Thinking Differently About Opportunities

Thinking Differently About Opportunities

I'm here in San Fransisco at the Potato Expo. It is a great place to be to learn about new innovations and products as well as networking with all of my favorite potato growers from around the country. I caught up with Rabobank Vice President and Grain and Oilseed Analyst Steve Nicholson and he shared some of the message he has for ag producers about different opportunities in agriculture.

Nicholson: “We’re kind of over the gloom and doom. We want to talk now about here are the risks and here are the opportunities. Let’s think about that and I use an example of a teenager I know who said to his dad, ‘Quit thinking outside of the box. There is no box.’ There is kind of the message to farmers — think differently than you ever had before. Look for the different opportunities. In agriculture we have grown potatoes or wheat, corn and soybeans and said here is what we are going to grow — so here is what you are going to eat. The consumer has pushed back now and said, ‘I want that this way.’ I think we in agriculture have to be responsive to that — right, wrong or indifferent — to get over our disagreements. That consumer is the one who buys our product and the good news is they want to pay a premium for it. If you can make money doing it and you can laugh all the way to the bank. Why aren’t you doing it? There are things we need to think about. One thing I’m going to talk about is all the different opportunities to think about agriculture different than we’ve done.I know that is easier said than done — but we’ve got to start thinking differently.”

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