CropLife editor Eric Sfiligoj has a Fireside Chat with ARA CEO Daren Coppock
Coppock says one of the bigger issues is the impact the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) report released in May could have on the agricultural industry as a whole. “We’re all watching and trying to to contain that as best we can so that it doesn’t become something where it impedes our ability to produce food. That’s a fundamental economic benefit in our country that we take for granted, and if we do something to upset that cart, people are going to be hungry and it’ll be too late,” he said.
ARA said when the report was issued that the conclusions in it regarding pesticides contradict longstanding scientific research and fail to acknowledge the critical role pesticides play in ensuring food security and public health.
Coppock also noted that the Trump Administration approach to trade agreements over the past few months has created a lot of uncertainty within the ag retailer business. “We operate in a very global supply chain business. And so we’ve been over to the White House to visit with people and say, look, you can’t operate a business like this in a global supply chain when you don’t know from one day to the next what tariff rates going to be on a particular product,” said Coppock.
The One Big Beautiful Bill did contain some beneficial provisions for agriculture and gave some certainty for some farm bill provisions. “There were there were a number of tax provisions in that bill that we supported. We are also we’re very interested in the extension of the farm bill policies that they moved. I wish it could have been done in a farm bill. I think Chairman Thompson wishes the same thing. But the fact that the farmers have some some stability now to plan their operations, their bankers have some stability to be able to finance those operations. That’s a huge deal to get done in that in that bill.”
Learn more in this interview:
Daren Coppock, ARA (5:52)