Back
Jul 22, 2025
By Allison Jenkins
The week before the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission dropped its much-anticipated report on childhood chronic diseases, members of a newly formed seed oils coalition were already working the halls of Capitol Hill.
The coalition, including representatives of the American Soybean Association, conducted some 50 meetings with legislators and administration officials to send a consistent, clear message: Soy and other oilseed crops are essential, science-backed components of America’s food and fuel systems— and omitting agricultural voices from national dietary guidance conversations is more than an oversight. It’s a risk.
“We were flooding the zone,” says Devin Mogler, CEO of the National Oilseed Processors Association. “We gave lawmakers a heads-up on what was likely coming—and emphasized that ag stakeholders had been completely left out of the process. It was valuable for them to hear from ASA, processors and everyone in the supply chain before the report was released.”
When MAHA’s assessment came out on May 22, the groundwork had been laid. Key decision-makers were already primed to view its findings with a critical eye, thanks to the coalition’s coordinated push, Mogler says.
“It’s been great to collaborate across the industry with these other trade associations to help amplify our voice,” he says. “It ensures we’re all singing from the same song sheet.”
For ASA, the seed oils issue is a prime example of why such partnerships matter, whether they are ad hoc, provisional groups formed to target hot-button topics or more long-established organizations that address perennial concerns like transportation and trade. Regardless of the organization’s structure, working together is critical in an advocacy landscape that demands speed, credibility and scale, says Carson Fort, ASA manager of government affairs.
“When we work with our partners, we’re presenting a unified voice for agriculture and, specifically, the soy supply chain,” Fort says. “Whether we’re talking to members of Congress, their staff or agency officials, if several organizations share a message, it’s significantly more impactful than if it’s just ASA or the soybean industry alone.”
The Illinois Soybean Association hosted the 2024 Producer and Industry Information Exchange (PIIE) program, sponsored by USB and NOPA. Grower leaders and staff from both ASA and USB attended the event, titled, “Illinois Water: A Confluence of Interests.”
In deciding which coalitions to join or support, Fort says ASA is guided by its mission—to advocate for soybean farmers on policy and trade.
“When we are approached by partners or choosing partners, we’re really looking for people who can support that mission,” Fort says. “It may be specific to soybeans, such as the oilseed processor folks, or conservation groups who may not necessarily advocate specifically for farmers, but their work ultimately will support our growers. It’s about finding those points of similarity.”
Indeed, ASA’s long list of coalition partners spans the spectrum of soy interests. Some are hyper-focused, such as Ag Data Transparent, which tackles issues of data collection and ownership among farmers and ag tech companies, or the Ag Bioeconomy Coalition, which advocates for policy concerning biobased fuel, materials and consumer goods.
Similarly, the National Coalition for Food and Ag Research has a specific purpose—in this case, to advocate for increased federal investment in USDA research, education and economics. Another example is the Coalition to Promote U.S. Agricultural Exports, which successfully pushed for a doubling of funding for USDA’s Market Access Program and Foreign Market Development program in the 2024 House farm bill draft. While that bill hasn’t passed, the inclusion reflects the coalition’s advocacy, says Virginia Houston, ASA director of government affairs.
ASA Policy Manager Joe Prosser speaks at the Ag Bioeconomy Coalition Hill briefing in 2024.
“We are very well aware that in D.C. there are a lot of competing interests and a lot of different voices,” Houston says. “When we can speak together with a louder voice…that goes further than speaking on our own.”
ASA also prioritizes involvement in organizations that work on legislative and infrastructure issues impacting soybean movement. Such groups include the Ag Transportation Working Group, Waterways Council Inc., Soy Transportation Coalition and BNSF Ag Rail Business Council. Likewise, crop protection regulations are crucial to soy growers, so involvement with groups such as the Pesticide Policy Coalition and Modern Ag Alliance are critical to ASA’s advocacy efforts, especially with Endangered Species Act compliance and glyphosate litigation currently at the forefront of legislation.
One of the most active, if informal, coalitions ASA is involved with is the Ag CEO Council, which brings together leadership from commodity groups, farm organizations and agricultural input sectors.
