Terns lifted off from the rice field, a raccoon hunched across the road and the sun dropped another few inches while Paul Johnson thought about his greatest challenge as a farmer. Maybe he had to think about sorting through many to choose one. 

Or maybe it was because no one thing stood out. The greatest joy, however, flashed across his face and his words flew: the people, other farmers, time with his family, farming with his four sons. 

When I left a job many years ago to come back to Farm Progress, my soon-to-be-former boss asked whether he could offer anything that would make me stay. Then he asked why not. 

Well, he had some good folks there. But agriculture is the only industry where I spend each and every day working with folks who have the same priorities in life that I do – faith, family, country. Nearly to a person. 

The drive home from that Louisiana rice field gave me time to ponder Paul’s answers. You see, the other answer was government policies. The challenge for farmers isn’t so much pesticide regulation, but it is H2A complexity, the black box of Commodity Reference Price setting and interference in export opportunities. 

Know what complicates successful resolution of those already complex issues? People. And sometimes it’s our friends, other farmers. Sure, our passion is a strength. It’s what keeps farmers on the land. Passionate people are going to fight for what they believe is right. But here’s the problem when we can’t agree on a way forward: we don’t give a straight answer to people in our state capitals and in this nation’s capital.  

USA Rice President and CEO Betsy Ward nearly made it through a brief speech on her pending retirement, set for Dec. 31. Then tears filled her eyes and she apologized for failing to unify the industry. 

“If we’re going to tackle these (Farm Bill issues) and other challenges, we have to be united,” Ward said. “We’re too small. We can’t be doing this.” 

She was speaking to rice folks. It was a message to the entire ag industry.  

Here’s why. A quick run through a Congressional Research Service report on the membership of the 118^th Congress tells us a bunch are lawyers and a lot are “public servants” – which means they made a career of holding elected or appointed office, and that’s not always bad. A smattering of other professions is represented. No farmers. Those folks don’t know what the right answer is for agriculture. We must give it to them in one unified, simple answer. Maybe we can’t agree on everything, but let’s find our highest priority and sing that refrain over and over while we get the other verses right. 

It could be the best retirement gift Betsy receives.