 Good afternoon. What I thought I'd do today, we're gonna talk about agriculture. I'm gonna talk about the sector and the disruption we see in the sector, how Land O'Lakes is positioning the business. But I thought I'd first talk, because I see some students in the room talk about my path in my career. You heard this discussion of seven companies and six industries. And so sometimes I go on campuses and I talk about careers. And so I wanna say, careers are a journey. We were talking at the table. My observation after 33 years in business is that careers are a journey. And so the best, the folks that I think do best in their career really focus on a couple of things that I've learned in my 33 years. First of all, I love businesses that are doing meaningful work. I found that out because I had worked one of my first jobs out of college at Mobile Oil. And I loved that job. Intellectually it was interesting. Had a lot of different jobs. One of the jobs I got offered in that company was on the trading floor. So my master's is in finance. And I thought this, I mean that was sexy. When you're a Mobile Oil and you are part of the trading team and you're trading wet barrels, I mean that's just, that's really great. There's a separate trading floor. I hated that job. And I'll tell you the reason I hated it because it wasn't people intensive. I was used to running tanker and barge, trucking facilities, manufacturing facilities. I was right on the dock, right on the line in line operations. And I loved that. I loved the mess of dealing with the people issues. And I thought that that was really, really meaningful work because it was people intensive. So I love businesses that are people intensive and I think that that's meaningful. You heard in that bio that I also went into publishing. Now that seems an odd right turn, doesn't it? Or maybe it's a left turn, I don't know. But I left Pepsi where I was running their North American supply chain, their transportation fleet operations of big business. And I was asked to go to Scholastic, the children's book publisher, Harry Potter, Clifford the Big Red Dog. And I loved that job. Now why would I do that? Well, because it was about literacy in children. It was literacy in children. And I wanted to be part of that. I thought that that was gonna be meaningful work. And it is one of the reasons that I ended up at Land O'Lakes. Where the work is about feeding a growing world population. And when I was in New York, where I was, when I was called, about going and interviewing with Land O'Lakes to be their chief supply chain officer. And I was at that time was in the chemicals industry. So what happened there? Well, we don't need to go through the whole journey because we don't have that much time. But I was working around the world. Indonesia, India, I was building factories in China. I was everywhere. And I thought that that was really interesting because it was, it was fascinating. But I was asked would I come and speak to Land O'Lakes CEO at that time. And originally I was a little bit, it's cold in Minnesota. Not sure I wanna go back to the Midwest though I am from Iowa originally. And I went in and I heard about the work of feeding a growing world population. I heard about the structure, the co-op structure. And it resonated with me. Meaningful work, working with farmers, working in agriculture that resonated with me. So that was my path to agriculture. My path to coming back to the Midwest after really 30 years, 25 to 30 years in multiple industries, in multiple businesses around the world. I thought that this is meaningful work, exciting work. And I love the co-op model, the intimacy of the co-op model. To me it is about the families of the farmers, it's member owned, 1921, upper Midwest dairy farmers trying to get power in the channel, move their sweet cream butter into the population centers in the East. And we retain that farmer ownership and this co-op structure. And I've worked in publicly traded companies, I'm on the board of publicly traded companies, I've worked in private companies, small and big. And I love this business, I love this model. Because we understand the work is meaningful and because we know that the results, the profitability of the business directly impacts the communities and the families that are involved in this business. So I love the business, that's how I went on my journey and came back into agriculture. A couple of other points for the students in the room. What you may have heard is, boy, that doesn't seem planned. And that's right, right? In your 20s, after you graduate, it really is about establishing yourself and understanding who you are. It's wonderful, some folks have a very detailed plan about what they wanna do, that was not me. That was not me. Rather, I continued to broaden my portfolio of experiences, sometimes taking lateral moves, but to get better experience in different businesses. You wanted to get as broad as you can when you're in your 20s, your first 10 years of your career. You also wanna be in position to take roles that have leadership opportunities. You wanna be able to be seen as a leader of people. I've hired up to the EVP level, and at technical jobs, heads of research and development. If they don't tell me that they've had leadership experience, that they love people, I probably won't hire them. Because my observation is that it is, you're not gonna know everything. But leaders of people, people who understand that journey are unafraid to be humble enough to ask questions, to understand that they don't understand everything, and that's okay. That's how you build your competence, that's how you empower other people. So I say, go on your leadership journey, understand