0:05

Welcome back to Coffee with Cojo. This is your host, Anna, again.

0:09

And today we have Jillian Wheeler with us. Could you give us a brief self introduction?

0:15

Hi, Anna. Yes, happy to. So I am a 1986 graduate of SDSU.

0:20

I majored in journalism news editorial sequence, and I am originally from a family farm in northwest Iowa.

0:28

Ironically, I couldn't wait to leave the farm because I didn't want to be a farmer.

0:33

But I realized later on that agriculture actually has a lot of different career opportunities that don't involve directly operating a farm.

0:41

And that's where I landed. So I have been working in agriculture in some form or another basically since graduation.

0:47

And I live in the Minneapolis metro area and live with my husband, an overly social cat and a not very bright but very lovable dog.

0:57

I love the description of your pets. Well, they kind of run the household, so you have to bring them into the conversation.

1:03

So what originally led you to come to SDSU? Well, the easy answer is that my brother attended SDSU studying mechanical engineering,

1:11

so I became familiar with the campus visiting him, and I kind of liked it.

1:15

And then it was one of the universities that I applied to as a senior,

1:20

and I ended up receiving a Briggs scholarship, for which I remain eternally grateful.

1:24

So that really sealed the deal. It it made a four year degree very affordable for my family.

1:31

And you mentioned that you knew you didn't want to go back to the farm.

1:34

And what led you to choose journalism and communication?

1:38

Oh, that's such a great question and it's so relevant for everybody.

1:41

I was a hard decision, but where I landed is the nice thing about journalism is it gives you skills to learn about any number of things.

1:52

And because I had a lot of different interests and a lot of different things and I literally couldn't land on any one thing,

1:59

I decided to go for a career that allowed me to explore a lot of different things, and that seems to be exactly as it has worked out.

2:08

And I remain grateful for SDSU for teaching me some of those kind of foundational skills that really are applicable in many different areas.

2:17

But I would say journalism was a perfect career choice for someone who loves to learn and is intensely curious.

2:25

And my husband and I joke that I refer to him as my lab rat because I'm just always asking questions and always curious about things.

2:32

And journalism is a perfect match for that. Have there been any questions that you've asked that you've been surprised by the answer?

2:38

I think yes is the answer. And it's interesting because it's very applicable to the work that I'm in now in

2:46

sustainability is we we always have assumptions about why people do what they do.

2:52

And increasingly, especially through the lens of behavioral science,

2:55

we are realizing that sometimes the reasons people do what they do may not be logical,

3:02

but in their mind there actually is a very valid but perhaps very different reason for it.

3:09

So if you asked me what is a strange question, frequently the initial answer may seem like, Wow, that really surprised me.

3:16

I'll give you an example of the world that I work in right now in sustainable agriculture.

3:21

One of the management practices that we work to encourage is planting of cover crops.

3:27

So at a very high level, a cover crop is a crop that is planted after the original commercial crop is harvested.

3:35

And what it does is it provides living roots in the soil throughout the winter,

3:40

throughout that dormant period, which is very good for the health of the soil.

3:44

And you would think everybody would want to do that. But when you start digging into it, it's very difficult.

3:50

It requires a whole different set of management skills.

3:53

For instance, if you don't get enough rain, you won't get a good stand on that cover crop or maybe you get too much rain in the following spring.

4:01

That cover crop just keeps growing and by the time you're able to get into that field to plant your your commercial crop,

4:07

whether that's corn, soybeans, you're planning into a stand of ryegrass that's a couple of feet tall.

4:12

And that is a very daunting thing to do. So as I started looking into the answer, well, here's why I'm not planning cover crops, it surprised me.

4:20

Why wouldn't you do that when it's so good for the soil? But then you dig into and it's like, Yeah, okay, I see where you're coming from.

4:27

I think that touches well on what you said in journalism.

4:29

You get to see a wide range of interests, and this may be one that you didn't expect coming up.

4:34

But leading into that, could you tell us a little bit about what your current position is, who it's with and what you're doing in that position?

4:42

So I am the sustainability impact lead for True Terra Church.

4:46

Here is the sustainability business of Land O'Lakes. I think most people think of Land O'Lakes as the butter company.

4:52

In fact, my family likes to joke that I work for big butter. It's not exactly a corporation, though.

4:58

We're actually a cooperative. And we are owned by a collection of farmers and farmer owned cooperatives.

5:04

So the sustainability business, True Terra, works with farmers and agricultural retailers in the countryside to help them figure out how

5:13

to adopt some of these more sustainable management practices within their farming operations.

5:18

And then at the same time, we're working with food companies and other consumer goods companies that are sourcing products from the ag supply chain.

