CropLife Retail Week: Crop Progress Report, Ag Health Report Backlash, and Mental Health Ag Day

Eric Sfiligoj and Lara Sowinski discuss the latest planting progress report, ag groups anticipation of the Make America Healthy Again report, and May 29 as Mental Health Ag Day.

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*Below is a partial and edited transcript:

Eric Sfiligoj: Hello. Welcome to another edition of Crop Life Retail Week. I’m Eric Sfiligoj here with Lara Sowinski, and I guess we got the back basic black memo because we’re both there today on black.

Lara Sowinski: So yeah, this is what all the Italian farmers wear.

ES: Okay. Well there goes half of our audience. Thank you, Lara, for that. I guess next week when we’re on camera, I’ll have to bring out some pizza slices or some rigatoni or something to try to get them back. But we do love the Italians, so. Hey. So, anyhow. Hey, what’s, what’s, what’s going on there in Texas weather wise?

I know here in the Midwest, we’re getting a fair amount of rain the last couple of days, which it’s probably, it’ll kind of tease. One of the things I want to talk about here in a moment. But how about you and El Paso are the dust storm is finally over?

LS: Yeah. I think we’ve, seen, the worst of it. However, it is going to heat up, which is right on, right on schedule for this time of year. We should see close to if we don’t, reach it or exceed it, the triple digits this coming weekend. So. Yep. It’s right. Well, good. Yeah, that’s a, and the growers in the US apparently would agree with you.

ES: I know that we’ve been doing a couple of reports on plantings across the U.S, how they were doing percentage wise for our two favorite crops, corn and soybean. And I’m happy to report that, the weekend that closed on May 18th, according to our friends at USDA to, the planting percentages are going up nicely. As of May 18th, 78% of the corn has been planted, and that is up, 5% from the, average this time of year, 73%.

And for soybean, it’s a 66% of the soybean has now been planted in the U.S, and that’s up 13% from the five year average of 53%. So again, I know we were saying, a little while back when we reported on this, things were kind of a little, you know, kind of running around average for those two crops.

But now we’re above average. So that is not a bad thing. And the weather’s been cooperating. That’s great. That’s great news. Definitely. So yeah, that’s good news on planting. But then I have a little, little note that might be, cautionary or potentially, a trouble spot for our friends in the industry. Of course, you’ve probably heard about, the make America Healthy Again initiative.

And I guess there’s a commission out there for this group, and they’re getting ready to release a report on the health of America. And supposedly, from what our friends and agriculture hearing, it might not be overly flattering to U.S. farmers and their production methods. So we got a note from our friends, to the American Soybean Association, the National Corn Growers Association, and the National Association of Wheat Growers, along with a few others.

Basically, they put out a statement, sort of, in, in in anticipation of this report coming out. And they said that despite the efforts of many of our organizations to work with the Commission to provide factual information about America’s food production, we have heard disturbing accounts. The commission report may suggest U.S. farmers are harming Americans through their production practices, leading directly to our chronic disease crisis.

So, again, these associations are putting this report out. Now, the statement, in anticipation, the report might not be overly flattering to U.S. farmers, and they’re hoping that perhaps they’ll be wrong and that the final report will not be blaming, U.S agricultural practices for some of these health issues that we see. That was actually a topic of discussion during the recent FDA’s AG events, conference in Florida.

A lot of people are concerned about that. So, yeah, definitely, an item to watch. Yes, we will keep an eye on that. And of course, when the report comes out, we’ll read it. And, we’ll give you our viewers a synopsis of what it actually said, positive and negative.

So that’s the news I have for the week, Lara. So I will kick this off to you. what do you have for our viewers this week to share?

LS: Yeah. Thank you. Eric. Some good news. For phosphor, Lucian’s a company that, we’re very close with. Happy to see this announcement.

Press release came out on May 13th. Phospholutions is expanding their distribution through a partnership with the Andersons. The, expansion, with the with the Anderson’s, secures, The Anderson’s as a distributor for the 2026 crop year, making a major step forward, for rise of which is the next generation of phosphorus fertilizer technology more accessible to road crop producers.

The agreement aligns and strengthen and strengthens US solutions mission to deliver efficient and sustainable fertilizer solutions, and supporting growth in key markets. Hunter Swisher, CEO of US solutions, said we are thrilled to expand our partnership with the Andersons through this distribution agreement, their trusted presence in the Midwest and longstanding commitment to innovation and, make them an ideal partner as we scale rises across the U.S..

So this is a big, big deal. You know, this is a big milestone for Phospholutions. Congratulations to them. They’ve also, hired, Tim Mahoney, who was recently appointed as VP of business development at Phospholutions. Mahoney will play a key role in expanding partnerships and will support international expansion, manufacturing and distribution of rise of sorts.

So congratulations to Hunter. To Tim and of course, Craig Bradley. The whole team, some great, great news. Big step for them. Also wanted to, mention a news item that I saw, this past week. The Senate unanimously approved U.S. senators Deb Fischer, Republican, Nebraska, and Michael Bennetts, the, Democrat from Colorado, bipartisan resolution designating May 29th as mental Health awareness and Agriculture Day.

According to, Deb Fischer, daily uncertainties and extreme stress lead to higher levels of anxiety and depression among Nebraska’s agricultural producers and workforce. Our resolution recognizes these unique challenges and supports the farmers, ranchers, and workers who perform the essential work of producing high quality food, fuel and fiber. So that’s great. A whole list of lawmakers, including Senate Committee Chairman John Bozeman, Ranking member AB Amy Klobuchar, our friends over at area, the American Farm Bureau.

Gosh, a whole a whole list. So it’s great. It’s really great to see this. So May 29th, mental health Awareness in agriculture Day. Yeah, that’s great news indeed. As you as you said, I mean, agriculture is is, you know, throughout the year, agriculture goes through a series of ups and downs and cycles that happen year after year.

They’re up and down and again, stress levels. I’m sure are high. So a little mental break once in a while is probably a good thing. So it’s nice that’s being recognized.