Farming is entrepreneurship at its most extreme 🚜 | Meagan Kaiser

we talk about how great it is, it's a generational farm, but every year we have the opportunity to go out of business. So every year it's, it's like the most entrepreneurial endeavor. I think sometimes people think it seems like a slow, calm pace, but it is very rapid as we work really hard to watch the weather, look at the market. There are so many things outside of our control that we work really hard to do the best we can with. All of the things we can control, like taking care of our land, taking care of our water, and utilizing the best production.

This week on Millennial Masters, we go to Missouri, deep into the heart of America, to learn what farming really looks like when you treat it like a business. Megan Kaiser is a 5th generation farmer, a trained soil scientist, and a board member at the U.S. Soy Board. Her work: cutting-edge agriculture tech, global commodity markets, and the brutal reality of running a farm where margins shift by the hour. In this episode, we talk about why modern farmers are some of the most resilient entrepreneurs alive, how soil science is powering sustainable, high-yield agriculture, and the truth about GMOs fertilizer, and what sustainability actually looks like on the ground.

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Megan, welcome to Millennial Masters. How are you today?

I'm great. Thank you for having me on.

It's a delight to have you, which is why I'm gonna go straight in because you're wearing 3 hats. You're not just a farmer, you're running a soil science company, and you're also a board member on a national board of SOY. So my question is, how did you get into all of this? What was the route, the journey, and the story behind it?

My goodness, this is a long story, but actually it starts at the Royal in England. Actually, I think it was held in Scotland the year that I attended. I was 16 years old and I grew up in my family is agricultural laboratory, Perry Agricultural Laboratory. And we do soil testing all around the world. And I was 16 years old and my dad was at the Royal— I think the Queen even attended that year. It was back in the early 2000s. My dad jumped down into a soil pit and all of a sudden, you know, he was talking to one farmer and he jumped down and he was talking about how the soil was impacting their potato production. Pretty soon, You know, I think he ended up spending about 3 hours in that pit with just different farmers coming up and asking him questions. And as a 16-year-old, it just struck me that soil science was a natural way for me to be involved in food production that touched the lives of not only people I know, but people all around the world that I may never meet. And, uh, to be able to help farmers be better at their production and more efficient and and have better livelihood, it just felt like my calling, if you will.

So you had a spark of inspiration from, from your dad when, when you saw him in, in action. So what was your next step afterwards?

So I attended the university and majored in soil science and chemistry, and I actually had a minor in agricultural economics. And so from there, that actually took me to Washington, D.C., where I worked in ag policy and as part of the senator's staff. And then eventually that led me to meeting my husband, who who was at the time in agricultural lending. But when we got married, we returned to the farm as part of the 5th generation of Kaiser Family Farm, and I returned to the soil laboratory. So back in 2010.

So you're based in Missouri. That's correct. And you moved back on the family farm. What were the first steps? How does this handover from generation to generation happen? Obviously it's something that not many people understand or know how it works.

Well, I think it works very differently for every family. We've been very blessed. For 15 years, we've been able to work with our parents both on the farm and in the laboratory. We, you know, if I were ever to give any advice to any parents is to be like our parents have been, where they allow us some autonomy. You know, it's really working side by side rather than trying to do everything the way we've always done it. And we have learned so much. We've enjoyed the experience. Our children have grown up by getting to see both grandparents and be involved in the daily operations of both family businesses. But it's all agriculture all the time.

You haven't really escaped it even though you went into science. So was the science laboratory as well a new endeavor on the farm, or was it also taking it over from the family business?

That's my family side, is actually the laboratory. So my dad's a biochemist and I grew up in the laboratory. I joke I was a lab baby, but I don't mean it that way.

We get the drift.

So we grew up in the lab and on a family business, it's nights and weekends as much as daily operating hours. And so We grew up in agriculture. When I was 11 years old, my dad put one of the first GPSs on, a mobile GPS on my go-kart. And I was, you know, that was my first introduction to precision agriculture. And then my husband grew up on a row crop production farm of corn and soybeans. And so that's the farm that we joined. And now we're the 5th generation raising the 6th. And we're the 2nd generation in our family laboratory.

That's quite a journey. So I'm hoping we can unpack that one because there's possibly a misconception, like you said, the fifth-generation family business. Most people don't think agriculture is entrepreneurial, but what are they missing? What's the difference and what's the reality in running a farm as a business?

You hit the nail on the head because so often we talk about how great it is as a generational farm, but every year we have the opportunity to go out of business. So every year is a new entrepreneurial endeavor. We're in the midst of planting season right now. My husband's currently in the planter tractor right now as we speak. Every year we are constantly thinking about margins and return on investment that in some ways as an entrepreneur, I feel it every season because unlike some businesses, it's not like, oh, we know we have this kind of steady projection of clientele. I mean, if you look at right now, our markets are bouncing all over the place. The The feed that we plant today, who we sell it to could vastly change by the time we harvest in September and October. And so there is so much volatility right now. And I'm sure that it's a little bit hard to guess. Even our inputs are constantly changing day to day on how much our potassium is going to cost to put on our soil. So Yeah, it's, it's like the most entrepreneurial endeavor. I think sometimes people think it seems like a slow, calm pace, but it is very rapid as we work really hard to kind of guess the weather, watch the weather, look at the market. There are so many things outside of our control, um, that we work really hard to do the best we can with all of the things we can control, like taking care of our land, taking care of our water, and utilizing the best production.