5:27

So this might be corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, etc. And we work with them to help educate them about what is happening within their supply

5:36

chain and ultimately give them an opportunity to contribute to making it more sustainable.

5:43

And a lot of these companies are doing that because they realize that as we see more extreme weather events,

5:50

we see changes in temperature, we see changes in precipitation patterns.

5:55

All of that just adds more risk into their supply chains and their businesses.

6:00

So if you are a General Mills and it's becoming harder for you to source oats, there goes your Cheerios business.

6:07

So it really is a direct threat for some of these companies to their ability to do their business.

6:13

But because Land O'Lakes is a cooperative and we have such close relationships with farmers and we understand how crops are grown,

6:22

we can work with those companies and look at the risks in their supply chain and identify pragmatic ways to help reduce those risks.

6:31

And then specifically, for what I do within True Terra,

6:34

I work primarily on what we call the downstream side, and that is working with these companies,

6:41

food companies and other consumer goods companies that are purchasing agricultural commodities to use in their products.

6:48

And I think the best way to describe what I do is I am somewhat of an interpreter because I understand

6:54

both the sustainability side of the business as well as the agricultural side of the business.

6:59

I am able to take things that happen at a field level and that might involve agronomy or soil

7:07

health or production practices and put it in words that a non farm audience can understand.

7:15

Today, farmers represent less than 1% of the general population.

7:19

So there's very few people that have the opportunity to go to a farm to see how farming is done and to really understand that.

7:27

So as I work with these food companies and with their stakeholders,

7:31

and those could be internal employees, it could be their investors, it could be their customers.

7:37

We're working to make sustainability on the farm understandable to people who have

7:43

may very may have very limited knowledge of how crops and livestock are produced.

7:48

So they give you an example of one of the things that I worked on recently.

7:52

We have a customer that sources corn.

7:55

And one of the things corn is used for and it's amazing just how many things it is used for, is to create a substrate for making athletic shoes.

8:06

It's an alternative to a substrate that historically has been made from petroleum products.

8:11

So from that standpoint, it's a renewable resource.

8:14

It's more more natural than petroleum in the minds of many people, and therefore it makes it a very attractive product.

8:22

But you have people whose business is to design athletic shoes and to source materials for athletic shoes.

8:29

Most of them have never been to a farm. They might not even recognize a card plan if they saw it.

8:35

So I worked with that client and with our company to put together a field tour, basically to bring people out to a field so they could see firsthand.

8:43

Here's what's happening. Talk to farmers. Learn more about what goes into farming, what the challenges are, and having that better understanding.

8:52

They can then create better programs to source those materials.

8:56

That sounds really cool and you're working with so many different people.

9:00

I honestly never expected corn to be an athletic shoes.

9:04

So that's a surprising fact for me. And carpet and of course, many, many food products, it really is quite amazing.

9:12

So you would be surprised how many companies come to you and say, well, we have ag products in our supply chain and we need some help.

9:20

That's crazy. You might find me later Googling how much how many products have corn in them?

9:26

You mentioned that you're working a lot with people who understand agriculture and people who don't understand agriculture.

9:32

How do you navigate those conversations to bridge the gap between consumers and producers?

9:38

It all comes down to what is in it for me and what things do I care about.

9:43

So it does mean sometimes and I think this is another benefit of a journalism and a communications background.

9:48

Rule number one, right. Know your audience, know what they care about, know what they may understand, and what they may not understand.

9:57

So I do frequently find that my. Conversations are different if it's with a farmer or an egg retailer or if it's with a consumer goods type of company and that is based on.

10:08

So what are the. It comes down to what are the problems that you're working to solve for?

10:13

And then let's talk about how true Terra might be able to help you address those problems.

10:19

And it's very interesting, of course, the different responses that you get, whether it is, well, I need to make sure my business is profitable.

10:26

And interestingly, of course, that's the case on both sides of that equation.

10:31

But then there are other very different pressures that each of those faces.

10:36

For example, on the consumer side, for the food companies, a lot of people think, oh,

10:42

you just want to be doing the sustainability programs because it's good public relations for you.

10:47

And that is not the case at all. They are looking at this again from that standpoint of how do we reduce the risk in our supply chain.

10:55

So I might actually be telling that story on on both sides.

10:59

I can talk to the food companies about this is what we think we can do to help reduce that risk.

11:05

And then we can talk to the farmers and the ag retailers about here is why the food companies are interested in these practices,

11:12

because, by the way, it reduces the risk for you and for them.

11:16

So that would be one example of how you might position the same topic a little differently with different audiences.

