Opportunities and challenges for agriculture with USFRA CEO

Kevin Burkum, CEO of U.S. Farmers and Ranchers in Action, shares how USFRA is making changes to help support agriculture in meeting its challenges and leveraging opportunities, both domestically and internationally.  Kevin also shares more about his background and professional experiences. 

Learn more about U.S. Farmers and Ranchers in Action: usfarmersandranchers.org

Connect with Kevin on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kevinburkum

Become a partner of USFRA: usfarmersandranchers.org/partnerships

Transcript

U.S. Farmers and Ranchers in Action connects you to the leading minds in agriculture. Join Farm Food and Facts host Joanna Guza to explore the latest and sustainable food, fuel, fiber, and more across the value chain.

Joanna Guza:

The complexity of our food and agriculture system is impressive. It involves a lot of moving parts and people for that box of cereal or gallon of milk to show up on the shelves. It also involves a lot of collaboration between farmers, the supply chain and end user. The mission of US farmers and ranchers in action is to bring all of American agriculture together with farmers and ranchers at the center to collaborate and identify and tackle challenges. It's a big task and it requires focused leadership. Today we are going to pull up a seat at the table and talk with the leader of US farmers and ranchers in action. And that is Kevin Burkum. He's the CEO of USFRA. And we're gonna get to know him a little bit more, talk about his background challenges within the agricultural industry and some future goals. Well, Kevin, to get started, welcome to Farm Food Facts. Can you tell us more about your background in agriculture and professional experience?

Kevin Burkum: 

Hi Joanna. And hi to everyone out there. I'm, could not be more pleased to, to be here at USFRA. A little background about me I grew up on a small dairy farm in southwestern Wisconsin, milking cows, planting corn baling hay. Those values are still with me and is partly why I have worked in agriculture nearly my entire life. I've come to realize, like many of you listening, that it really is agriculture is my purpose. It, it's more of a calling than it is a, a job or a, or a career. My first job outta college actually was driving the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile. Believe it or not, I was working as a spokesperson for the company. It was a great experience to see the United States. In fact, I got to 49 to 50 states, didn't get to Hawaii, looking through the windshield of a wiener.

My parents were not I don't know how excited they were when I told them that that was the job I was going to have after graduating college. But it ended up I, I gained their support and it was it was a terrific experience. After working for a public relations firm, I joined the head office of IGA supermarkets, and it was great to get that retailer's perspective after having worked for consumer package, good company. From there I joined dairy Management Incorporated which is the National Dairy Checkoff and current partner of USFRA. I was part of the team there that led the development launch and implementation of a new three a day of dairy marketing campaign to drive home the importance of getting three servings of dairy products each day. They do such great work at DMI and I had an incredible opportunity there to work with partners like Walmart, like Kroger, McDonald's, the NFL and NASCAR to name just a few.

I continued my work in the agriculture space by joining the American Egg Board and worked in leadership positions there throughout the organization, including in consumer and customer marketing. And I'm proud to say that I'm just one degree from Kevin Bacon after an ad campaign featuring Kevin Bacon and Eggs, which was a, a perfect pairing. And then most recently, just prior to joining U-S-F-R-A, I worked as Chief Communications Officer for Global Dairy Platform, which is an organization with member operations and 150 countries around the world that collectively produce about one third of the world's dairy. And in that role, I was part of the leadership team that developed and implemented a first of its kind climate initiative that aims to reduce the global dairy sectors carbon emissions to net zero by 2050. So all of that experience has really led me to USFRA and I couldn't be more excited to be here.

Joanna Guza:

Wow. That is just the most diverse background I think I've ever heard. And it just makes us, it just shows where I mean I think about the young people that might be listening that have some of those internships, like you talked about the Wiener mobile, which is so Wisconsin and I love it that some of the opportunities that you can have, but you're bringing all of those experiences that you've learned and you know, here to US farmers and ranchers in action and, you know, what makes you excited about leading USFRA and where do you see, you know, with all your experiences, you know, the opportunity for this organization

Kevin Burkum: 

In the hundreds, literally hundreds of conversations that I've had with USFRA stakeholders and partners since I started last fall, almost to a person, they told me there is a critical need for USFRA to bring all of American agriculture together with farmers and ranchers at the center to collectively identify and tackle complex long-term issues that we're all wrestling with as a sector to communicate and collaborate and educate and advocate for US farmers and ranchers in both domestic as well as international markets. So we've made that our new mission. I also heard a lot about how farmers and ranchers are helping to solve some of the world's biggest challenges, including feeding a growing population, sustaining livelihoods, and building strong resilient economies and providing agricultural resources for an energy transition all while reducing GHG emissions. So we've made that our new vision and I was told repeatedly about the need for an organization like USFRA to play the critically important role of creating opportunities for collaboration, information sharing and solution development for the full ag value chain, to lift the voices of those farmers and ranchers on the domestic and international stage in order to help change that narrative that US agriculture is something to be fixed, which we hear a lot about.

And we know that it is indeed a huge part of the solution to compliment the work being done by Ag Trade associations, by the checkoffs, by the value chain partners, by focusing on issues that are a bit longer term in terms of their focus on a pre-competitive basis. So we've made that a large part of our new value proposition.

