The Wall Street Journal convened an insightful event yesterday focused on the future of food and agriculture with their annual Global Food Forum. I appreciated the opportunity to share the viewpoints from our organization around the present state of the industry and how we’re working through a complicated and challenging environment that also holds so much promise.

The last question asked during our session was “what’s keeping you up at night?” and I outlined three things that are always top-of-mind for me -- and in turn, for Land O’Lakes, Inc.:

People and safety. Nothing more important; people issues will always be the first and most immediate thing. This includes our employees across the country and across the globe – and our member-owners, farmers, and producers.

Are we moving with speed? Are we innovating and driving insight? It’s a fast-moving marketplace. We must be fearless about innovation but know when to move on when something is not successful.

Enabling the farmer and the dairy producer. I can’t underscore this enough. Ensuring our farm-to-fork organization understands all the variables all the way back to the farm operation to assure profitability for the long-term. The Land O’Lakes, Inc. team has their full attention on this. The most meaningful work of my career is doing everything I can to enable these farmers and growers.

Thanks, Aaron Back, for a great conversation and to executive editor Matt Murray, for convening another great forum.