it's a journey, and it is not an absolute, this is it. The other couple things that I always speak about is that careers are built on developing your network. They're built on developing your network. The reason I had other opportunities, multiple opportunities is because I had worked with people in my career, and I've worked with a number of them multiple times. Multiple times. And what happens is somebody may call and say, hey Beth, are you interested in this job? And I'll say, it's not right for me, but I was working with Sally. Sally's great, you should talk to Sally. Or, hey, I don't know her, but I just met her, or him, and you should talk to him. He seemed really smart and sharp. And when you do that, you facilitate career growth for everybody. You develop a network. You are seen as someone who is engaging and helping others in their career. Careers are not zero some games. Beth got the job, so I don't get to get the job. That's not real life. Although there will be competitions, sometimes that you have in your mind that are set up that it's you or somebody else. And there are a lot of jobs and a lot of opportunities if you decide to step forward and engage. Being intellectually curious, engaging, supporting others' career journeys, that's what you need to do to develop an effective and successful career journey. So I really encourage you to understand that it is about building those relationships that will stay with you your entire career, your entire life. They will be friendships, they will be partnerships. The other thing I talk a lot about is don't be a jerk. Now it is amazing how many times I have to say that. But we all know it. And I bet you see this in college. You have those projects, you're working with other folks on the team, sometimes they're assigned and you're like, oh, really? That guy's on my team? Who's been through that? I have. And why? Because you can't rely on them because they're not doing their work, because they're skating along, or they're not nice to work with. Don't be that guy or gal. You would be surprised how simple that advice is, yet how it's not followed. And I say this because that is about building a network. You wanna build your reputation as someone people want to work with, who has a passion for what they do, who isn't all about themselves, who is about working to enable the business and working to enable others. Go on the journey, allow yourself to fail. You will fail a lot. I certainly did. And that is part of life. And you pick yourself up and you move on. You learn the lesson, you accept the responsibility, you move on. You know, I love coming to universities here where people like you four who are ready to graduate, you're ready to step into the world, to step into your career journey. I hope what you don't do is decide you have a failure. You know, I wanna mention that, especially for the women in the room, there's been analysis that shows that when you've come out of college, there was an analysis performed by McKinsey actually, who said they did a study of young men and young women who came into the workforce, same time. And they were talking about who of you wants to make it to the senior most levels, achieve senior most levels of companies. And it was about the same. Men and women, 30, 40%, both sides wanted to achieve that. And then they went back and they interviewed those same folks two years later. And for the women that had fallen to mid teens and for the men that had stayed the same. Now why was that? And what they said was, we didn't have a role model or it didn't feel very good, I had a failure and maybe I'm not smart enough, maybe I'm not good enough, promise you you are. And I promise you, you won't get everything right. And that's okay. You need to allow yourself to have that learning and then move forward. Don't burden yourself like it's an anchor around your neck because you will all learn and you'll go forward. The people who come here to NSU are smart people. It's competitive. You didn't just get in here just cause folks were nice and wanted to let you in, right? So you've had a great career here and I would suggest strongly you remember that when you step into what is next in your career journey which will include things that feel uncomfortable and uncertain and that is part of life and that is the excitement of it, all of it. All of the mess of it. You'll figure it out, I promise. So I wanted to make sure I said that before I step into now agriculture and the way we're thinking of the disruption in the sector and why I think the co-op model is advantaged at this time. So it is an exciting time in agriculture. There are a few of you who heard me have some of these comments at NGFA more recently. So I took over the role of CEO in August, August 1. And from that time I did the things that you would expect that I would do. I assessed where the business is sitting, what the operating environment is. I looked and named the team, the senior team. I've been spending a lot of time with members. I was in DC, it was farm bill negotiation time. I was with major customers, Walmart, Amazon, other customers. So those are the things that you would expect that I'd be doing, spending a lot of time as much as I could with my team and with the members. From that I was able to shape an idea of what the operating environment looks like and what our path forward looks like at Land O'Lakes. This slide, I spend a little of the time on it. We talk about difficulty and disruption in the sector. And about trade issues. We've had a strong US dollar. I always think, geez, they're planting in the real and they're selling in the US dollar. And so we have a disadvantage by definition. You see consolidation