(lively rock music) ♪ Hey ♪ Hey ♪ Hey - Welcome to "A Shot of Ag."

I'm your host, Rob Sharkey.

I am a farmer, and I do grow soybeans, but I also need a place for those soybeans to go.

How do we do that?

Well, let's talk with Todd Main.

He is director of market development at the Illinois Soybean Association.

How you doing, Todd?

- I'm doing well, Rob.

How are you?

- I'm doing fantastic.

That's a mouthful, director of market development at Illinois Soybean Association.

Did you make that up yourself?

- No, I didn't.

That's something they had put together.

- Okay, well, as long as it fits on a business card, I guess it's okay.

- Right.

- First, let's start with the Illinois Soybean Association.

All right, I am a farmer.

Every time I sell a bushel of soybeans, there is a small, I don't even know what it is, a fraction of a price that goes to the Soybean Association.

And then that is used to do what?

- Well, ISA, we represent 43,000 farmers in Illinois just like yourself.

And the Illinois farmers got together and said, "We want to help support the industry."

And so that money that comes off those bushels that get sold goes into things like agronomy research to help grow better soybeans.

And then it also goes into market development, which is what I focus on, which is, what do we do with the soybeans after they're grown?

- Yeah.

- And because Illinois, you know, is unique in the sense that 60% of all our soybeans go overseas as exports for human and animal feed, we need to develop those markets.

And so we spend quite a bit of time thinking about that.

- So as people are driving down the interstate, so you got the two crops.

The tall one's the corn.

Short one's the beans.

60%, so over half of that, is going to another country.

- Right.

- What country is taking most of them?

- Well, you know, we actually ship Illinois soybeans to dozens, I think up to 80 countries that they- - Really?

- Yeah.

- Wow.

- Now, the vast majority of those go to China.

- [Rob] Yeah, they're a good customer.

- Right, but we also do a tremendous business in Mexico and South America and then Southeast Asia, Europe, and even some to Africa.

- Oh, so we're gonna talk politics of China and all that stuff?

I didn't know we were going there, but apparently.

- Well, you know, we're gonna have to take a wait-and-see on that because we just don't know what the situation is.

But one of the things that we do know, and one of the things that we spend a lot of time thinking about, is that we have a lot of soybeans that we need to move, and they need to go to places because, you know, really what Illinois farmers do is they provide food security for countries around the world that are able to because the protein source that comes from soy is one of the cheapest, most efficient ways to get protein.

And there's protein deficiency around the world.

And so what we also understand is that food security is one of the foundations of geopolitical security.

And so by feeding people and helping countries get more food-secure, we make for a better world.

- Maybe it makes you think twice about like attacking a country that's actually feeding you.

- Well, there is a connection there.

- That's good, good for us 'cause we're...

So, Illinois, fairly landlocked, but yet we tout our ability to transport soybeans as our advantage.

Explain that.

- Well, you know, Illinois is one of the places in the world that is very unique in that we have the ability to take our goods that we grow here in Illinois in the center of the country and get them out to the coasts.

We can get 'em.

We go down the Illinois River and the Mississippi River to the Gulf.

We can go through the Great Lakes to the East Coast, and we can go on the railroads to the Pacific Northwest to go to Asia.

And so we understand that transportation is one of our competitive advantages, you know, because we're not gonna probably compete with the lower-price producers around the world, but where we can make a difference is in quality and our ability to deliver those beans in a way that gets 'em where they need to be when they need to get there.

- You know, we watch South America, and those farmers down there do an amazing job at raising soybeans.

They're good.

I mean, they are competition every sense of the word.

Then you see what they have to do.

They load a truck full of soybeans up in the field, and then they have to go 100, 200 miles on sometimes there's like dirt paths in that.

And man, I tell you as a farmer, that would drive me insane.

- Yeah, what it really shows up in is they have quality problems because they have to use heat to dry their beans out.

When you overheat your beans, you end up losing your amino acids, and that's what makes soybeans really digestible for animals.

And so you get burnt and cracked beans.

You get problems.