Before we go into the volatility part, And that's a bit complex. I wanted to get into the science part a little bit and how you use your soil science and company and monitoring to make sure that you improve the crops and the yields. And I know before we did this interview, we had a bit of a discussion about it, but I want to give our viewers and listeners a taste of what does soil science actually mean. On an actual farm?

Yeah, soil science is similar to running a blood test in human health, and it's basically giving us the profile of everything from calcium, magnesium, potassium, down to the micronutrients of zinc, iron, manganese. All of these sound familiar to us because we know that when we have these micronutrients in our bodies, that we have a stronger immune system. Oftentimes if you're having a cold or something, they'll tell you, you know, increase your zinc uptake. Because it, it, it boosts your immunity. The same thing happens when we build a strong soil. We not only have nutrition in the soil for the plant, but we're also building the structure of the soil by balancing these nutrients like calcium and magnesium. They have these electromagnetic characteristics in the soil that help build pore space. We utilize the root systems of COVID crops to also help build that pore space. And why is that important? When I talk about pore space, I'm really talking about the air and the water holding capacity, but that's also the biological holding capacity. And just like in human health, when we have a balanced nutrition and we have the physical activity, so we have the chemistry and the physics, our gut health is better. That's the biology of the soil. So we're really working to have that, that strong gut health of the soil because in turn, all of that leads to not only having the nutrition in the plant,, but having the right growing system so that we are able to endure drought or heavy rains and absorb that water or hold on to that water longer, making our crops more resilient. And so we're able to monitor all of those things on the soil profile here at the lab and then make recommendations on how farmers can manage it better to improve their productivity and their soil health.

Just like every human is different, Every piece of land is different as well, isn't it? So what works in the chemistry is not the same across different patches of the soil. And I'm understanding that this is where technology comes into place, where you test multiple areas and administer the treatments or the multivitamins, as we would call them, to different parts of the soil and the crop.

I actually have some on my desk here. And I have, I didn't really prepare better to look and see the variety, but here is a soil report and it looks a lot like just a lab printout that you might receive. But you know what I noticed when I got, I got some blood work done, I got the reports back and I thought, I don't know what any of these numbers mean. Right.

Yeah. But just a simple trick. If you get tests, put them through ChatGPT and it's pretty good at reading them. That's, that's a separate tip. I don't know whether it works for soil.

I don't know, but what we found is knowing what tests you run is really important. So different labs run different tests, um, or you can request certain tests, etc. But then we, we add in, you know, recommendations and saying, hey, this is your, your desired, your excessive, your low. Okay, and by looking at this, I can immediately see, uh-oh, this is my lowest, most limiting nutrient. I've got to get that up because wherever I, I don't have that nutrition that's where yield is going to start lacking. And what's really cool with technology is that— I don't know if you can see this, this is just one that I randomly had on my desk, but all of these points is a sample every hectare.

Yeah.

And then we're able to then kind of go in and map and say, okay, at each point, this is the level. And then we can go in and say at each point, this is the recommendation. For, um, how we're going to adjust that so that we can bring the soil into balance, that we can stimulate that, that pore space, um, production and also stimulate that biological activity. And the reason the biological activity is so important, it's not only our gut health and why we feel so good, but it's also the organic matter in the soil where we're able to hold on to carbon. We're able to be more efficient with our nitrogen and sulfur and boron utilization and hold on to leachable elements in the soil rather than having them leach. Um, it, it, it is, uh, an incredible development and really I've watched it improve even in the last 15 years that we've been doing it, but in the last 25 years that we, we've been implementing it in the US, the improvements are amazing. We can even take our yield monitor maps from the farm, bring them into the same program. Vary our corn yield goals, our soy yield goals. And so all of that leads to putting exactly the right amount in exactly the right spot for the best, most efficient production, the best return on investment, and the best environmental application of our nutrients.

So you hit the nail in there with the return on investment then, because that also means that you can adjust the amount of fertilizer and other nutrients you put in the soil, which at the moment can be pretty expensive, if I understand correctly.

It always is expensive, but it's very expensive right now, especially what you can afford depends on the price that you're going to receive. And farmers don't have the option to set our price. We are what they call price takers in the marketplace. And similar to a stock market, the commodities market fluctuates every day. And, you know, as we see prices tighter, and lower in, in the last few years, our margins are a lot tighter. And so, uh, you don't see frivolous application of fertilizer. In fact, people are making very tough decisions, and we're looking at what's the most limiting factor and, and really going after that. And again, this variable rate where we can go across the field and the fertilizer buggy will actually shut off and not apply in certain areas and then put exactly the right amount in another area. We're even seeing being able to do infield management where instead of in the past, maybe you would spray everywhere. We're using sensors to notice a weed and spray just that weed. We call it See and Spray technology. And so those things are all really good for the environment. They're really good for the return on investment, the bang for our buck. And I think it also shows that we're continually improving. These are new technologies that we didn't have access to even 5 years ago. And farmers are rapidly implementing it because we see the benefit.