“We meet every two weeks by phone and in person a few times a year,” said ASA CEO Stephen Censky. “We share updates, compare notes and coordinate efforts. It’s an effective way to bring together the collective forces of production agriculture to develop strategies and plans of action.”
Last fall, the Council helped organize a fly-in that successfully pushed for the inclusion of economic assistance for agriculture in the federal year-end spending bill. ASA’s influence was magnified by its collaboration with other commodity groups and agricultural lenders, delivering a message lawmakers couldn’t ignore.
“Members of Congress as well as the administration recognize the group for what it is— that it does represent production agriculture in the United States,” Censky says. “So, when we take a position on an issue, it really does carry some weight.”
These shared messages are most powerful when they include grower voices. During the seed oils push on Capitol Hill, ASA President Caleb Ragland, a soybean farmer from Kentucky, took part in the meetings, which Mogler says gave the effort extra credence.
“As industry representatives, our voices only go so far,” Mogler says. “But when farmers speak—especially to this administration—they get heard.”
Hearing directly from producers is particularly important in an industry like agriculture, which represents a small percentage of the population, Censky says. That means people making the policy are typically far removed from the farm.
“We can bring perspectives from the soybean farmer’s standpoint that perhaps others didn’t think of or might not be aware of,” he says. “For example, we can emphasize the impacts that tariffs and trade barriers can have on a crop in which 50% is exported. The implications not only affect the soybean farmers but the entire ag economy.”
Sometimes, ASA’s allies may seem like strange bedfellows. While ASA has traditionally partnered with Clean Fuels Alliance America, NOPA and other such groups in defending the Renewable Fuel Standard, they also invited “big oil” to the table, Mogler says.
“We were really successful earlier this year in building a coalition not only of agriculture and biofuel’s interests but also across the liquid fuel spectrum,” he says. “We brought in the American Petroleum Institute and went into EPA together to ask for the same volumes in the RFS. Having that kind of unity among agriculture and oil is absolutely unheard of. The reporting about that meeting actually moved soybean markets higher. It sent a signal that the RFS numbers were going to be stronger with all of the industry aligned.”
Advocacy tactics are as varied as the groups in which ASA is involved: conducting in-person meetings, hosting virtual roundtables, writing letters to elected officials, commenting on proposed legislation, collaborating on research, commissioning reports and many other actions. For example, every incoming presidential administration and Congress get a policy briefing prepared by the Ag CEO Council outlining the top issues for U.S. agriculture, Censky says.
“We share these transition documents with both parties, and it’s been an effective way to shape early conversations,” he explains. “We’ve also been active on a whole range of issues, whether it’s tariffs, the farm bill, sustainable ag supply chains, global and domestic food security—providing perspectives from U.S. agriculture on whatever is going to be topical.”
Alexa Combelic, ASA executive director of government affairs, points out that these partnerships are a symbiotic relationship, not only lending ASA’s farmer-centric voice to the collective efforts but also expanding access to the resources and knowledge that each coalition offers.
Indiana soybean growers and ASA directors Phil Ramsey and Mike Koehne participated in the Soy Transportation Coalition’s summer 2024 meeting in the Pacific Northwest, which focused on the importance of waterways and export infrastructure for exporting soybeans in the region.
“Every association has its own experts who spend all their time focusing on a particular issue area, whereas at ASA, we are covering a number of different policy priorities that impact our farmers,” Combelic says. “We’re able to tap into those groups for member education and to help make determinations on legislation that we should support or oppose. They serve as a sounding board and as technical experts we can rely on to provide us with information that we may not have readily available otherwise.”
Involvement in these coalitions allows ASA to get more done, multiplying its reach, sharpening its message and strengthening its impact. Partnering with like-minded organizations gives ASA more boots on the ground, creating platforms for proactive engagement and ensuring that when national conversations happen, soybean growers have a seat at the table. In a world where every issue is interconnected—from nutrition and technology to climate strategy and global trade—stronger together isn’t just a slogan. For ASA, it’s the way forward.
“You can get a lot more accomplished when you have a bigger group of stakeholders working toward the same goal,” Houston says. “Yes, there are issues unique to soybeans. But many of our issues impact all of agriculture. Whether we’re working with livestock groups to support animal health or row-crop allies on trade, we look for shared priorities. There are a lot more things that unite us than divide us.”