occurring. And you're seeing it up and down the sector. You see it at the, you see animals moving. You see acres shifting at the same time. You know, you've got the Byron Monsanto, Sinjentis, ChemChina. There's consolidation occurring. It's a bumpy environment. You've got negotiations that were going on for the farm bill and the policy issues. But there are a couple of other key points that I don't think that we point to that are impacting the sector that will have a longer term impact for the sector that demand innovation. And that is retail disruption pushing back all the way to the farmer. So when I think about retail disruption, I think about when Amazon bought Whole Foods in grocery, in groceries, the skinny margin business. And then you think of all the new innovations that are occurring in that area, whether it's click and carry, it's, you know, you're ordering online, you know, whatever those are. You think about those businesses that have position in market with stores. They have to get turns in those stores. So what are they doing? They're doing what all businesses do. They go back and they step back through the value chain and they're trying to capture profit pools or they're trying to control that continuum. Some of them are putting on their own process and capacity. Some of them are putting on their own animals, right? They're going to do that because they have to control that variation or the variances in their business and they want to get connection right to the consumer. That's why I think Land O'Lakes is uniquely positioned in the federated model, the co-op model is uniquely positioned because of another dynamic that we see occurring. And that is who is winning in retail and who's losing in retail? If I use a simple example in my life, it would be Sears and JC Petty's, right? Growing up, it was Sears or if it was high dollar time, mom would take us to Jacques Penet, to Jason, right? That was good stuff. I got a really nice jeans pants suit. That's another story. So, but they're not as relevant anymore. Why is that? They had position, they had scale. What didn't they have? They were disrupted by other players who had e-business, who had access to different consumers, who had a differentiated offer. I can tell you, as I said, I can buy my kids white t-shirts anywhere. I don't need to go to Sears or JC Petty's and I can do that online. So, if it's not a differentiated offer, nobody's gonna come to the store. Say that at grocery, I'd say that at retail in clothing, the example I'm using. Now, who is winning in retail? And it's a lesson we should all understand in agriculture. Best Buy is winning. Now, their market fell 75% when they were disrupted, when Amazon started selling TV sets online and things like that. But now they've bounced back up. And why is that? They have a differentiated offer, including a services platform. They don't make money on the TV. They make money on the market basket, on the services they wrap around and connect to the consumers with. You pay them like $200 or $300, they'll come to your home and they'll diagnose even things that they didn't sell to you. But what they're doing is they're building a connection. And I think it's so central for us to think through this in rural America, in co-ops and in locals. We talk a lot about this at Land of Lakes. In fact, I've shifted the capital plan very aggressively to make sure we have our own e-business platform, but it's a differentiated business platform. And I would say it's not an e-commerce platform. E-commerce platform is a transaction system. It's where you place your order and where you shift your order, right? And we've all been trained by Amazon. We're gonna hit the button, the box is gonna show up. We expect all of that. An e-business platform has differentiated services. Customer segmentation, different product and pricing segmentation. It's an omnichannel play. We need to think about this because the other side of that equation, if it's just an e-commerce system and it's not differentiated, it is a race to the bottom. It's a price gain, right? Because there's price transparency in the marketplace. And if you cannot have a differentiated offer, then it just becomes a Nicholson-Dymes game. It's a race to the bottom. But the reality is that local retailers in our co-op, in our federated modern and in our co-op structure have the high ground. I believe that because they have last mile delivery, because they've been offering services and because consumers want omnichannel capability, they wanna be able sometimes to buy it online. They wanna sometimes go to the location. Sometimes they're buying through somebody else. When you offer that in a full view to a consumer or to a grower, you have an advantage. As long as you're putting in that technology, that efficiency, that differentiated insight in partnership with that. So the reason we shifted the capital plan pretty aggressively is to make sure we were in position with the innovation and the insights, the data, the analytics, the differentiated insight that we could provide to a grower who will help them in season make an improved and informed decision to optimize their output. Plus we have last mile delivery. It is differentiated. I was at Amazon's headquarters and I was talking to them about their Amazon Fresh platform and I was asking where they were having success. And they said, of course, in suburban and urban America, they've got those little bots now, these little things that go up to the sidewalk, right? That's gonna be our new thing. Those things are just gonna be driving down the sidewalk. I said, well, where aren't you winning? They said, we're all America. I said, why? And they said, because we