So from a business aspect, then your soil science business and company doesn't operate just on your farm. I'm assuming in a way you use your farm as a testbed for a lot of the technologies that you then implement in on other farms, right?

We do. I mean, one of the best things about agriculture is sharing and learning together. And we try really hard to kind of build consortiums of farmers and communicating and things Hey, I tried this over here and this is the result that I saw. And really, I hear people say, hey, you know, we tried this nutrient and it really worked for us. Well, it would work for you if it's your limiting factor, or would it work for you to even push yield higher if you didn't think it was your limiting factor? Maybe we have to decide. So we're constantly studying and, um, I kind of even— my husband and I talk about every planting season as a science experiment. Because even on the planter, we'll put one variety on half of it and another variety on the other and see what performs better in that field as a side-by-side comparison. We do test plots on our farm. We're not, we're not unique in that. A lot of farmers run, run tests throughout. And I think that maybe the biggest misnomer is that they're like, oh, you're a scientist and you're a farmer. And I would say that every farmer is a scientist. They just are depending on results to get paid at the end of the day. It's not just purely for research.

So how do you decide which innovations to try and when to stick with what works?

So the amazing thing about all of this data is that I can take my yield map and I can then pull out and say, this is the area that I treated this way and look at what was, what was the yield difference? What was the return on investment?. And it's really useful to be able to do that in a field in real life situations. We're not talking about small test plots, but we're talking about this was a, you know, a 100-hectare field and be able to figure out what worked, what were the varying factors that I can go back and say, hey, all of this area had similar soil profiles, similar calcium, magnesium, but it had different kind of sulfur and, or it had different phosphorus. And we can kind of start to peel out what made the difference. And then we take all that information and we spend our winter deciding what we're going to do for next year. So the next planting season really starts at harvest when we take all of that data from our yield monitors and we peel out what were the different management aspects that we did and what do we want to replicate and what do we want to stop.

You also mentioned that farming is collaborative. You mentioned consortiums, and obviously you are part of a large trade organization, and that's the US Soy Board. And you were also chair of the US Soy Board back in 2022, 2023, and now you're a board member and you helped shape their strategic plan. So I'm hoping you can start by giving a little primer for, say, a newbie in agriculture, understanding how the commodities markets work? Where does soy come into it? What are its applications besides feeding animals, which a lot of people would think about? And maybe soy milk is becoming now quite popular, at least here in the UK. And how does it work corralling all the soy farmers into an association so that they can benefit from the same developments and knowledge?

Well, that's, that's a lot of questions right there. So the first thing is, we'll take them one by one. So we'll start with the United Soybean Board and what is it. The United Soybean Board is composed of 77 farmers, the farmer directors, we call them farmer leaders, from, from all over the United States. And so all the soy growing regions of the US meet together to talk about what are investments that we can make on behalf of over half a million soybean farmers in the United States? What are the investments we can make that help break down barriers. And that might be anything from improving infrastructure to improving trade relations. It also might be what kind of research can we do that helps us be more efficient and better farmers. Things like we have invested in everything from virus impact to drought tolerance and looking at the genetics that are available to farmers. The thing that I like to focus on the most is when we, we make an investment at the United Soybean Board, is what is it that this board that we can do together that I could never do just as Kaiser Family Farms. That's what, what are the things that we can be more collaborative about and then really have investment to break those barriers. One of the things that we did was we did the planning and engineering and designing funding. So just like study funding to see what would be the impact if we were able to dredge the lower Mississippi. Mississippi and make sure that ships were— we could actually load the ships a little bit heavier of soybeans and then they could get to the global marketplace more efficiently because they had 5 more feet in the lower Mississippi. And we were able to invest $2 million, which Kaiser Family Farms couldn't do that, but the United Farmers collectively were able to invest $2 million and it was met with a $200 million plus investment from the federal government and the state of Louisiana. And, you know, for 4 years now we've been able to load ships heavier. That's more environmentally friendly, that's less greenhouse gas emissions per bushel when we're able to be more efficient that way, and at the same time opening up doors into the global marketplace. And so we, we try to replicate that kind of work that is very meaningful and big picture. I love that it is farmer-led and farmer-driven. We take it very seriously that we're representing all of our farmers at home that are saying, hey, What are my checkoff dollars doing? Because every farmer in the United States, that when they sell their soybeans, 0.5%, 1% of their sale price goes to the checkoff and then is split between their local checkoff and then the national board. And so we are working together to figure out the really the best usage. What was the next part of that?

A primer on the global commodities market and soy. I think that's especially as that's a big part of your role, and that's also most of the, the soy you currently grow and produce going to.

Yeah, so the global marketplace is our marketplace. Most of our soybeans are exported out of the United States. In fact, it's one of the largest exports of the United States as agricultural goods, and soy and corn are a big part of that. I don't know if I can explain the grain markets to anybody, but at the end of the day, it works very similar to a stock exchange. It's a commodity We watch the prices every day. Uh, some of the ways that we can buffer ourselves from changes is that we've built on-farm storage so that we can hold onto our own grain a little bit longer before we sell it to kind of see what the markets are gonna do. That makes us a little bit more resilient. The hardest thing to understand, I think, for a lot of people outside of agriculture is we grow something and we sell something, but we don't get to set our price. We don't have, in general, most commodities are not direct marketed. So I can't say you're gonna have to pay me this when I harvest.

