a political issue. This is a security issue. For all of us. And we need to really think about that as we look at investment right now, we're looking at it because it's Farm Bill time. We've got some disquiet going on in Washington and it's one of the critical times of a five year period in agriculture. You have long been engaged on multiple policies in Washington. You're a member of the President's Sex Support Council. You've advocated for increased rural access to broadband immigration reform. And I wonder if I could ask you to talk a little bit more about what is going on or perhaps not going on in Washington and how that affects. Well, listen, I, I talk policy, not politics. We talk policy policies that are enablers for business for the areas of which I have most responsibility or familiarity. Um I am always on the hill um and talking with members of the administration, talking about that right now, obviously not a lot getting done and we are in farm bill time and even the AG appropriations bill didn't get passed, the defense appropriations bill didn't get passed. So there's not a lot happening right now. We need a new speaker to get things moving in the house. Interestingly, you know, you talk about immigration. I've been talking about that again on BRT the Immigration Committee, Tim Cook is the chair of that. He usually talks about tech workers. DACA, I talk about laborers, farm workers, kind of the folks who do the work, the people who build this and you know, interesting, the Farm Worker Modernization Act passed the house twice on a bipartisan basis. Yet still, we can't get that thing over the finish line and we're 2.5 million workers short in agriculture. And we know we need workers in this country. And we are grateful, I am grateful for the people who want to do this work because generally Americans don't sign up for these jobs. Um So back to your policy question right now. It's a bumpy time. Um I am grateful to be part of B RT because you bring friends to the table with you to have conversations to really educate um uh house and senate members about what needs to happen. What is our enablers? That doesn't mean we have broad agreement on everything that's not the test of leadership in the discussion. It's trying to help them understand what the risks are. One other comment about that right now, ag research funding is at 19 seventies level. Ok, 19 seventies level. Do you know who's out spending a 5 to 1? China Brazil? We now are we, we were net export positive for many years now. We are, you know, in a deficit, we are importing more in agriculture and that's unbelievable to me. Um But, but here we are 19 seventies level for funding and we've had consolidation at the top end of the basics buyer bought Monsanto Chemchina was purchase of Syngenta. So we've got really one basic in the country doing the R and D work. This is at a time again where water availability is declining, where there is yield that is going to drop. And so when I'm in DC, I said you should consider this not part of the farm bill. This is part of national security spending. We must invest in technology in order to enable production that keeps us secure. I want to go back to policy, not politics. Um and ask how it affects you as both an individual but also a CEO. When you were, when you became CEO of Land O Lakes in 2018, you became the first openly gay female CEO in the Fortune 500 and congratulations. You're now five year more than five years in. Yeah. Um We're also at a time when we're seeing rising attacks in public on people who are LG TB Q and on businesses who try to engage in that conversation. I'm curious for you as you engage in policy as you engage publicly. How do you think about this as an individual? But how do you also think about how your company and you as a CEO want to speak out or not speak out on any sort of issue that could be seen as political or social or not directly related to your business. Well, it's such a sensitive area and you know, I was at an earlier session you know, the the role of the CEO you just don't know, understand the diversity of the constituencies or people who believe their constituencies that you, you have to kind of thread a needle with. I do try to continually focus on policy, not politics. I focus on the things that are relevant to my business. I'm I am in a role where I am representing the voice of the company. And I recognize that and I recognize the importance of this conversation with the employee base. You know, that may have a point of view. Why aren't you talking about it? Because my voice is an additive at all times in a conversation just to have me out there saying something. If it's not relevant, if I'm not the relevant person holding that conversation based on my business or based on my background, et cetera, then I'm just one other voice and there's just too much noise of that. So we try to be very careful. I'm careful not to say I want to avoid it, but to say in my role as my, I have this responsibility, it is important to recognize I am representing my company and my employees and my shareholders. And so I am, I am not just careful, I'm targeted in the things that I think are important that I speak to and they're generally relevant to our business or our members uh how and we are again entering into what's going to be perhaps an even more fraught political time. What's your advice to the leaders in the room for navigating the coming election year? Well, first of all, I mean, are they all over your phone with requests for funding? I mean, wow, it's a lot technology enablement in that area has not been great in terms of the noise. Um You know, we are, we do have our pack. We, I do give directly my wife and I do for candidates that I think are important. I try to be very unbalanced. I really do balance between Republicans and Democrats. I look at the issues at which they're supportive and I think that that's important. We need to be thoughtful. There's confirmation bias, we're constantly getting reinforced about our beliefs and there's nothing wrong with that, but just as I have my, my Children now are now all three off to college. Um And I say, you know, be, be thoughtful, be thoughtful about what you're reading about the different sources, read broadly. Um talk to others and they, they have their own points of view. Similarly in politics, you're going to see that there are some folks that are very clear to me, others that have a variety of thoughts that may not be aligned with mine. That's ok. That's ok because it's not about universal, a uniform agreement. I'm not sure when that got to be the measure of whether we like someone or not. Rather the role is to move the ball down the court that requires compromise at times. And, um, that's, that's one of the things that I think about, uh, frequently Beth. Thank you so much. Thank you.