don't have last mile delivery. We don't have concentration of customers. We don't have other things that we're gonna talk about, broadband access. Things that are absolutely crucial to their business model. And I said, well, great news. We happen to have a federated amount. We happen to have a retail network in rural America and we'd be happy to partner with you. We have to think of those things differently, the advantages that we have, but also the investments we need to make. So I spend a lot of time on this particular site and when I bounce through the rest of them, but because it's so central for everybody to think through what is really disrupting the sector, what will stay with us. Because we're gonna resolve the trade issues. We're gonna resolve the strength of the dollar. We're gonna resolve the tariff issues. Life is a cycle, you're gonna see the cycle. All of that is true, but there are other disruptions, other players coming into the sector and other second and tertiary third level impacts of consolidation and disruption in the retail sector that will hold over or hang over agriculture for a while. So the fact that they're putting on their own animals, their own processing plants and things like that, those are things that we need to pay attention to. So I always say this, this is a bumpy environment. Disruption is our opportunity. I love it. I love environments like this. I can't get enough of them. Innovation is our advantage. Farmers, there's no bigger entrepreneur in my mind than the farmer. They figure it out. It's too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry. They figure it out. You got tariff issues, they figure it out. They are entrepreneurs. That is the very heritage of Land O'Lakes. Innovation is our advantage. And the reason I'm excited about it is my observation about disrupted environments, it demands, it requires the fearless implementation of innovation. It has to have a culture of innovation. I love Land O'Lakes because it's a marketplace back insight to innovation company. Meaning I'm not going to just drop a facility in the middle of wherever because I happen to have some really good growers or producers. Because I may not have a marketplace idea that I can monetize that then goes back in the pocket of that producer. So that's not enough. We have to have an insight and innovation. These days you can't even get a meeting at Walmart or Kroger or other places if you don't have an insight. And it's not enough to say, hey, I've got cinnamon butter. That's not going to work. That's not innovation. They want to understand what the consumer thinks and what product development can occur in partnership with them. So innovation is our advantage if we choose to be fearless and implement and get on the playing field. I think the sector is ripe for opportunity. And I can't wait to see the level of innovation that's occurring. A lot of the innovation across ag is happening in technology. And so I think a lot about conversations I have where people don't think that agriculture is tech forward and I would disagree wholeheartedly. We've got drones. We've got satellite technology. We've got big data. We're using machine learning, AI. You've got all sorts of innovations. One of the things that I love to talk about is our HoloLens glasses where we had a producer look at it and say, oh my gosh, I can fly a drone in the back of my property with these HoloLens glasses. And then I can see, and I won't have to hire somebody to walk the fields. And that's important because we can't get enough labor here. So think about that, these HoloLens glasses. I always think, Jesus, are my kids using that for Xbox. And he's got this brilliant way that he can leverage these things in agriculture. What other kinds of innovations? Predictive models, data and analytics. All of those will help the grower, help the producer be more productive, grow more with less. Less land, less water. And so it's an exciting time. Data and analytics, innovation across ag, it's huge. How else are we thinking about it? Well, sustainability is a critical issue. It's a critical issue. And it's a right to operate issue in agriculture. It's an increasing message that consumers and the legislators and regulators and everybody are expecting, expecting sustainable production. We're excited by that. A few years ago, we started our sustained division. More recently, we launched our True Terra platform. That platform has a trillion data points. It leverages a trillion data points to calculate and really affirm, confirm for a grower what is a more sustainable methodology for production on the acre. So should you start variable rate of application of fertilizer, should you use stabilizers, should you use no-till? I mean, what are the results of that? And does it improve your profitability while at the same time improving your sustainability? It provides a score. And the reason I'm so passionate about this topic, because I do see this as a right to operate issue, because this is what consumers demand and expect. The other reason I'm so passionate about it, and I say this, is that we have to lay the playing field. Do you know what the best opportunity for success is if you're defining what true sustainable production looks like? If we do not, other people who do not know agriculture will come in and define it for us. And we will have to be responsive. And it may not be based in any kind of facts or understanding of agriculture. And that is a problem. It's a significant problem. We almost lost some technologies to the use of GMOs, for instance, which was viewed as something that wasn't stable. Actually, it is more sustainable. It wasn't based in science or fact. And so we have a real