And that's why, you know, we host trade teams from all over the world, and one of the things that they always say is that when they can, they prefer to use US soy because the quality is so much better.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- Okay, well, that's good to know, right?

Because you think a soybean's a soybean, but, well, apparently- - Yeah.

- Do they know that, or did you have to teach 'em that?

- No, that's what they tell us.

- Oh, okay.

- Yeah.

We talk to buyers groups all over the world, and they say, you know, "When we have the opportunity in the economics' pencil, we'll buy the US soy every time."

- Okay.

You did not grow up on a farm, correct?

- I did not.

- Yeah, well, how'd you get into soybeans?

- Well, you know, I grew up in rural Michigan, actually, and then spent some time in state government here in Illinois and- - Whoa, whoa.

(laughs) How does one from Michigan just, "Oh, I'm gonna do state government," of all places Illinois?

- Yeah, well, you know, it's actually kind of a great story.

I was living in DC at the time, and my wife and I were newly married and had our first child on the way.

And my mother-in-law came to visit us about every 10 business days, you know, 'cause we had a- - [Rob] Was that a bad thing?

- Well, it was a beautiful thing, but my wife said to me one day, "If you want her to go home at night, you gotta move to Chicago."

And so I ended up in Chicago.

One thing leads to another, and now I'm helping soybean farmers.

- That's a fantastic story.

(laughs) The lengths we'll go to.

- Yep.

- So what were you doing in Illinois at like the government level?

- Actually, I was working for the Department of National Resources.

I was chief of staff there, and we had responsibility for the waterways.

And so we were helping figure out how do we get resources in to repair the locks and dams.

And so that's how I got connected to ISA.

- Okay, am I right in thinking, 'cause this is what I've always heard, locks and dams built long time ago, like 1900s?

In the '30s?

- Well, in the '20s and '30s, the bulk of them.

- Of course everything's gotten bigger.

- Right.

- So when a barge pulls up there, they can only fit one barge at a time, and so they've gotta break it up, so this whole system of one barge, and then they gotta do this.

And so you can't put the whole tugboat, how many they push in front of 'em, you can't do it like they do in like the Panama Canal.

So the farmers and a lot of people want to upgrade those to where we can streamline the traffic on the river.

- Right.

- I've heard that since I was this tall.

It's still never gotten done.

- Well, you know, that's actually a good story to tell about the locks and dams in Illinois because you're right.

We have 600-foot locks, and we need 1200-foot locks, which makes it much more efficient.

Barges and rivers are by far the best way to move bulk commodities like soy and corn.

And up until relatively recently, it's been pushing a rock up the hill to get the resources.

But under the last couple of Water Resource Development Acts, which is the federal, where the federal money comes, we've gotten money to expand those.

And so we're on track to get those locks expanded and improved and modernized.

And it's a big victory for people of Illinois and the producers.

- So you think it's gonna get done?

- Oh yeah, absolutely.

- When?

- Oh, it's under construction right now.

- Is it really?

- Oh yeah.

- Really?

So are they trying to improve all of 'em?

- Well, the two big ones that we need to expand are the ones on the Illinois.

The Mississippi ones are moving along.

You know, the Army Corps is the one in charge of all of these.

And they have to get the money, and then they have to do the engineering, and then they have to go through the process.

And they do a great job, and they really have done a great job under the closures of the last few years.

But, you know, it takes a while, but it's coming right along, so we're very excited about it, actually.

- Okay, fingers crossed.

- Yeah.

- 1930s, I think it's probably time to- - Well, you know, it's funny because we have benefited from the economic advantage of those locks and dams for generations- - Yeah.

- You know, since then.

And it's time that we as a generation make the investment so that the future folks can benefit just the way we have.

- So you were at one point an advisor for candidates for public office.

I don't know what that means.

Were you telling 'em how to win?

- Sometimes.

- Yeah?

- But I was mostly telling 'em how to talk.

- Oh really?

- Yeah.

- Like, just don't say dumb stuff?

- Don't say dumb stuff, but sometimes just how to communicate what you really wanna say, you know, because- - Maybe I could hire you.