11:22

I think that's good to keep in mind. Definitely knowing your audience sounds like a very beneficial skill to have in your position.

11:28

And what would you say has been the most challenging part and the most rewarding part in your current position?

11:34

The most challenging is the sheer complexity of the sustainability space and of agriculture.

11:40

Specifically, as I mentioned before, with the cover crops, it seems like it might be a simple fix Oh,

11:46

let's plant this crop that is going to sequester more carbon, it's going to improve your soil.

11:51

But oh wait, there's all of these challenges that go along with that.

11:55

I think the other big challenge in sustainability is just how very,

11:59

very quickly it's changing and it's also just expanding at such a rapid rate that to give you an example.

12:07

So one of the things that we track are these science based targets initiative and specifically which companies have made commitments,

12:16

net zero commitments around science based targets. And I saw a story recently, the first of these commitments were made October 28th, 2021.

12:26

So almost coming up on the two year anniversary, there were seven companies that had made net zero commitments.

12:34

And a quick explanation of net zero is they are looking at all of their operations and

12:40

they are working so that the amount of carbon that they create is at least offset,

12:46

if not more than offset by the amount of carbon they sequester or in some way reduce.

12:52

So it went from seven companies on October 28, 2021.

12:57

I look today on the dashboard that SBT maintains and it is now 3696 companies

13:05

have made these net zero commitments and that is over a span of two years.

13:09

So that gives you an idea of just how much the space is expanding and trying to keep up with

13:15

that and keep up with the demand is probably one of the biggest challenges that we are facing,

13:21

along with it's a relatively new space and we learn more all the time.

13:27

And as we learn more and more, it's going to influence how we address it.

13:32

So a big part of what we're doing is looking at what are the national and international protocols and processes?

13:39

How are we even measuring what we're doing? How are we measuring how much carbon is in the atmosphere or how much is being sequestered or reduced?

13:49

There are a number of standards bodies working on this, and it's always a work in progress.

13:54

Those standards may change from year to year as we get more information.

13:58

So you have to keep on top of those changing standards.

14:01

At the same time as you're seeing this dramatic acceleration in the number of companies that

14:07

are paying attention to that and measuring and managing for it from seven to over 3000.

14:12

Yes, in two years. And it's it's just going to continue.

14:16

But that also plays into what's the most exciting part of it is that this is really gaining ground.

14:21

And what is most exciting for me is we have more people paying attention to farmers,

14:27

to the work that they're doing than we've had in a long, long time.

14:31

And it's wonderful to see more people being educated about what is happening on a

14:36

farm and having more understanding and empathy for the challenges that farmers face.

14:42

Two of the biggest challenges they have no control over, right? They have no control over the weather and they have no control over global markets.

14:49

It's a very difficult job and there are a lot more people that are suddenly realizing, Wow, this is really challenging.

14:58

But it's also really, really. Important. We've talked a lot about agriculture, and you mentioned at the start that you didn't want to be back on the farm.

15:05

Could you tell us your journey from undergraduate to your current position and how you got back into the agriculture sphere?

15:12

Sure. Yes. Well, I started out thinking that I would go into journalism, and one of my first experiences was and I should add too,

15:21

I was very fortunate at SDSU, I, I had an a job with the Office of University Relations.

15:26

It was an excellent experience because essentially I was doing PR work for the university,

15:32

but I got to run around campus and do stories about all the amazing work that was going on often behind the scenes.

15:38

So that kind of wet my appetite a little bit about public relations.

15:42

At the same time, I had an internship with the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund that was a copyediting internship.

15:48

So I picked up that skill and I also had an internship in Congress as an

15:53

assistant press secretary through the series Congressional Internship Program.

15:57

And that got me interested in corporate communications, corporate affairs, government affairs.

16:02

So I had all of those things going into the first job.

16:06

Again, I thought I was going to be a copy editor. Well, that didn't turn out. There wasn't an opening after my internship.

16:11

So interestingly enough, I got a job at a co-op, a different co-op called Syntax,

16:17

and my boss later told me that part of it was because it was obvious I was about the only

16:23

one who really knew what I was talking about when it came to growing up on a farm here.

16:26

Again, 1%, a little bit of an advantage there.

16:29

So I worked in corporate communications for about a year until there was a merger in that business and my position was eliminated.

16:36

And then I ended up working in the agency world.

16:40

And this would be started out in public relations agencies and then moved into advertising agencies.

16:45

And I would tell anyone, if you want amazing experiences and you don't mind drinking from a fire hose,

16:53

agencies are wonderful places to work because you do get great experience.

16:59

It's very fast paced. It can be very fun.

