ISA, ICMC sustainability leader speaks to Commodity Classic crowds

Dr. Scott Hutchins, Ph.D., who serves as the Sustainability and Value Creation Consultant for the Indiana Corn Marketing Council (ICMC) and the Indiana Soybean Alliance (ISA), was given the opportunity to share his thoughts in how he is guiding the state’s soybean and corn checkoffs in setting priorities for spending research dollars.

On separate occasions,Hutchins spoke to farmers at the American Soybean Association and National Corn Growers Association booths during the 2022 Commodity Classic in New Orleans, LA. His presentation was titled Beyond Research: Establishing Goals for Transformational Discoveries.

Hutchins previously worked as a Deputy Undersecretary for the USDA, and he was the leader of Global Research and Development at Dow AgroSciences. Through his career, Hutchins has noted the positive impact of farm research and technical innovations on American lives and livelihood.

He said U.S. agricultural output has tripled in the last 70 years with the same level of inputs, while U.S. food prices have remained low, and American lifespans have increased from 49 in 1930 to more than 79 today. Many of these outcomes are the result of constantly improving farm production techniques.

Hutchins said agricultural organizations should take charge of their future with a disciplined process for steering innovations through goals:

• Research creates possibilities

• Strategy creates priorities

• Goals define solutions However, he added, innovation without adoption is costly and wasteful.

Hutchins noted that one of checkoffs’ goals in Indiana is to expand the use of sustainable farm practices across the state. He said many questions must be considered. “What are your highest anxiety concerns about a significant expansion of conservation production practices on your farm enterprise?” Hutchins asked the farmers in attendance. “Do you worry about unintended consequences, cost, or maybe reduced production? What are the specific areas in your farm enterprise where you believe new innovations my lead to more conservation production or reduced anxiety of adoption?” Understanding these farmer insights will lead to a focus on technologies that comprise specific discovery goals, such as next generation weed control. And, adoption will be broader and quicker because the farmers established demand on the front end of the innovation process.

He further explained that shaping the public narrative for future innovations is critical in the early research phase, long before commercialization. “There are numerous opposing forces for modern agriculture,” Hutchins said. “With each new technology, there is a new opposing force. Learn to anticipate and shape the narrative early. Define and characterize your discovery goals with words that do not incite fear in consumers. Scientists are notoriously naïve on this skill, so they need support.”

Illinois photo takes grand prize in 2021 NCGA photo contest

“My Drone’s View Returning Home” is the grand prize winner of the 2021 National Corn Growers Association Fields-of-Corn photo contest. The picture was taken via drone by Todd Wachtel of Illinois. This was the first time a bird’s eye view category was offered as a part of the contest.

The most popular entry by April Anthony of Ohio for “Fire in the Sky!” was also entered in a new category this year – equipment. Returning popular categories included corn, growing field corn, the farm family lifestyle, scenery/landscapes, farming challenges and conservation. In the eight years of the contest, nearly 3,000 photos have been submitted.

“We’re always looking for new and different categories to add to the contest, and this year it was fitting that one of the new categories produced the grand prize winner,” said NCGA Graphic Communications Manager Beth Musgrove. “Every year, it is a challenge for the judges to pick the winners because of the number of high-quality submissions. There are a lot of very talented photographers who enter the contest, and each year we get a wide variety of photographs.”

In total, 26 prizes were awarded across the eight categories. Winners are determined through a combination of Facebook likes and consideration of a panel of judges. Images submitted to the contest are valuable assets for NCGA in publications, social media channels and the website. The contest will re-open in spring 2022.

To see more winning photos, go online to ncga.com/ stay-informed/media/in-the-news/article/2022/02/ ncga-announces-new-slate-of-fields-of-corn-photocontest-winners