CropLife Retail Week: Farm Bill Update, AMVAC’s CEO Leaves, and Tech Hub LIVE 2024
July 19, 2024 Eric Sfiligoj and Lara Sowinski discuss the latest news on the Farm Bill, AMVAC, and the upcoming technology event in Des Moines, IA.
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*This is a partial and edited transcript:
Eric Sfiligoj: Hello and welcome to another edition of CropLife Retail Week. I’m Eric Sfiligoj editor of CropLife. I’m here again with my partner in crime, Lara Sowinski. Lara, how are you doing today?
Lara Sowinski: Thank you. I’m well. How are you doing?
ES: Good. Actually, it’s one of those July days in Ohio where it’s like only 70 degrees, low humidity.
Get the windows open. you know, I know my dog Lucky is enjoying looking outside and barking at every other dog and person that goes by the front door. So, if when we were in the middle of recording, you hear woofing, you know, the mail’s arrived.
So, I’ll dive right in. First off, of course, Lara, we’re coming up on about 9 or 10 months since the Farm bill, the old one expired, and I know they just keep extending it. And I know folks were hopeful a couple months back, that there would be some progress on a new farm bill here in 2024. I know the ag committees in Congress were putting together proposals and putting those forth, and folks were fingers crossed that some vote would take place on a new farm bill.
But, it’s looking less likely that’s going to happen. Unfortunately, I know folks who’ve been following this on Capitol Hill say that, you know, it’s an election year and there are other priorities eating up everybody’s time on Capitol Hill so that the prospects for a new farm bill in 2024 are looking pretty bleak. Most folks who follow this seem to think it’ll be spring 2025 before we actually see a new farm bill.
So I guess, Lara, we’re going to be living under the terms of the old farm bill for maybe 6 or 7 months, if my math is right. Having covered this marketplace for almost 25 years, I can say, you know, we normally get a pause between old farm bill and new farm bill being passed. But, you know, when this when all is said and done, this one is going to be closer to like 16 to 18 months, which in my book, if it’s not a record, it’s close.
I mean, a lot of a lot of years, these things are slam dunks and they get passed really quickly. So this one, though, is taking an inordinate amount of time and looks like it’ll be a little bit longer before we see a new one. So yeah, seems like it.
So other other bit of news to share that I guess would be on the downer side. I know a couple of videos back, we talked about our friend Bob Trogele, who was one of the executives at our friends and AMVAC, retiring from the company. And actually, we found out that, he was followed out the door, metaphorically speaking. The current CEO, and Eric Wintermute, a good friend of us here at Crop Life.
His term as CEO expired or ended on July 12th. So now he has stepped aside from that role. He’ll continue to serve on the as chairman of the board for AMVAC. But, in the meantime, Wintermute announced that they’re going to have four of their current executives kind of cold running the show in tandem with one another.
Tim Donnelly, who is the current CEO, will be serving as the interim CEO until a more permanent replacement is named. So, again, our thanks to Eric, over the years, he’s been a big, a big proponent of CropLife. And I know I’ve talked to him at several trade shows and, you know, I’m glad to see he’s staying on as the chairman, but probably means I won’t run into him at events anymore, because that tends to be something the, executives, the active executives at the crop protection companies tend to be at and not the chairman of the board.
So I’ve brought down the mood in the room for this week’s video. Hoping you can pick us back up, miss Lara. So I’ll kick it to you.
LS: Okay. So for my news, Eric, I’m going to put the good news last and just give a quick update on the International Longshoremen’s Association. This is the longshoremen’s group that runs East Coast and Gulf Coast. So in recent weeks, things have been looking a little more strained. The latest update from the Wall Street Journal is, even a little more dire in that a strike is becoming more likely.
Daggett says the union won’t extend the current labor agreement, and that one is due to expire September 30th. And dockworkers won’t work without a contract. Automation is at the heart of the current impasse. The union is also looking for a hefty wage increase, one that would exceed the 32% raise over six years, that the West Coast dockworkers, won last year.
So yeah, not looking great on that front. However, next news item. our friends over at Supply Chain Dive reported this week that a new ocean container terminal will be built, the Port of Indiana. And this is the ports of Indiana, Burns Harbor. And, it’s, it currently handles bulk and big box. So, they’ll build a new container, terminal there.
Add products, including high protein soybeans, specialty corn are amongst the products that will be handled there. So I’m excited about that. Construction is going to start in 25. Operations will begin as early as 2026. So I guess right now, Eric, in your backyard port of Cleveland on Lake Erie has an ocean container terminal.
And the second one is in Duluth Seaway Port Authority on Lake Superior. So those two are the existing ones. So this will add, new capacity for ocean containers, for the great Great Lakes. So, good. Good news there. Yeah. Well, good.
ES: We’re glad we’re ending on a positive note. And I guess I do want to just ask you a quick question. You know, the Lake Sharman issue, you mentioned automation. I’m assuming that that is, folks, the the union’s worried that, automated systems are going to replace workers at the docks, and that’s kind of what they’re trying to to, you know, hedge against.
LS: Yep. And the whole, topic, whether it’s the ILWU on US West Coast or even the Ila, East Coast, Gulf Coast, that’s been a longstanding issue. Every, you know, six years, whenever the contracts come up, this issue is front and center. I mean, it’s it’s all about preserving jobs for the longshoremen. And, you know, on the contrary, waterfront employers, you know, want to remain competitive and get the throughput.
And so before we close out, we are days away at this point from Tech Hub LIVE and our Women in Ag Tech event. And I just wanted to do a quick plug because, the workshops are new for us this year. We’ve added two workshops, on the program following Tech Hub. This will be Wednesday afternoon. These workshops, are from 2 to 4:30. Eric, you’ll be handling the drones workshop and that will be outdoors. And, I’ll be inside with the biological products for row crops. That’s the title of our our second one. These are great. Nice little add-on to your program if you’re going to be in Des Moines.
We’d like to see you there. Got to TechHublive.com. When you see the conference tab on the nav bar, just drop down to, schedules and speakers and scroll down. You’ll see information on the drones and by the biological products for row crops. So super, super excited about that.
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