TRANSCRIPT – The rise of sustainable soybeans: One farmer’s vision to reshape New York agriculture
Moira Vaughan: Not every kid knows what job they want to do when they grow up.
Todd Dumond: I think at ten years old, I was driving trucks into the city of Auburn and delivering grains.
Moira Vaughan: But even three years before that, Todd Dumond already had his mind set on farming.
Todd Dumond: It’s been my lifetime. I lived on the farm as I was a kid and then, a few years after school, I came back and made it my career.
Vaughan: The Dumond family bought a couple of acres in New York in the eighties.
Dumond: My dad was a dentist, my mom was a teacher, so it was a hobby.
Vaughan: Todd turned that family hobby into his full-time career, becoming the co-owner of Dumond Farms in 2003. Since then, he’s expanded the original 125-acre farm to a 6,000-acre business in Cayuga County.
Dumond: Back there is the tallest bin east of the Mississippi.
Vaughan: Under Todd’s direction, the business grew from crop farming and selling the harvest
Dumond: Processor there, that’s one of the feeds we make.
Vaughan: To also roasting, processing, and trucking soybeans all on-farm property. The soybean roasting process creates high-quality feed for livestock and biofuel for electricity across the northeast in an eco-friendly way.
Dumond: That’s what drives me. You know, providing sustainability for the world.
Vaughan: Now, Todd tells me that workers here they can produce up to 1.5 million pounds of these guys a day. Now, in the month of October alone, that’s about 325 million pounds.
Dumond: I can truly say we’ve raised the value of every soybean in the state, and provided a better, cheaper feed alternative.
Jack Klapper: The cows behind me are eating a lot of soy products, soybean meal in particular.
Vaughan: The soybean feed is protein-packed and a healthier alternative for dairy farmers like Jack Klapper, who has to feed his family’s 4,000 cows. The soybean feed market has become a strong revenue source for Dumond Farms – especially as international agriculture markets face uncertainties
Dumond: Before we built this, most of the New York Beans were exported. Loaded in containers and sent to China.
Vaughan: An effect of the Trump administration’s tariffs is a strain on soybean exports from the U.S. to China. The administration says the tariffs are a part of a bigger plan to put pressure on China
Dumond: It is very difficult right now for an American farmer to pencil a profit in corn or soybeans or even wheat.
Vaughan: Agriculture merchandisers like Jon Weatherstone, who works at Dumond Farms, say tariffs and price changes are something farmers are familiar with.
Jon Weatherstone: Farmers are always dealing with price fluctuations in the market.
Vaughan: China’s halting of U.S. soybean imports and turning to cheaper soybean alternatives in Argentina and Brazil is a loss in income, with China being one of America’s biggest soybean buyers.
Weatherstone: If you take China and then you add up the next ten biggest importers of soybeans, they still don’t add up to what China imports.
Vaughan: So, how do the recent tariffs really affect American farmers like Todd?
Dumond: So our inputs are going up and the value of what we produce is going down.
Vaughan: Dumond adds that fertilizer becomes more expensive to import and with fewer international buyers, there’s a lot of soybeans in the states with nowhere to be sold to, so no profit to be made.
Klapper: The majority of farmers voted for President Trump. He keeps telling us that things are shaking out. You know, he’s going to help us, so we’re hopeful for that.
Vaughan: The Trump administration says they still plan to assist American farmers affected by global tariffs by giving $12 billion now that the government shutdown is over
Dumond: Any farmer would first and far more prefer a market.
Vaughan: Todd’s opinion — a big paycheck might not be the best answer for farmers long term.
Dumond: It is the wrong solution to the problem.
Vaughan: You might think the bad tariffs, fewer markets, and a poor planting season would outweigh what the good farmers see. But —it’s the opposite.
Dumond: Farmers are eternal optimists – you could never be a farmer if you weren’t positive, you wouldn’t survive.
Vaughan: That positive outlook on farming and agriculture is rooted in every soybean planted in.
for NCC News, Moira Vaughan
AUBURN, N.Y. (NCC News) —Todd Dumond always knew his life would lead him back to farming.
His parents, a teacher and a dentist, originally opened a cattle beef farm in the Adirondacks. A couple of years later, the two realized the soil in Cayuga County would be a stronger revenue source to harvest wheat for their company, Dumond Farms.
“I think at ten years old, I was driving trucks into the city of Auburn and delivering grains,” said Todd Dumond. “It’s been my lifetime – I lived on the farm as a kid. A few years after school, I came back and made it my career.”
After graduating from MIT with a master’s degree in engineering, Todd became the co-owner of Dumond Farms with his parents, Eric and Marge Dumond, in 2003. He turned his parents’ 600-acre crop-farming business into a 6,000-acre harvesting, processing, and trucking company that produces corn and soybeans.
“It’s my passion project,” said Dumond. “The soybean feed market was something that I knew we could break into.”
The soybean roasting process rapidly changed the farm, with a heavy demand in New York State for high-quality soybean feed for livestock farmers, like Jack Klapper, whose family business owns 4,000 cows.
“The cows behind me are eating a lot of soy products, soybean meal in particular,” said Klapper, the owner of Noblehurst Farms. “It’s healthier.”
Todd’s idea to roast and process soybeans provided a cheaper option for New York farmers to buy feed, instead of having to pay shipping prices from Midwest businesses.
“I can truly say we’ve raised the value of every soybean in the state, and provided a better, cheaper feed alternative,” said Klapper.
Before soybean processing and transporting were a part of Dumond Farms and shipped to local New York farmers, most of the soybeans were shipped internationally.
“Before we built this, most of the New York beans were exported, loaded in containers, and sent to China,” said Dumond.
The Trump Administration’s tariffs continue to strain exports of soybeans from the U.S. to China, one of America’s biggest soybean buyers.
“It is very difficult right now for an American farmer to pencil a profit in corn or soybeans or even wheat,” said Dumond.
China’s halting of U.S. soybean imports and turning to cheaper alternatives from Argentina and Brazil is a huge loss in income to domestic farmers, according to agricultural price experts.
“If you take China and then you add up the next ten biggest importers of soybeans, they still don’t add up to what China imports,” said John Weatherstone, grain merchandiser at Dumond Farms. “American farmers need markets and businesses to sell to for profit; China was a huge one.”
The Trump Administration recently said they plan to send $12 billion to American farmers affected by the global tariffs, now that the government shutdown is over, as of mid-November. Todd says he believes that is the wrong solution to help farms suffering from the loss in international profit.
“Any farmer would first and far more prefer a market,” said Dumond. “We need a reliable market to sell our harvest.”
Regardless of funding stress, Dumond Farms has its eyes on tackling a separate goal – having a negative carbon footprint within 30 years.
“We have a real opportunity to impact our future, our kids’ future, the stability of our planet in agriculture as well,” said Dumond.
You might think the negatives – tariffs, fewer markets, and a poor planting season would outweigh the good farmers see. But it’s the opposite.
“Farmers are eternal optimists – you could never be a farmer if you weren’t positive, you wouldn’t survive,” says Dumond. “We are used to change, we are used to being flexible to weather the storms.”