The United Soybean Board recently elected Meagan Kaiser of Missouri as the organization’s new Chair. She explains the top priorities for the soy checkoff in 2023,
“We’re in the second year of our new strategic plan. So, we continue to look at things like health and nutrition, and on the farm that would mean plant and soil health, and then also, of course, on the demand side, looking at human and animal health and nutrition. We’re looking at infrastructure and connectivity. We’re always looking at how are we going to most efficiently get our soybean crop to the global marketplace. And then on innovation and technology and making sure that farmers have access to tools that help us make data-driven decisions and be more efficient, so we continue our sustainable U.S. soy production.”
Kaiser says recent successes in checkoff investments include infrastructure, specifically research to inform dredging of the lower Mississippi River.
“And the checkoff really got the ball rolling there by saying, ‘What are the barriers of entry? What’s keeping this from going?’ And it turned out that it was planning and design, and that’s the kind of work that the checkoff can invest in. And that $2 million investment from soybean farmers was met with a $245 million investment from the federal government and the state of Louisiana to make that dredging get started.”
The 77 farmer-leaders of the United Soybean Board, across 30+ soy growing states, strategically decide investment decisions that deliver sustainable solutions to every life, every day.
“But it really starts with our farm perspective coming and saying, ‘I would like to see us invest in this.’ This is the unique value of the U.S. soybean checkoff — farmer-leaders make those investment decisions, but we also evaluate their progress. When we work together through the checkoff, we’re able to make a real impact for the soybean industry in the United States.”
Keep up with the latest news from the United Soybean Board at unitedsoybean.org and Wednesday mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern / 9 a.m. Central on RFD-TV.
