An Agenda as Big as Texas: Be Ready to Engage in Austin!

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An Agenda as Big as Texas: Be Ready to Engage in Austin!

By Jeremy Wilson, EVP/COO and North America Director

They say everything’s bigger in Texas, and after reviewing the final agenda for next month’s AgGateway North America Annual Conference in Austin, I have to agree.

As promised at the Mid-Year Meeting this past summer, a big topic for the Conference will be environmental reporting. At the opening general session panel on Monday, we discuss the state of environmental reporting in agriculture. And the Day 2 keynote speaker will discuss what our industry can learn from others that are also learning to manage environmental reporting.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. We have a ton of important work ahead of us, including Entity ID, Field Boundary, revisiting the PICS project, building on Modus v2 as well as the ADAPT and PAIL standards, and the many other working groups and meetups that are on the docket. Without question, this is an agenda worthy of hosting in the Lone Star State.

Now, don’t get me wrong, this old farmer is a realist. The agenda is a battle plan and like all plans, the outcomes for each gathering will be all over the place from great successes to acceptable outcomes to recalibrations to downright street fights – well, that’s a bit extreme but you understand.

The struggles are particularly true when it comes to breaking new ground, as we are with the Harmonized Contract discussion we have planned. Historically, AgGateway has created messages for specific industry segments. This effort will work to build a single contract that can be used for crop protection, crop nutrition, and grain.

My colleague Ben Craker and I are building a first version to serve as a straw man, with a goal of presenting it at the Annual Conference for feedback. I can guarantee you we will get hit with resistance, and frankly I would welcome anyone with an issue to attend and speak your peace. If that’s you, I would also request that you keep an open mind, review what we present, and be alive to the opportunities that something like this would present to the value chain.

To me and others who support the harmonized contract initiative, this work is necessary work. Like scheduling a dental appointment when your tooth is sore – you can deal with it now when the pain is manageable or suffer a lot more pain down the road.

If harmonized contracts isn’t in your area of focus, believe me, there is plenty in this agenda for you to weigh in on. The important thing is to weigh in, whether it’s lending support or providing constructive criticism. We only move forward when we’re all in and fully engaged. Hope to see you there!