Joanna Guza:

And when I look at this, I mean, you just named off all those groups, but it's almost like USFRA is that, that glue piece. You kind of have a hand in all of that, and then you're bringing all of these different things together. So, you know, that's where I feel like this organization, 'cause a lot of people are like, ah, I'm a part of a lot of different organizations, or I'm a part of my co-op or whatever, but this is really getting the entire supply chain altogether.

Kevin Burkum: 

Yeah. And that is the unique point of difference, Joanna, I think there are sector organizations, there are commodity organizations and they, they do tremendous work. But there's also a lot of value in bringing everyone together with farmers and ranchers at the courts and our name. After all, how do we create those meaningful connections to the full value chain to talk about those issues that are affecting all of us and talk about them on a, on a pre-competitive basis,

Joanna Guza:

Right? And getting us all on the same playing field when we're talking from the farmer to the end user. Kevin, you gave us a little taste of, you know, some of those challenges that, you know, farmers are facing, but, you know, what challenges do you see farmers and ranchers facing in the future?

Kevin Burkum: 

The pressures on US agriculture to do so much these days, it really is incredible. I already mentioned providing nutritious food for a growing population, right? Supporting strong economies, providing agricultural resources for an energy transition, all while, by the way, reducing your impact on the planet. The thing about farmers and ranchers is they are incredible innovators. They are finding the way to meet these global challenges, and they are stepping up and we are making changes at USFRA to help support agriculture in solving these problems. Together with our board of directors, we've created a new strategic framework that better supports the needs of farmers and ranchers, as well as the full ag value chain. We are going to do that by focusing on two primary objectives. The first is to convene the U.S. Ag value chain to identify and drive solutions on critical long-term challenges, as I've mentioned before. The second is to lift the voice of farmers and ranchers on the domestic, and perhaps even more importantly, on the international stage to help create better understanding of all the good that US agriculture is doing now. And its enormous potential to do even more in the future.

Joanna Guza:

US farmers and ranchers in action is positioned so well and encompasses, you know, the entire supply chain. What future goals does USFRA have to make an impact on the entire supply chain?

Kevin Burkum: 

I think that is what makes USFRA so unique, isn't it? It is, as we mentioned before, the one organization that does bring everyone together to help create a better future for U.S. agriculture. Now we do that through the Honor the Harvest Forum, which we've talked about a lot on, on this podcast, where we bring leaders in farming, ranching, technology, finance, academia together to tackle meaty complex issues. We work with scientists in academia and sustainability experts in industry to help support farmers and ranchers in their efforts to reduce Scope three emissions. The National Academy of Sciences is about to publish a noom report, scientific roadmap, to a carbon negative agricultural system, which we've been collaborating with them on the last few years. And that will provide even more evidence that US agriculture is indeed a part of the solution. We are working with partners to help galvanize and plan and execute U.S. farmer and ranch activity at global convenings and processes, whether that's COP 29 the upcoming convention on biodiversity, which is gonna be held in Columbia, and it's only held every two years.

FAOs new true cost accounting initiative that aims to quantify the environmental and social impacts of sustainable farming practices. Now, this is important. TCA is what we call true cost accounting. It's important because it has far reaching impact on economic, environmental, social policy and market dimensions. And by the way, who's gonna decide what the true costs are if farmers and ranchers aren't there? Explaining, providing evidence, providing science and data and a perspective from the farm level, who's gonna make that decision? We need to be there with them. And then lastly, we also elevate the farmer and rancher perspective at industry conferences by creating farmer tracks conducting farmer and scientist sessions, and overall increasing farmer visibility and participation at these forums. Examples include the Sustainable Ag Summit, which was held late last year, and the upcoming Regenerative Agriculture and Food System Summit, which is coming up here in Chicago next month.

Joanna Guza:

And Kevin, I just keep hearing farmer rancher, farmer rancher. They're always at the center of what's happening. I mean, we look at all these different things that you have, goals or challenges that we have facing. We gotta start with that farmer and hopefully then we can, you know, get some of those solutions. Last question as we wrap up this episode of Farm Food Facts. How can current USFRA supporters, or even people that might just be listening to this and they're not a supporter, whether they're a farmer, a processor, or a restaurant, get the most out of USFRA?

Kevin Burkum: 

That's a really important question, Joanna. And I think if we are honest, we know that there've been a lot of changes at USFRA over the last few years. And I, I think what I would just ask everyone to do and and consider is to reengage with us either through joining as a partner, being a part of sustainability and communications Councils participating in honor the Harvest, learning more about our international engagement and or our growing science program. We are committed to growing that farmer and rancher engagement with the organization. And we are also committed to continuing our strong partnerships with the ag value chain, whether that's through partners like Nutrien, Poet, Bayer, McDonald's, Culver's, Tyson, MANRRS and others. Give us a chance to show you the new work program and work plan that we have going together. Help us be better, give us the input. And I'm confident that together we can help create that better future for U.S. agriculture.

Joanna Guza:

The opportunities are endless, and if you join USFRA, we can help make those dreams become a reality. And, you know, if we talk to past generations and leaders, they would all agree that we've all had some sort of challenge to overcome. And you know, we are fortunate to have you, Kevin, at the table serving up a variety of opportunities to better the entire supply chain. If you are interested in learning more about U.S. farmers and ranchers in action, you can visit  usfarmersandranchers.org or you can send me an email at podcast@usfraonline.org. Your time is valuable and we appreciate you spending it with us. Until next time, I'm Joanna Guza for Farm Food Facts.