But you have a baseline, I guess, by being able to see on the market, but are the differences that big or they compound when you're talking about large quantities?

Yeah, they compound pretty quickly. We planted one year with soybeans at, uh, $13, and when we harvested, they were at $10. That doesn't sound like a big difference, but when you multiply it out by thousands specials that add up pretty quickly. And so those kind of fluctuations, and it's where everybody's watching the commodities market. So the folks that sell us our inputs like fertilizer, our equipment, like our tractors and combines, those are kind of fixed costs over multiple years that we— it's like buying a car. Our combines can be upwards of $1 million. And so that cost has to be spread out over several years. And when you have a volatile market, it makes it more complicated. So you find that farmers tend to be a little bit more conservative and careful about every penny because you just gotta buffer yourself a little bit from, from the volatility. So the ways that the board tries to address how do we fix that, that the best way is to build a constant stream of demand. And one of the things that we have found in talking to our global customers is that making sure that it's reliable, high-quality soy. And that's what U.S. soy is really known for. It's reliable and that it shows up on time. So infrastructure is a big part of that. Our roads, our rails, our rivers, the most efficient ways to get the soybean crop to our customer and make sure that the quality is still as good as it was when it left my farm. And that's something that I think that we hear from our customers globally that they appreciate about U.S. soy and they value that. The other thing is building preference, you know, noticing that in the US we really focus on sustainability. We have soy sustainability assurance protocol, and we'll even see some of our customers putting the Sustainable US Soy logo on their product because our sustainable sustainability story, the practices that I do on my farm, carry all the way through to whoever uses my soy as an ingredient, whether that's through pork and chicken, or it could be part of an industrial use, or it could be either vegetable oil or even soy diesel. So soy is just kind of amazing in all of its applications. But because of the work that we do on our farm, our labor practices, environmental practices, frankly, our just commitment to very minimal land use change, literally no land use change on my farm for 5 generations. Those types of things I think are valued And we share that value with our customers as being a sustainable source of soy.

So what makes a sustainable source of soy? What sort of practices are we talking about? Again, speaking to newbies here.

Yeah, well, I think the number one, and I talk about efficiency, but what do I mean by that? Making sure that we're really, instead of saying everybody should take cough medicine during flu season, saying only people who are sick should take cough medicine. So looking at our inputs, and instead of saying everybody should take cough medicine during flu season or coughing season, uh, saying, hey, everybody, make sure you have really increased your vegetable uptake, make sure you're eating right, make sure you're still exercising and you're building that immune system. So all that is to say, I am very efficiently watching my inputs on my soil to make sure that I've built the best and, you know, resilient situation for my crop. And, um, carrying that on, I mean, that's, that's the number one, is that we're not, we're not changing our land use. This, this land has been in production for more than 100 years, um, and we're still improving it even and building that biological activity, building that carbon sequestration at the same time We're able to produce a green, renewable fuel, a green, sustainable meal, which is feed for animals, and even direct food source for, for humans. It's just kind of amazing that we have all these different applications. One of the ways that we're looking at how do we improve our carbon footprint on our farm, we're putting biodiesel in every tractor, truck, and combine. We don't get paid more to do that, but We see that as we are reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, we're building demand for our own product, and we feel better about the fact that now we're lessening our carbon footprint. And so that every soybean that leaves our farm is more efficient with the inputs that we have because we are using our own product to improve the air quality where we're raising our family. But every soybean that leaves our farm is going to have a greener footprint than not using biodiesel.

What sort of price difference are we talking when we're looking at biodiesel versus fossil fuel diesel, traditional diesel? In America, that is, of course.

That's a great question. Most of the time what we see is a blend, and actually, I even put biodiesel in my family car. Mm-hmm. It's not parsed out, it's usually blended, so I don't actually know the price difference today off the top of my head, I'm sorry.

Makes sense. I was just wondering whether there was a particular hit you were taking in your margins in order to be more sustainable and using the biodiesel.

There's a, probably a great comment to make there, and I wish I knew the answer.

We don't always have all the answers, and I wanted to ask you as well, Megan, you mentioned volatility. I would say maybe 10, 10 times already now in half an hour we've been discussing. And there's a red-hot topic right now globally stemming from the US and the presidential administration there, where we're looking at a range of tariffs imposed on a vast amount of countries, all very different. And I'm wondering How does that impact the global commodities market? And how does it impact your soy production, as well as how do you prepare for it?

