LE MARS — Agriculture plays a big role in Plymouth County and northwest Iowa.
To celebrate National Ag Day on Tuesday, March 18, and to recognize its importance in the local economy, the Le Mars Area Chamber of Commerce Agriculture Committee hosted the 28th annual Agri-Business Luncheon at the Le Mars Convention Center.
Janelle Johnson, chairperson of the chamber’s Ag Committee said it’s important to celebrate agriculture between farmers, businesses and others involved in the agriculture industry.
The Tuesday event started with a community coffee at 9:30 a.m., hosted by Plymouth County Farm Bureau, followed by two guest speakers.
The first speaker was Erik Hoegemeyer, partner in a business which specializes in farm financial decision-making.
He grew up in Nebraska in his family’s seed business, and has worked in financial and brokerage industries.
Hoegemeyer started his talk, “Today’s Geopolitics and Why I am Bullish on American Agriculture,” by sharing that his optimism in American agriculture has never been higher.
Capital is the commodity of the 21st century, he said. “Capital flows are always going to tell the truth. But we need to focus on the world of tomorrow.”
The good news, he said, is “Ultimately the commodities will have to be the collateral behind any world trade,” and “the ag economy is the linchpin.”
He pointed out people living in the United States, along with Mexico and Canada, will live in a zone that is food independent, fertilizer independent, (thanks to the potash in Canada), energy independent, capital independent, a technology leader, innovation leader and has a stable population base.
“We can organize and get rare mineral deals in Ukraine, Greenland and potentially in Congo. We’re going to be in great shape,” he said.
He concluded his presentation by saying, “A lot of the problems in this country are going to be addressed, I believe they are working being addressed,” he said.
“Don’t be stressed. This is a lot for a lot of people, but really if you look at it all together, be very very positive, because that scarce capital is going to continue to come into this country, and that scarce capital is going to help our sector thrive.
“We need to be thankful and protect what we have. Because what do we have, we have the safest, most nutritious, most cost-effective, most abundant, most reliable, most technology-advanced food production system ever, ever, known to mankind. We have that, and that is going to be the collateral for success in the 21st century,” he said.
“In my opinion, we need to be unapologetic advocates for agriculture. A lot of people like to attack what we do in this region of the country, but we are going to be the source of stability in a very unstable geopolitical world. I think we should never apologize. Praise God because our cities, state and industry is the linchpin of the world of tomorrow.”
The luncheon’s keynote speaker Scott Shellady, known as the ‘The Cow Guy,” is the host of the “Cow Guy Close” on RFD-TV as well as a tv contributor on Fox News, CNBC, BBC, CNN and SKY. He brings a knowledge of trade experience, commodities and financial products to the crowd.
Shellady, who was born in Des Moines and now makes his home in Nashville, told the crowd he was honored to be in Le Mars, and told the story of his first job in college of scooping ice cream at a Häagen-Dazs ice cream shop.
Shellady’s talk soon turned to tariffs.
“There are very smart people on both sides of the aisle, trying to tell us two very different things,” he said. “The status quo can’t go on anymore. We can’t keep doing what we’re doing.”
Shellady thinks that is why the president is going down the road of tariffs.
“So we have an issue with tariffs, are they inflationary or not inflationary? I’m going to say this: They can be, but not all the time. But they do have a chance of helping us get us out of trouble,” he said.
“We’ve got the No. 1 economy in the world. We had it before we shut it down the last time, we’ve come back again. But the problem is, that we’ve let everybody else take advantage of us.”
Referring to the president’s speech to Congress earlier this month, Shellady said, “We need a way to find revenues to get us out of this hole that we’ve gone down too long that we can’t get out of right now. There’s no other way except for a structural default. You have to stoke inflation to get out of that problem.”
“Nobody wants to get into a trade war, but you can’t have the status quo. We can’t go in debt anymore. For your economy to grow, you have to introduce more new customers,” he said.
He also touched on bitcoin, about the upcoming crop year, and the cattle market.
The event concluded with Johnson reading ticket numbers for door prizes donated by the Le Mars Toy Store, 4 Brothers Bar & Grill, and Archie’s Waeside.
She told Shellady the Le Mars Toy Store owner Albert Schulz customizes toy trucks and trailers for a variety of events, including a number in the agriculture industry.
“Le Mars Toy Store and Red’s Printing in Le Mars put together this truck, which says ‘The Cow Guy’ on it and the Le Mars Agri-Business Luncheon date,” she said.
