Former ambassador says he's excited for ag industry's future under Trump administration

A former ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture says getting young people involved in agriculture remains crucial to the industry's success.

Kip Tom tells Brownfield farming is very capital intensive. "It takes lots of money to get into this business, and sometimes if you get 2% to 3% rate of return on some years, that's hardly enough to feed a family," he says. "I think we need to find new, innovative ways to get young people involved. Certainly, know we need their talents."

He says the incoming Trump administration must right the ship on trade. "Three years ago, we had a $37 billion trade surplus," he says. "Today we have a predicted in January a $42 billion trade deficit on agricultural goods. That's a measure that we're not doing our job of getting our crops marketed or our goods marketed around the world from the agriculture sector."

Tom says as global incomes begin to rise, people increase their protein consumption. "And what does the US do best," he says. "It's producing that protein. So it really excites me about the future for US agriculture."

Brownfield interviewed Tom during the 2024 Missouri Farm Bureau annual meeting.