Yeah, that's a great question. I think it's a question that a lot of farmers are asking ourselves right now. How do we prepare for it? The number one way that we continue to talk about are the trade relationships that we have built, um, farmer to farmer. Was fortunate enough to go visit one of the programs that we work on in Cambodia, where we have worked with aquaculture producers who in the past might use maybe kind of the waste leftover after, you know, aquaculture production, and then that was used as fish food. And we have been able to help them say, hey, you know what, that's probably not the cleanest and most nutritious way to feed the fish. Let's try soy. And utilizing soy feed in aquaculture production and even formulating it so that it's floating so that they're, they're getting clean food on the surface. Mm-hmm. In the air flow, they saw that the mortality rates, um, were significantly better in their production and that they were producing basically healthier fish. And at the end of the day, that's healthier food for, for those who consume it. And I love that kind of model to talk about how it was US soybean farmers really increasing demand for US soy at the same time as improving a local food system, building sustainability by not overfishing the oceans, but having a rejuvenated farming source, helping their local economy by— this family had, you know, a stronger income now because of their fish production. And then their neighbor had a fish processing center now. And I love that kind of work when we talk about how we are feeding the world. This is a very tangible experience and example of how U.S. soy— we're not just like shipping soy and having people eat it and flooding markets. We're actually building demand for our product in areas that have— need more nutritious food, need more protein, and utilizing it in a way that they already— their entire culture is built around really eating fish. And so that's the kind of work that I think as we continue to do that, I think that that is the baseline. That is the resiliency factor. We'll continue to work on trade relationships, farmer to farmer, and saying, hey, we're going to send you high-quality U.S. soy. There are other things outside of our control, but if we can continue to produce the best crop that we can— things are so volatile. I don't— I can't predict today in April what the market's going to look like or what the world's going to look like in October, but that's not foreign to farmers. That's how it always is. Um, we also can't turn on a head, you know, we— our option is to plant or not plant. Um, so we kind of look at it as, all right, what are the opportunities if more of this is going to need to be absorbed in the U.S.? What are, what are the, the opportunities here to process the soy here in the U.S. to animal production? You know, maybe we're going to import more meat and produce it here at home. Those types of things don't happen overnight. So we're looking at long range, what kind of infrastructure do we need to be investing in? What are the gaps? And in some ways, our board is just looking at here's the gap and that information to help other people make better decisions about how to utilize U.S. soy. And so we're kind of coming at it from different facets. The other thing is we're looking at different uses. Perhaps if, you know, our whole bean export was the former model and We're not shipping that way anymore. We're gonna have crush capacity here. We're gonna utilize it as renewable diesel would be a great, um, use. So we're kind of having conversations on all fronts of saying, hey, we can fit in as a drop-in replacement in many facets that, that still continues to solve many of the things that the world is concerned about. But you know, the European Union and, and Great Britain, those are big trading partners of ours. And, you know, we as farmers want to continue to have our soy utilized in those markets. So we continue to see, hey, what is it that our customers want from us and what's the best way to make sure we can deliver on that?

Speaking about the European Union and the UK, there's quite a big difference in the agricultural model between here and there, and that's GMO. If there's one thing the EU and the UK keep on saying no, no to is is GMO produce, but you grow both, right? What's the, what's the difference?

Everything on our farm is actually GM, but we work with clients that have both GM, non-GM agricultural production. I think the one thing that we can always say is that we're the provider of choice. If the market indicates more people want non-GM, then we'll produce that. Right now, we hear these conversations, but the market doesn't actually indicate that as far as purchasing power and decisions made at the grocery store, but there's the choice for it is out there. And I think that some farmers are taking advantage of that direct market where they can say, hey, I'm going to produce everything non-GM and then I can directly market. That's an opportunity. And I think that's good, that it's providing what customers want. I also think that there's a lot of advantages that, especially as we talk about, you know, or mainly an ingredient. To animal feed is our number one consumer of USOY. Another big driver of USOY is fuel. And so we kind of separate that out. We have the oil side and the meal side all in the one tiny bean, but when we crush it, we are able to separate it. I don't know if people are as concerned about their fuel being GM-free.

They're not ingesting it, I guess. So I don't think that that's a concern, correct? Yeah, yeah.

And so I do think that the genetics that we implement on our farm, they make us more resilient to things like drought. And so in years past, we might have had almost a complete loss, but with our drought-resistant genetics, we were able to kind of find that trigger within the soybean code that helped us be able to be more efficient with water usage and kind of hold steady until water became available again. I think that's really important as it makes us more resilient to climate change. And if we recognize that climate has a huge impact on agricultural production worldwide, then it makes sense to be more concerned about being resilient to both drought and flood conditions. And I think that GM is, that's one of the areas that I think is very helpful.

So would you say that Europe is missing a trick by opposing GM produce?

I think it's really important for people to make their own choices and be informed, but make their own choices. I also think it's really important to let other people make their choices and not— I don't have to make them for them. Maybe that's just my little— I like to not impose views on other folks, and I don't necessarily love having views imposed on me. I like to think things through and understand that there's pros and cons to any decision that you make. And so we We just look for what are, how is it, what is it that you want to buy? I bet there'll be a farmer that is willing to produce it in the manner that you would like to buy it.

As a mother and as a scientist as well, what, what are the choices you make for your family when it comes to GM produce?