(Todd laughs) - Well, I think you do a pretty good job.

- That means he doesn't trust that my check won't bounce.

(both laugh) So is this like a candidate that's like, "Okay, I am not able to communicate like I want to"?

He'd hire a person like you and- - Well, it's more like, "I wanna make a difference in my community, and I wanna do X, Y, and Z to make a difference.

And I need to communicate that to a wide variety of people."

And so I would help them figure out how to do that and how to reach the most people with the message that they had.

- Okay, so like when you hear a politician, and like all of a sudden it's like they have that new phrase, right, and it's just repeated 10,000 times where it was probably someone like that position that was saying, "You need to say this"?

- Well, I think it's... What we see today is that now everything is so focus-grouped and unreal, and even the language people use isn't real anymore.

And what I've always told candidates is that, you know, talk like a regular person because that's what's gonna be effective- - Yeah.

- You know?

Stop trying to say the buzzwords.

Stop trying to tell everybody what you think they wanna hear.

Tell 'em what you feel and tell 'em what you believe.

If you can do that, you're gonna be fine.

- Like time-wise, when were you doing that?

- Oh, that was in a younger part of my life.

I haven't done that for 10 years.

- [Rob] Before social media?

- Before social media, yeah.

- Have you ever sat back and thought how you would have to do that job now with the social media and the internet and all that stuff?

- Yeah, it's a whole different world in terms of how the social media stuff works, and I think the thing that's the most interesting to me is that so much of it is, it's a mile wide and an inch deep.

- [Rob] Yeah.

(laughs) - And it doesn't resonate.

It doesn't stick with anybody.

You know, you just sort of consume it like you breathe.

And it doesn't really have an impact, but a lot of people pay attention to it.

But I'm not sure that it communicates a whole lot.

- What is the Soy Innovation Center?

- Well, that's kind of an exciting project, and I'm glad you asked about it.

The Soy Innovation Center is something that we launched this year.

And you know, one of the great things about soybeans is that it's a tremendous source of protein.

It's a tremendous source of oil which can be used to make things.

But there's a wide variety of products that can be made from soybeans that with a little R&D and a little commercialization help could be real products.

So you know about probably soybean inks that toners, cartridges, have been using for years.

- Yeah, they don't have to kill octopuses anymore.

- They don't have to kill octopuses anymore.

And what we found is that you can take a soybean oil and replace almost any feedstock that has a petroleum base- - [Rob] Oh, okay.

- And use soybean.

And, you know, as the farmers that I work for say, we gotta move the pile.

You know, we got a lot of soybeans.

We gotta move the pile.

- We do a good job at growing 'em.

- We do among the best in the world growing soybeans.

We have the highest yields in the world.

But what we need to do is come up with new markets, and some of those are domestic.

And so you think about things like firefighting foam now- - Okay.

- That firefighters use.

You think about plastics.

You think about coatings and all of these industrial processes.

In fact, one of the first things that we have developed at the Innovation Center is a lubricant, a tube grease, that you can use on farm equipment- - Oh.

- That's soy-based.

- [Rob] Oh, makes sense.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- And so those are the kind of things that we're developing.

In fact, I was just talking with somebody today who wants us to develop a food-grade lubricant that they can use for food manufacturing, which we have a lot of in Chicago.

And it has to- - They asked for food lubricant?

- It's a lubricant for the machinery that makes food.

- Oh, okay.

I thought we were doing, like, you remember the "Christmas Vacation" where he puts it on his sled and- - Right.

(laughs) - Yeah.

- What do we got here?

Ah, well, that's a little ornament, and it's kind of a great story that we developed.

So one of the things that we do is we work in developing markets around the world to help people who want to use soy in animal feed.

And so we were in Cambodia last year to help.

- Wait a minute, you got this home from Cambodia?

- I did.

- This is like origami, if you can't quite see it.

- Yeah.

- Did you do this the whole time?

- Actually, no, I had a whole handful of them, and we were there working with an aquaculture producer there that was raising snakehead, which is a kind of fish that they eat in Cambodia.