passion. I certainly have a passion as the team this investment that we've been making on TrueTerra and on sustainability and sustainable production is because this is a right to operate issue, we must lay the playing field. We get all sorts of requests at our headquarters because we're an ingredient source or two. Please fill out this sheet and let us know for these 15 variables, how you're marking versus what we believe the grades should be for these variables for sustainable production. It's about laying down the playing field for what true sustainable production looks like. And by the way, I think all of us are realists. I'm a pragmatist. It's a journey. It's not going to be that tomorrow everybody is where they should be or want to be even. It will be about where are you and then what are the continued improvements and investments you're making to drive sustainable production. What else? So in addition to these things that we're focused on, one of the things that I've been talking a lot about more recently is dealing with this rural urban divide. And we see it especially through the lens of the digital divide. So here I've been talking about this excitement of all this innovation. But there are some pretty startling statistics out there about the lack of broadband access, for instance, in rural America. There are 200 counties in America that lack broadband access. Where do we think those are primarily rural America? Suburban and urban population are online doing their work 90% to 95% of their work in a day. In rural America it's 58%. It's an opportunity issue. Many of the innovations can't be taken advantage of by growers because they don't have access. One of the things that I was focused on right up front when I took the job I had my team go out to Comcast and others and say, give me a map of where we lack broadband access and areas of operation. And they came back and they said, well, give us the zip code. And I said, no, give us the map. And then they said, no, give us the zip code. And I say, what's the problem? They say, it's not so easy. And I said, why isn't that so easy? And they said, because in some areas, in some counties, they may have a 7-Eleven or something and 7-Eleven paid to put a line in. And they have broadband in that area. So on the map it would show as though they had broadband access, but outside that they do not. Or a school might have it. But if you're in a town and you don't have broadband access, when the child leaves school, they cannot complete their homework. They don't have broadband access. This is a major problem. Do you know in rural communities, a student is 10 to 13% less likely to graduate from college or to go to college. And it's causing other issues. The opioid crisis, three out of four farmers or farm workers have been directly impacted by the opioid crisis. Three out of four. It's a stunning number. We can't take advantage of investment in rural America if we don't have the basics of broadband access. It's a major, major area of focus. Certainly I was with Secretary Perdue or with different governors and we're talking about this investment. And it's great to talk about it, but we actually have to do something about it. There are times, you know, a more directed example for Land of Lakes when I've been out in the country and we've seen some producers struggling. And so I said, we've got a lot of gig work, project work, that, hey, it's a mom. She has two or three kids. She's, you know, they've got a new farm. Why don't we see if there's some project work she could do while she's there? You know, while the kids would go to bed. Because it's work we're going to do anyway. And she's the expert. Why do you think she couldn't take advantage of that? Maybe them cannot. They don't have broadband access. They don't have access to do the work. So it is not just a narrative of an urban rural divide. It is about opportunity. And it's about the health of communities. The reason I'm so passionate about it and we're so passionate about it at Land of Lakes, this is where our, these are where our members are. Their families are. These communities are important to the strength of the business for the long term. We must address these issues to make sure that rural America is strengthened so that we can continue on with the important work that we do in agriculture. Let me give you some examples because we went out to get, to do a survey. Counties with better connectivity tend to have higher yields. So there's just a direct implication for agriculture. Urban and suburban Americans have better access to good jobs, doctors and hospitals, the arts and culture because they have access. Now, I don't know if this is a positive or a negative or it just bridges the divide. Economic uncertainty is shared American experience. It is not just resident in rural America. This is a shared experience and it's a concern. But Americans also share a sense of optimism about the future, which is terrific. I can see folks when they're struggling, yet they're still optimistic. They still see the other side and that's the terrific news. They're asking me what's the bright light so that we know we can, we know that next week is gonna be a little bit better. Here's some other good news. Americans believe that agriculture and food industry are an essential part of the economy. Everybody's a foodie now. Have you seen this? This is terrific. They see it as critically important. The work that is being done in rural America and agriculture is critically important and everybody wants to be part of understanding what's actually happening. It's also viewed that agriculture is, and the food industry is helping to address climate change issues. Now, sometimes there's