That's such a great question. You know, my youngest is 4 years old and my oldest is actually, he'll be 10 in a couple of weeks here. But, um, I remember reading the, I call them the mommy blogs, but when you're pregnant with your first child, You're kind of like checking out what size produce the baby is every week. And you're looking at, oh, eat this, not that. And that was the most confusing part for me is knowing what I know about food production. And I believed everything else on these mommy blogs, except when it came to what to eat. And then even after the baby was born, um, you know, what, what can the baby eat and what's best and what's, um, you know, and I think sometimes we're too hard on each other. I think I remember going to a dietitian's conference. And they said one of the scariest things to them is that they would have a cancer patient who wouldn't eat vegetables and fruit unless they were organic, but they couldn't afford organic. And that just scared me because that's when our conceptions about what is nutrition gets in the way of actual science and nutrition. And so they were seeing some folks who it, it didn't need to be organic to still get the, the nutrition that they needed as a cancer patient. And, but they were so afraid to eat anything that wasn't because of what they had read. That, that's where it gets a little bit scary to me.

But if I'm correct, the science doesn't support the anti-GM argument.

I would agree. Yeah.

But you know, mindset versus science, science doesn't always win. And we know that from many other parts of our lives.

Yeah. I mean, I think the big concern is what are we putting in our bodies and being transparent and honest about that. And I think that like on our farm, we take very— we take it into consideration of how we manage our weeds, how we manage our inputs, and making sure that when we utilize those products, none of them would be at a period of production that would be ingested by anybody.

And speaking about chemicals and fertilizers, there's always— there's been plenty of discussion about their talk of the level of toxicity that can be had when you fertilize crops, etc., even though they don't go into the produce itself, they are used around it. And I recall from our conversation a few weeks ago when we met at the Sustainability Week in London, that you, when you fertilize, you even use special protective equipment to ensure that nothing gets cross-contaminated, right?

Yeah. So when we fertilize, we're actually fertilizing in the fall after we harvest. And so we're putting on potassium and phosphorus. In the spring, we'll put on nitrogen. And, you know, anything in a very concentrated form, almost anything can be harmful. I mean, sometimes this conversation kind of leaning back on my science, um, is like, well, almost anything in a, in a high enough concentration can hurt you and you shouldn't eat it. And so we have to always, always think about that. Matter is neither created nor destroyed. It simply changes form. But what we're doing in agriculture is we are truly trading nutrition. So when I bring in nutrition like potassium or phosphorus, and I put it in my soil and the plant takes it up, it puts it in the feed or the soybean or the corn kernel. And then it is the reason we're feeding that to somebody or an animal is because there's nutrition in it. There's protein in it, there's nitrogen and sulfur. And making sure that I have all the nutrients available to that seed, and then that, that's then used as feed to the human or the animal. This is nutrition. This is the cycle of nutrition. Even sometimes talking about food waste, I'm kind of like, I don't understand. I don't understand what you're talking about. Because again, there's nutrition that if I had no other market for my soybeans other than I were going to crush the oil, and use that for fuel and I had no other market for the meal, I could use it as a fertilizer. You know why? Because there's a ton of nitrogen and sulfur. All the things that built the amino acids to begin with could go back on the land as a fertilizer. And so when we start to be realistic about these cycles, um, and we, we, we can be a whole lot more open-minded about the, the idea of nutrient cycling and being the most efficient that way. I love when I see commercials for compost bins in your kitchen. I'm like, yeah, it's not a waste because it's going to break back down and make those nutrients available again. They don't go away. You just got to put them in the right spot so they're the most efficiently useful.

And I guess that's possibly the misconception when it comes to food waste, because at least in the urban areas and in cities, people see vast amounts of food being put into bins which end up into landfill, which is not somewhere where it would be feeding the soil for healthy produce the next season.

Not for healthy produce the next season, but you're still improving the carbon to nitrogen ratio and our ability to break things down. I mean, the way that I would view landfills is what's the number one thing I picture in my mind at landfills is usually plastic. And so one of the cool things that we focused on at the board is how do we help become a useful biodegradable plastic? And soy straws is one of my favorite examples of that.

We need those in the UK because here we have the plastic straw ban and we have paper straws and they are horrendous. Even though they don't kill any turtles, not that we have any around us, plastic straws are not a great experience.

The, yeah, I mean, I always tell folks, if you've ever had a toddler with a smoothie and a paper straw, you know exactly how catastrophic it can be to your backseat. And so I actually carry our Soy Straws with us everywhere because the really cool thing about the formulation with soybean oil is that it doesn't biodegrade in your mouth or in your cup, as I've experienced with some alternative straws, but it does biodegrade after about 90 days. In, or rain or outside. And so I think there is so much we could do with that type of formulation if we really focused on biodegradable plastic. And then you could put your food in with those soy straws and it would break down so quickly because of the biological activity being stimulated by those, that carbon to nitrogen ratio. And you would have very, very small landfills very quickly. Those are some of the things that Again, I, I see huge potential for soybeans to be an answer as a drop-in replacement where I don't have to change my life significantly. Uh, I'm just— the soy biodegradable straw as a drop-in replacement, and we don't notice anything different in our daily life. But at the end of the, the use of that straw, it's, it's not having a long-term impact on the earth.

So with that in mind, many assume that in a way, kind of like big agriculture, which arguably you are part of, you know, trading on a global commodities market, is at odds with sustainability. But you are saying that it's totally the opposite because sustainability serves you to improve your yields and become a better farmer.