And we were at a little restaurant having lunch, and I came out of the restaurant, and there was this little girl about this tall, and this was in January.

And so she had a whole handful of these little handmade ornaments that she was selling at the front door.

And so I gave her whatever I had, and she gave me the whole bunch of those.

And I thought it was- - Much did you give her?

- I gave her, I don't know, $3 or $4, US, which was a huge amount of money for her.

You know, that would've fed her family for days.

- Really?

- Yeah.

And I thought it was just a great metaphor for what ISA does and what Illinois Soybean does 'cause we care about selling soybeans, but we also care about helping people and helping people get food secure.

And it was our way to help that little girl help her family that day, so.

- You were telling me before, you know, the whole scenario about how helping someone like a farmer in Cambodia is going to help a farmer like me.

Go ahead and just all that stuff, tell it again.

- Well, the analogy that I use is that we help folks that primarily are animal producers.

And so we'll take a guy who's maybe got 100 chickens running around in his backyard and say, "Look, if you do this and this and this, maybe you can have a chicken house and have 1,000 chickens."

And so what we've done there is that we've helped him be better and more successful.

He will then be more apt to buy US soy along the way.

And we do that through a whole program we've developed called Soy Excellence Centers around the world and helping people learn.

We do poultry.

We do aquaculture.

We do dairy.

We do feed mills, and we do pork.

And we have a whole curriculum developed and a training program that helps people.

And I think we've trained over 20,000 people in the last year.

- It's self-serving, but if you're gonna be self-serving, you might as well help others.

- Absolutely, it's a win-win.

- Yeah, exactly.

- You know?

And it's a way for us to demonstrate that we're there to see them be successful as well as ourselves be successful.

- Illinois Soybean Association, is there 50?

- There's about 37, 38.

- Oh, well, not every state probably really growing soybeans.

Do you work with the other states?

- We do.

- [Rob] Which one do you like the least?

(Todd laughs) - Well, I don't know- - Is it Indiana?

- Well, Indiana's a tough one, there's no question about that, but I don't know them all.

So there may be some out there that are worse that I don't even know about.

- Worse than Indiana?

- Yeah.

- I heard they're pretty bad.

- Well, Indiana is a tough state and a proud state, and they pride themselves on their soybeans.

And so sometimes we just have to tell 'em that we're number one.

- They hire some questionable people, I'm just gonna say that, Indiana.

It's a joke.

My daughter works there.

It's a joke.

It's funny.

(Todd laughs) - Soy Connext out in... We went out there with y'all, San Francisco.

Tell people what that is.

- Well, Soy Connext is a conference that we help sponsor every year, and what it does is it brings together international buyers and lets, you know, our farmers meet one-on-one with them and talk about what they do and the advantages that US soy has.

And so we asked you to come out last year to help publicize the work that we're doing at Illinois Soy and do that.

So I'd turn it back to you and say, what did you think of it?

- Well, you know, as a farmer, you know, I'm fixated on what I do.

I'm growing corn.

I'm growing soybeans, on my farm anyway.

And when I grow that, when I harvest it, I put it in a semi-truck, and it goes off to a grain elevator.

It goes off to an ethanol plant.

It goes to the river in the barges.

I don't know where it goes after that, but what I do is I pay attention to the markets, and it'll say, oh, like this country bought how many metric tons, so that's why the markets are up a little bit or whatever.

I don't know why.

I never figured that it was like real people.

I thought it was like some imaginary, like, I don't know, computer, country, matrix, or whatever.

No, it's actually people that are making a decision, "Okay, we're gonna buy US soybean," compared to Brazil or wherever.

To actually see, to sit down and talk with the people that are making that decision I thought was fascinating because (sighs) you know, obviously you can't take politics out of everything, but they're simply looking out for their people.

The ones that I talk to, they're simply looking out for the best deal for their people.

- Yeah, that's really true.