a narrative that it's not. That's not actually true. It's not what consumers think. We're looking to bring people together. One thing we did at the annual meeting, so we had a number of our members in, we had a consumer panel. I see you smile about that one, because that was terrific. What I said to the members is we're gonna get really uncomfortable now because we've gotta just stop having agriculture talk to agriculture. People on the side, that's not gonna move the needle. You have to hear what consumers really think. So literally we had five people taking off the street. One guy looked like Kramer, didn't he? Oh, I mean he really did. Crazy hair, he kept tying his shoe. I didn't know what was happening there. It was awesome. You know why? Because their understanding of food, how they make their decisions, what they think is healthy, what they think is productive, more sustainable. It was really quite steady. And at the end, the members are like, oh my gosh, we have so much work to do. We have so much work to do. They don't understand. That's just not right. That's right. And so one of the things we said is the same thing I would say. We must engage. It's not enough just to say, oh I'm out there and I'm talking to this person, me. Everybody, we actually offer training for our members on social media because that's where people live and are getting their information. So we have to have an engaged member and an engaged family who wanna talk about what really goes on. Ask a farmer, nobody is more trusted than the farmer. Our research shows that. In fact, in our packaging, in our butter box, are Indian Maiden, which I think is an iconic brand issue. Actually, most people don't see the Indian Maiden. It's really fascinating to me. Instead, people buy butter, they walk down and they see the color pattern. They don't really see that. What they did see is when we changed the packaging and it says farmer owned and we have some of our members on it, the purchase intent went up dramatically. They didn't know they were farmer owned. Really? You are? Why is that important? Because people make decisions now about what they eat and what they buy based on the values assessment, not just on price, product, whatever. They decide who you are, who I am, who the company is. And if there's a disconnect between the product and what we're messaging and the company, the labor practices, who we are, that's a problem. So farmer owned, nobody's more trusted than the farmer. They're questions about farm practices, but nobody's more trusted than the farmer. And so this is absolutely critical. So true to our nature, we're trying to bring people together and that's gotta be on both sides of the equation. We have to make ourselves uncomfortable. We have to listen to what consumers are saying. It is not gonna be good enough for us just to have folks in agriculture talk to other folks in agriculture. It will not move the needle. So one of the things we're trying to do is show up in places that people don't expect us. We were just in South by Southwest. That's where Kim got hurt on her scooter. So she's got a little thing. We were at South by Southwest where you have a number of people from any different industry there, learning, trying to learn. We had an activation that included folks from the Mayo Clinic, so nutrition as health. We had researchers, scientists. We had chefs, we had farmers. Different experiences, so it was an interactive session, but it was also one where we could have different speakers. We were trying to share some information that people didn't understand. Do you know there are 30,000 edible plant varieties in the world and we only plant 150? Do you know that since 1900, 75% of biodiversity has been destroyed on the earth? These are really important big issues. We need every smart person at the table. We have to engage, and by the way, that doesn't mean we're all gonna agree. That cannot be what we think success looks like. It has to be how are we gonna all come together to work on this critical issue of food production for the soon to be nine and a half to 10 billion people by 2050? Another couple billion food production will have to almost double in that time. Less land, less available water. This is a critical issue. It is why I have such passion for this industry and for this structure. Why I admire the farmers so much. But we all have to work together to address these issues in rural America. It impacts healthcare, education, strength of the rural communities. There's hollowing out that there's some maternity deserts. Half of the counties don't have maternity care. It's unacceptable. It not only impacts profitability. It impacts quality of life. It's why we can't get more people to stay in rural America to continue to strengthen their communities. There has to be opportunity. And we all need to work together to make sure that it's there. Now, I am an optimist, and not just a boy I'm an optimist. As I said, I love the messiness of it. The opportunity is so significant. And my belief is farmers have always been entrepreneurs. The very heritage of Land of the Lakes is built on a culture of innovation, of entrepreneurship, of partnership, of working to solve issues. We have to get in touch with the consumer. There's no greater opportunity than solving one of these grand challenges of feeding a growing world population. It's why I think this business is so important. Why the work we do at Land of the Lakes is so critically important. I'm excited about it. Why the co-op structure from farmer to table. We see the whole continuum. It's the greatest privilege of my 33 year career to be working in agriculture on behalf of our members. Thank you so much. Thank you.