Exactly right. I think that Well, first off, I think when we talk about big agriculture, I think we have a decent-sized farm. I think we have, you know, large equipment, etc. We're a family farm. 97% of the US farms are family-owned and operated. So sometimes I'm a little bit taken aback because there are some economies of scale that are actually more sustainable and more efficient. Because of our size. We're, we're kind of a medium-sized farm in the US. We're about 2,000 hectares. And that sounds really big in the UK.

Compared to the UK or Europe, yes.

Yeah, but we're a big country too. There's, it's just, there's a lot more space here.

Understandably, I just wanted you to make that point.

Yes, yes. We're a large, vast country with, um, uh, you know, a lot of different climates. Too. And that makes us pretty resilient and reliable as a country for exporting soy. So I think that's kind of the beauty of the work that I've seen from the United Soybean Board is really connecting people. At the end of the day, we're providing food, we're providing nutrition. And that's a very personal thing, actually. Our dinner at night with our families, the fact that our family gets to be a part of that in any way is really exciting to me. And so I think that kind of just having that connection, I'm always surprised at, you know, people are like, oh, farmers don't want to change, or they don't want to be more sustainable. Truly, the only way farmers are still in production is that they have continually changed because things are so volatile. It's only the folks that were progressive that survived the '80s, that survived 2018. You know, people had to keep making changes. Consolidation has been part of that. But I think at the same time, because of technology, we're actually able to micromanage our farm, even though it sounds like bigger acres, but, and we're able to be more efficient at an economy of scale, really helpful to being more sustainable, not less.

So would you say technology is the future of farming? And anybody trying to do something without technology nowadays doesn't stand a chance?

Yeah, it is today, it is tomorrow. Um, I— it's here. And, um, I think that most farmers I know, they're embracing it though. Even folks think, you know, we look younger than maybe what you picture as an American farmer, but even our father's generation, they have all been the progressive ones. And that's why they, they were in business. And then especially when you see millennials or Gen Zs looking at agriculture, The technology is the exciting part, and you'll see folks really monitoring their fields like a medical record as much as a soil report. And I think it's given us a wonderful tool to manage and make better data-driven decisions. And just like any, any industry at all, the better you can measure it, the better you can manage it. And that ladders up to sustainability.

You mentioned incoming generation, the millennial generation, which is now coming to a point where they're starting families and they're looking for maybe alternative lifestyles outside of the pressures and hustle and bustle of corporate life, even though you clearly made the point that there are pressures in agriculture and farming and it's all a big experiment and it's not just a relaxed life. But, um, I'm wondering what advice would you give to women and to anybody trying to break into agriculture as an outsider, if they're considering taking on a farm, starting a farm, not necessarily with soy, but with soy could, could also be just as important.

I think the number one thing that I hear is that there might be this conception that you're welcome here, whatever, whatever background you are, whatever diversity you bring, that you're welcome here. And I have been, been lucky. I think maybe my mom's generation may have been kind of breaking some glass ceilings, et cetera. But when I show up to an ag conference, I don't really think about diversity. I see lots of it. And what I love about it, especially when we go to like an event, like we call it Commodity Classic. Um, we see people from all sorts of backgrounds, smaller farms, first generation, 8th, 10th generation, you know, in Virginia, the founding father area. Some people are like, I'm the 11th generation on my farm. I'm like, that is, you know, mind-blowing to me. In the UK, that's maybe not as big of a deal, but in the US, yeah, some farms go a bit further back, but yeah, yeah, yeah, I've been doing it for a while, but, um, I think that, you know, don't let your fear of that keep you from anything, that it might be most surprising who will mentor you and who will share ideas or help you or give you advice. It's kind of one of those weird things. I don't feel like I am in a position to give advice to people because I feel like I'm learning every day. I always think that somebody has all the answers and they're the ones who should give the advice. But the biggest thing is asking questions and being collaborative and knowing that I really do feel like the agricultural community is very welcoming I've experienced that taking the time to learn and being open-minded about really observing what works and what doesn't, that's the key to agriculture is leaving your conceptions behind, but really observing what works in the field and what works on your land that will make you a better farmer.

You mentioned mentoring, saying that it's essential and part being part of the community. So I'm wondering, Who has shaped your journey most and how are you paying it forward?

Yeah. Well, gosh, it's hard to say like exactly one person, but I've been, you know, they, sometimes you go to like a funeral and they're like, oh, he was a self-made man or whatever. And I'm like the opposite of that. I feel like I am, I am the product of all sorts of people who believed in me at different stages of my life. And so the way I pay it forward is, is really trying to help people know that, hey, I believe in you and like you might be hitting a tough stride here, but you're going to be okay. You just got to work hard and it'll pan out. We all hit hard times though. So again, it's like, how do you give advice when it's like, ooh, I'm a little nervous right now too. I think that my parents, especially in my professional career and coming back and working with them. Learned so much about being— sometimes you have to sit back and observe rather than always trying to have, you know, the right answer. And, you know, really, if you have folks that are working with their parents that are listening to this podcast, both generations have to be open to listening and not, you know, not proving they're right or that this is the only way, because there are so many different decisions that go into every crop. There's no one way to do it. So I think that if anything, that, that's kind of my biggest lesson. But I've been really, really lucky that both my parents and Mark's parents have been willing to let us fail, uh, but giving guidance and, uh, just really that welcoming spirit of it takes all of us.