And one of the things that we've just done, finished some research on which is gonna be helpful in those conversations in the future is that we now, because US soy, 'cause the characteristics of US soy when we compare 'em to Brazil or Argentina, we know now that if you are an animal producer in Ecuador, and you're raising shrimp, or you're in India, and you're raising poultry, we know that if you use US soy meal that your animals are gonna grow faster.

And they're gonna get to the weight you need to do to get 'em to market.

And we've actually got the science now to prove that.

And so we're gonna be able to say to those buyers, "Even if you pay a little bit more on the front end for our quality, you're gonna make it up on the back end."

And that's a game-changer for us.

- Is soybean something that is, it's shipped in such bulk that the transportation cost, is that kind of absorbed to it?

Or is that a big factor?

- Well, transportation, you know, obviously is a big factor getting there, but we actually have figured out how to wring efficiencies out of the transportation system so that we can get where things need to go.

And it's really a competitive advantage for us.

- Okay.

- Because it is so developed.

- So a lot of people watching, if there's anybody watching, you know, might know anything about soybeans.

If you could leave them like one important thing about soybeans, how that affects their lives, non-agriculture people, what would that be?

- Well, you know, soybeans is really an amazing product that people don't understand how valuable it really is.

You know, we didn't really grow soybeans until the early 1900s in this country.

And since then it's grown to be, you know, a huge driver for our economy and a huge driver for feeding the world.

And it's the cheapest source of protein.

I mean, you cannot get a better source of protein.

And what we're finding is is that not only do people use it, like, to give an example, in Indonesia, they eat tempeh at every meal like we eat french fries, and coming from soy.

And so it has a huge potential for feeding the world, and we do it better than anywhere else in the world here in Illinois.

- [Rob] It's amazing too, I mean, just all the stuff that my checkoff dollars go to.

From when I started farming my first crop in like '99, what would've been like my highest yield ever would be a disaster nowadays.

I mean, the yield has come so far.

You know, as a farmer, I really appreciate...

I have no problem with the checkoff money that's coming out of my corn and soybean because it's paid off in spades.

So if people wanna find out more about the Illinois Soybean, do you know their website?

- [Todd] Yeah, it's ilsoy.org, O-R-G. And you can find out not only about agronomy and how to do that better, but you can also find out about all the market development work that we're doing and a lot of other things that are going on.

- [Rob] Gotcha.

Yeah, Illinois Soybean does a very good job.

Of course, I mean, where does Illinois sit with soybeans?

Are we number one?

- [Todd] We are number one.

(cards tapping) - [Rob] Damn right we are.

(Todd and Rob laugh) I mean, it is kind of amazing because, I mean, you're going up against Iowa, Indiana, all these other states.

- Right.

- [Rob] I think Iowa's number one in corn.

- They are, and we're mostly number one all the time in soybeans.

Occasionally Iowa will sneak in if we get a bad weather year, but for the most part, we do just an incredible job.

And our farmers are the best in the world.

They really are.

- Yeah.

Do you enjoy what you do?

- You know, it's great.

I get up every day thinking about how lucky I am to have this job.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- Every day?

- Every day.

(Rob laughs) - I don't even do that every day.

(both laugh) Well, I've had a chance to get to know you and everything.

I know you enjoy what you're doing, and I know you're also very good at it, not just my experience, but you know, when people talk about you.

You know how it is when someone's like, "Oh yeah, Todd, you know, he knows all that stuff.

He's really good at it."

That's the way they talk about you.

Did you know that?

- No, I don't, but I appreciate the recognition.

And, you know, the opportunity to come and talk to you about this stuff and tell other people about the great work that Illinois Soybean is doing is really an honor for us.

- Yeah.

Todd Main, director of market development at Illinois Soybean Association.

Let's work on that.

So next time you come, maybe we'll, I don't know, three words?

- Yeah.

- King of soy?

- (laughs) No.

No, I think we'll figure out something else.

- All right, very good.

(Todd laughs) Todd, I really appreciate you coming on the show, really appreciate everything that you are doing for agriculture.

- Thank you and happy holidays to everybody.

- Absolutely, and everybody else, we'll catch you next time.

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