Land O’Lakes CEO Beth Ford has long been an advocate for farmers and rural American communities. At the beginning of this year, her advocacy portfolio became even higher-stakes: Just as President Donald Trump took office, Ford took over from Apple CEO Tim Cook as chair of the Business Roundtable’s immigration committee.
While the Trump administration has enacted its immigration policy—including mass-scale deportations and questions of legality that have already reached the Supreme Court—Ford has been working to provide the business community’s perspective on long-term immigration questions.
The Business Roundtable supports Trump’s efforts to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, Ford told me last week. “That’s where the American public is,” she said of the issue. But the highly influential business interest group, whose members also include GM chief Mary Barra, Citi CEO Jane Fraser, and TIAA chief Thasunda Brown Duckett, is preparing to bring other perspectives in front of the Trump administration after it determines its efforts at the border are near-complete. That’s when the group will “be able to provide information from the business community to help them understand the needs of immigration flow in terms of workers that will help build the American economy.” “[We aim to] help them understand where there are potential gaps, whether it be in construction workers or agricultural workers,” Ford says.
Ford took over Land O’Lakes in 2018. Land O’Lakes is a Fortune 500 company, and is more than 100 years old, structured as a member-owned farmer cooperative. It’s ranked No. 245 on the Fortune 500 with $16.8 billion in revenues.
For the farmers and members who make up Land O’Lakes, immigration is a “primary issue,” Ford says. “If you’re a dairy farmer, that’s a 24/7, 365 business. And it’s very difficult, pumping the manure pits that are broken at 3 in the morning. It’s freezing out there. This is hard work,” she says. “They’ve got to have folks to fix the tractor. Many of them have had people working with them for 20 years who without them, you don’t have a business. You can’t do it without them. They’re grateful for folks who want to do that hard work that many are not willing to do…Some have mentioned to me, ‘I’m really nervous, Beth. I’ve got to have staffing. I’ve got to have labor.’”
Ford says the Trump administration has conveyed a willingness to “do something on farm workers.” Her government affairs team has spent the past several months getting to know the new administration—and, in some cases, waiting for those people to get confirmed or read up to speed on these issues, which range from industry-specific needs to visas and DACA. These discussions reach across the White House, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Homeland Security, and the Department of Commerce. (Meanwhile, Land O’Lakes is focused on the upcoming tax bill and the impact the expiration of the 199A benefit would have on farmers.)
Ford acknowledges that this work is complicated. “It’s going to be hard—yeah, it might be,” she says. “I sign up for that, because I think it’s so critically important to the economy, not just for agriculture, but for all these businesses.”
Source: Fortune.com/ Emma Hinchliffe