Now that we're a bit introspective, and it's something that I typically like to wrap up for the podcast episodes with, is there's no success without sacrifice. Many people have experienced that. You've had a journey in 3 different fields, and I'm wondering what was the biggest sacrifice you had to do, Megan, to be where you are today?

Well, there's a lot of little sacrifices.

Really, um, compound. So feel free to share.

There's lots of little things I think, uh, that could be sacrifices, but I also feel like we turn them into opportunities. And one of the examples is that when Mark and I kind of first started this before we had children and, uh, we had both lived in, in bigger cities where there's always something going on. Um, we, it was a little bit of a like, well, what do we do this weekend? A little bit of a lonely feeling when, hey, we can't do anything because we're planting. And so then you don't talk to anybody for a couple months. So what we actually ended up doing was starting a young farmers and ranchers group of other young people who understood that, hey, we're just really busy at certain times of the year, but we still want to have like this group of people that we can learn from each other, that we can enjoy. And so, you know, I think sometimes you take however you're feeling and realize that other people probably feel that too and, and work to mitigate that. And we built a really strong group that continues to go on today. We have some of our very dear friends from it. I think that—

Millennial Farmers, is that?

Millennial Farmers, yeah, it is exactly that. And our kids grew up coming to these meetings together and we turned it into kind of having a social aspect as well as a collaborative aspect. And so sometimes I think that whenever you do hit a, it would be dramatic to call that a hardship, but it was a shift that look at it as an opportunity to say, hey, you know what, let's see if anybody else— it started with 3 couples. Um, it grew to, you know, 35 couples were involved in this. And we, then we worked together to build something like we, we actually established a scholarship foundation. So other people would want to come home and farm after they go off and do whatever they would do for university, et cetera. But, um, I think that the other, uh, difficult thing is that we have a young family and yet we've been very involved in a national board that takes us away from the home and farm quite a bit. Even this morning, my 9-year-old, he said, "Mom, what are you doing today?" I said, "Oh, I'm going to be on this podcast." And it's in the United Kingdom. He goes, "Oh, you're leaving?" You know? And so I think that that's something to note that the 9-year-old is like, "Oh, it's taken us away." quite a bit. Amazing experiences. And I think it's important for our kids to see that sometimes you have to, to go out and be involved and do things, not just what's comfortable staying home in our normal routine, but to be involved and to, to really help set our future a little bit through the United Soybean Board has been an honor, but it does come at some sacrifice at home and a little bit at work. If you're distracted about helping to run another organization, you're not as focused on, on your own. So those things come at a bit of a cost. But I truly believe the reward is greater in that we get to have this bigger impact. And I think it's important for our children to see that you're not just a farmer, you're, you're a member of a global society. And what you do is you, you, we produce food to nourish that society. But we also have the obligation to make sure that people understand we're doing it in the best way possible to make sure that your food is and your, you know, your feed is the most sustainable and nutritious it can be.

So I guess my final question would be, Megan, from what you described, you have super busy times of the year and maybe the winters are not that busy, but you also juggle multiple roles as a mother, as a farmer, as a scientist, as we discussed, working on a national bored. How do you find balance? Because you can't have it all at once, or even in the same day, or even the same week, or even the same season from what you described as your farming timetable. So how do you de-stress? And how do you find balance, especially at peak times?

I don't know that I could ever say that I find balance. I think what I have found is that I have to give myself some grace sometimes in that, um, I would love to pretend like I have this all scheduled out and it all works beautifully and nobody's ever concerned or I'm never behind at something. That's unrealistic, turns out. I've tried. But sometimes you have to give yourself a little bit of grace. And I have really found communication is the key. That people, if I say, hey, I really thought I would have this done today, but it just didn't, you know, letting them know I'll have it for you tomorrow. Or I, I just think that. The reality is when you don't just kind of hold all of that in and pretending you have it all in balance is the key. When you can be a little bit humble and recognize that we're all just human and everybody's doing their best. I'm not sitting on my couch eating bonbons, but other things happen. And I think really prioritizing and, and, um, the number one most important thing that I'm going to do on this earth is raise kids, and, and the legacy of our family is in them. And so making sure that they're taken care of. The next thing, we have to provide for our family. And so doing a good job at work and on the farm. And, and then when I look in the really long term, we want to leave everything better than we got here. And so we're in a unique position in agriculture that is very tangible when we look at our land, and we look at our water quality and our air quality. That we have a direct impact that we can make. We kind of just keep all of those things. If we're hitting the big pictures, sometimes we'll fail a little bit within the day. But if we're keeping the big picture in focus, then it tends to be everything else can kind of fall in line. So I think prioritizing helps a lot.

I love that perspective and the honesty as well, and being real about how life really is. And I guess it's not, not that much different to how other people experience it, but hearing it that others are having the same challenges and how they're overcoming it is always a growing and learning opportunity. So thank you so much, Megan, for joining Millennial Masters and sharing your story, your journey, and your learning so far.

Thank you so much for having me on. I've really enjoyed getting to know you a bit here in these few weeks, and I look forward to becoming a follower of your work.

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