Gary Black on Trust, Change & the Future of American Agriculture

Agriculture has never stood still.

In 1920, roughly a quarter of America’s feed grains went toward feeding horses. By 1954, there were more tractors than horses and mules on American farms. In the decades since, agriculture has moved through biotechnology, consolidation, changing markets, new production systems, and an increasingly disconnected consumer base.

For Gary Black, those changes offer an important lesson: agriculture has adapted before, and it will have to adapt again.

In this episode of The Whole Farm Podcast, Michael sits down with Gary, former Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture, a Georgia cattle producer, longtime agribusiness leader, and advisor to CHONEX, to talk about what farmers can learn from the past, and how they can prepare for what’s ahead.

The Rearview Mirror Matters. The Windshield Matters More.

Gary introduces a simple image that becomes the framework for the entire conversation: the rearview mirror and the windshield.

Both serve a purpose.

The rearview mirror gives us perspective. It shows us where we’ve been, what worked, what didn’t, and how previous generations responded to change.

But the windshield is bigger for a reason.

As Gary puts it, the lessons of the past should position us to move forward. Agriculture has already lived through enormous shifts in technology, farm structure, inputs, markets, and productivity. Today’s changes may feel different, but change itself is nothing new.

And throughout all of it, farmers have adapted.

Gary makes an important point about producers: farmers generally want to improve. Adoption may not always happen immediately, but agriculture learns, adjusts, and finds better ways to operate.

The question now is: What does adaptation look like this time?

The Decisions Facing Farmers Are Getting Bigger

Looking through the windshield, Gary sees farmers facing some fundamental business decisions.

Do you stay heavily invested in commodity production, where markets thousands of miles away can influence the economics of your farm?

Do you explore more local or direct markets?

Do you continue growing the size of an operation, or can you become more profitable by pulling back, controlling costs, and getting more from the acres and resources you already have?

Those aren’t simple questions, particularly in a challenging farm economy.

Gary encourages producers to intentionally monitor costs, think carefully about marketing, and evaluate whether their current approach is creating the future they actually want.

That same thinking connects directly to the growing interest in regenerative agriculture.

“Can we be more productive doing less?”

For a farmer looking at tired soils, rising inputs, or an operation that simply feels harder to sustain, Gary believes that question is worth asking.

It doesn’t mean changing everything overnight. It means being willing to examine fundamental practices and ask whether another path could improve productivity while creating something stronger for the next generation.

Farmers Can’t Stay Behind the Farm Gate

The future of agriculture isn’t determined exclusively in the field.

Over the course of Gary’s career, he has watched the number of elected officials with direct agricultural experience decline. That makes involvement from farmers and agricultural organizations even more important.

His message to growers is straightforward: going home and staying behind the farm gate isn’t enough.

Farmers need relationships with regulators, elected officials, commodity organizations, customers, and their communities. Agriculture needs people willing to explain how farming actually works and why certain decisions are made.

That becomes especially important as the distance between farmers and consumers grows.

Many Americans no longer have a farmer as a neighbor. They may rarely drive past a working farm. Their understanding of agriculture may instead come through a grocery store, a headline, or something they see online.

And that leads to one of Gary’s biggest concerns for agriculture today.

Agriculture Has a Trust Problem

When Gary became Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture in 2010, he was asked what his first priority would be.

His answer was one word:

Trust.

He needed to earn the trust of the people he led. They needed to earn his. And ultimately, he wanted to create an organization where people learned to trust one another.

Years later, he sees the same challenge across the food system.

Farmers, consumers, companies, regulators, and policymakers are navigating an environment full of competing claims and information. One incident can quickly be presented online as representative of an entire industry.

Gary argues that maintaining relationships and strengthening trust—with customers, neighbors, government leaders, and consumers—has become one of agriculture’s most important responsibilities.

But communicating agriculture’s story requires farmers to first understand their own.

Start With Why

Gary encourages every farmer to be able to answer a seemingly simple question:

Why do you do what you do?

That answer matters.

Whether someone farms conventionally or regeneratively, operates a small farm or thousands of acres, or sells locally or into global commodity markets, Gary argues that they share something fundamental:

They are producers of food and fiber.

Remembering who ultimately uses what leaves the farm can change the way producers think about their role—and the way they communicate it to others.

Knowing that “why” can also provide direction when farming gets difficult.

Gary doesn’t minimize the challenges producers are facing. He acknowledges that many farmers feel worn out and are trying to determine whether their current path still works.

His advice includes faith, tenacity, and a willingness to keep asking “what if?”

“Don’t lose the capacity to dream,” he tells listeners.

Applying the Same Questions on His Own Farm

Gary isn’t only talking about change conceptually.

At Harmony Grove Farms in Commerce, Georgia, he and his family are looking for opportunities to improve their own cattle operation.

That includes considering more intensive grazing management, increasing forage diversity, and addressing unusually high phosphorus levels created by years of poultry litter applications.

Rather than pretending to already have every answer, Gary starts with a question: How can we make what is already in the soil more usable?

That mindset reflects a larger theme of The Whole Farm Podcast.

Better farming often begins with better questions.

Testing, measuring, observing, and understanding what’s happening on the farm gives growers the information they need to decide what should remain the same—and what may need to change.

Three Questions for Your “Windshield Plan”

Near the end of the conversation, Gary offers a framework that any farmer can use.

Forget the complicated strategic plan that gets written, put on a shelf, and forgotten.

Instead, answer three questions:

1. What do I do well?

Identify the things that are working. Know the strengths of your operation and the practices you want to continue building around.

2. What do I need to improve?

Look honestly at the places where better management, better information, or a different approach could create progress.

3. What do I need to stop doing?

Gary believes this may be the most important—and the hardest—question.

Sometimes progress doesn’t come from adding another input, practice, acre, or task.

Sometimes it requires deciding what no longer belongs in the operation.

Answer those three questions honestly, Gary says, and you have the foundation for a “windshield plan.”

Looking Forward

Agriculture’s rearview mirror is filled with change.

Mechanization changed the farm. Technology changed it again. Companies consolidated. Markets expanded. Farms grew more productive. Consumers moved farther from the places where their food was produced.

And now another period of change is underway.

The answer isn’t to ignore everything agriculture has learned. It’s to use those lessons without allowing them to limit what comes next.

For farmers evaluating regenerative practices, managing rising costs, thinking about succession, or simply trying to make their operation stronger, Gary’s framework offers a useful place to begin:

• What are you doing well?
• What could you improve?
• And what might it finally be time to stop doing?

The rearview mirror can tell you a lot.

But eventually, you have to look through the windshield.

Listen to the full episode of The Whole Farm Podcast with Gary Black for the complete conversation on agriculture’s changing landscape, rebuilding trust, regenerative opportunities, and building a plan for what comes next.