04.24.26

ICYMI: Farmers Highlight Stakes for Agriculture Ahead of Supreme Court Arguments 

Earlier today, the Modern Ag Alliance (MAA) hosted a media availability featuring farmers Blake Hurst, Bill Couser, and Mark Jackson, moderated by Executive Director Elizabeth Burns-Thompson. The farmers’ remarks focused on the importance of science-based regulation and what’s at stake for farmers ahead of the Supreme Court’s consideration of Monsanto v. Durnell.

Elizabeth Burns-Thompson, Modern Ag Alliance (as moderator) 

Executive Director of the Modern Ag Alliance, with deep roots in agriculture from growing up on a family farm in eastern Iowa. She has held roles with the Iowa Farm Bureau and Corn Growers, as well as industry-leading biofuel manufacturers, farm cooperatives, and supporting innovative carbon management technologies. 

Blake Hurst, Hurst Farms 

A third-generation corn and soybean farmer and greenhouse grower from Westboro, Missouri, and former president of the Missouri Farm Bureau from 2010 to 2020. A respected, veteran voice in agriculture, he blends firsthand farming experience with decades of policy and advocacy leadership.   

Bill Couser, Couser Cattle Company

A fourth-generation Iowa farmer and co-owner of Couser Cattle Company, a cattle and grain operation based in Story County, with more than 50 years of experience in agriculture. He has been recognized for his environmental stewardship and leadership in the beef and ethanol industries.

Mark Jackson, Jackson Farms

A fifth-generation Iowa farmer and CEO of Jackson Farms LS, Inc., a diversified crop and livestock operation based in Mahaska County. He has advanced responsible soybean production practices and served as a National Director of the American Soybean Association and President of the Iowa Soybean Association.

Key highlights from the call are below.

Comments on the Importance of Crop Protection Tools:

  • Blake Hurst: “We depend on the crop protection tools every single day that we’re raising a crop. They help us manage weeds, pests, diseases. We lose all over the world, we lose somewhere up to 40% of our potential yield from depredations from weeds, from pests, from bugs. Farmers depend on these products in order to grow the food, the fuel, and the fiber that everyone depends on.”
  • Bill Couser: “We have to stay on that competitive edge and make sure that we have these products here for us to use… We have to make sure that we sit with these industry leaders and make sure that we help them understand and educate them about the science and the products that we need to be able to stay profitable in this industry.”

Comments on the Economic Pressures Facing Farmers:

  • Mark Jackson: “It’s not so much the cost that we receive for our crops, but it’s expenses we have to put out there to produce that crop. 10 years ago, $10 beans and $4 corn. I would have been considered a multimillionaire, but today because of the high cost over the last four or five years… from 2021 to 2023, that’s when everything in agriculture went up 20 to 50%. So machinery led the charge, and all of a sudden that falls with the cost of higher land rent, higher land purchases, production costs.”
  • Blake Hurst: “We’re already operating in a tough environment. Costs are up. Our supply chains have been disrupted. Margins are tight—that really doesn’t catch it, margins are negative and we’re making some hard decisions. We’re having to cut back on the things we do, drive our machinery for an extra year or three, and some of us are having to take more debt on just to stay in business. Losing access to crop protection chemicals like glyphosate would be a terrible blow, a disastrous blow for farmers as we’re facing these tough times. And of course when our costs increase, because if we lose access to one of the most widely used and affordable crop protection tools, our costs will go up and that will eventually show up on food prices and in grocery store shelves.”

Comments on the Impacts of Losing Access to Crop Protection Tools 

  • Blake Hurst: “We’re not going to go back to farming like we did in 1900. We don’t have the labor. We don’t have the diesel. We don’t have the people. And people won’t want to pay what food costs will be if we don’t have these products. So what next? We’re going to use other chemicals that are more expensive, increasing feed costs.” 

Comments on Conservation and Sustainability:

  • Mark Jackson: “Conservation has evolved over that time period that I’ve been farming. I’ve been no-till farming for 25 years at least. It was always a transition. It was a cultural mindset. It still is in some parts of Iowa… And I think conservation was one of those things that allowed us to walk away from the black snow drifts and things such as that to where today I think roughly 40% or better of Iowa is in no-till conservation status, which is a tremendous mindset.”

Comments on Science-Based Regulation and Safety:

  • Mark Jackson: “We don’t use chemicals just willy-nilly. They have been approved by the EPA, the FDA, the USDA. You might say all the A’s in the government have gone through the pipelines to allow these chemicals to be used, and then they are reviewed at regular intervals. So I think we need to have confidence in what our government is there for, which is to maintain quality. And we still do have the best and most consistent food supply in the world in the United States.”
  • Bill Couser: “The first thing I have to think about is safety. You know, I have employees out here. I have neighbors that live around my field that we farm. You know, today we’re using ground rigs. We’re using drones. We’re using aerial application. And so the first thing I always look at on that label is safety.”