17:03

It can also be very stressful. So I did agencies for several years, primarily on agricultural accounts, once again,

17:10

because people were looking for somebody, Hey, do you know what a bolus is for a livestock business?

17:15

Like, Yeah, actually, I do. Okay, you're hired. It's kind of that sort of thing.

17:20

So I ended up doing that for a number of years, and then I was eventually recruited to the client side for a client called Syngenta.

17:27

It's a large global agricultural company, and I started out with them in marketing services.

17:33

I like to joke that I was essentially doing the same job as I was doing on the agency side, only at a different desk.

17:39

And then after a few years, I had been working on my MBA and I finished my MBA and I was able to move around Syngenta to a product management job,

17:49

which I did for several years, and then this sustainability job opened up.

17:53

And so I was the director of the North American Sustainability Program for Syngenta.

17:59

I am a lifelong resource efficiency geek. I think it comes from growing up on a farm where you really have to maximize everything

18:06

that you have because that is the one thing you can control as opposed to whether markets.

18:11

So I did that job for a number of years and then I happened to be on LinkedIn one day.

18:17

And this is a piece of advice that I would offer to students, to everybody, really.

18:21

So I routinely look at my network and often they will put up, Oh, we're looking for someone, Here's the job description.

18:28

Do you know anybody? And I always look at those because I think, well, maybe I know someone, I can send them their way.

18:34

And I'm reading this job description for True. And I find myself getting more and more excited and thinking, well, I want to do that job.

18:41

So I actually hadn't been planning on leaving my old role. But as I read this job, I was just so excited.

18:47

I ended up applying for it and I joined through Tear Up in the middle of the pandemic in summer of 2020.

18:54

Another first, because I was the only time that I ever change jobs, but I didn't even change the desk.

18:59

I was out because of course I was working from home like everybody else.

19:03

So that's kind of been my journey. I would also tell people that if you want to look for those companies that kind of let you move around within the companies,

19:12

and that's always a great opportunity. And I think the best companies will do that for their people.

19:17

But you just never know what the next opportunity is going to be.

19:20

Sustainability is a field didn't even exist when I started my career.

19:26

And so there are just so many more opportunities now.

19:29

And I think that younger generations do a much better job of understanding that

19:34

what I started out doing is probably not going to be what I finish up doing.

19:38

So I think you're all ahead of the game right there.

19:42

I have some friends who graduated recently and they're already kind of shifting around

19:47

or looking at other opportunities or looking for growth in their specific company.

19:51

I think you shared some great pieces of advice. A couple that I noted the most was getting experience and agency work can be great if you're ready.

19:58

You drink from a firehose looking at LinkedIn and looking at your different connections and that ties into networking.

20:04

And then also having a company that lets you grow in that position as an individual and doesn't just keep you stuck in one spot.

20:10

Exactly. You must have done this more than once. So we talked about how sustainability didn't exist as a field when things were first starting out.

20:20

It's a newer area. How have you seen communication changes in your different positions?

20:25

And over time, as communication is also always evolving?

20:29

The big one, of course, is the shift to digital.

20:31

When I started out, I'm going to date myself here, but of course when I started out we were still doing what we're called key lines.

20:38

These were physical ad materials that had to be FedExed to a magazine if you wanted to run an advertisement on a page in a magazine.

20:47

Obviously, that's gone and everything is digital now. And social media didn't exist at the time that I started out.

20:54

So that's all new. I think the larger transit that has ushered in, however,

20:59

is one of the big ones that affects all of us directly as communicators is the attention span issue.

21:05

So Microsoft in Canada did some research work and basically around the year 2000,

21:11

they estimated most people had, oh, I'm trying to think it was about a 12 second attention span.

21:18

Well, we're down to like eight now, so people have even less time that they'll pay attention to what you're going to say.

21:26

So it means you have to be extremely crisp with your message.

21:29

But not only that, it limits what you can talk about.

21:33

And that's a real challenge when you're talking about highly complex topics.

21:37

So we have that in sustainability, in agriculture,

21:39

and there are just so many areas where it's incredibly complex and yet we have barely any time to talk about it at all.

21:46

The other thing that is just so very different is the 24 hour news cycle that's been going on now for a long time,

21:55

but it has opened up this huge bucket that we as communicators now need to feel communicators, journalists, etc.

22:03

It's good and bad, right? It means that more stories do get told, but it also makes it harder if you're going to be a discerning consumer of news and information.

22:13

It's very hard when anyone can have a platform and anyone can say that they're an expert in this and we are pressed for time anyway.

22:22

And how do we know that they really have the credibility and the experience to be talking about what they are talking about?

22:28

So from a communication standpoint, that that just creates a whole host of challenges.

22:33

And how do you determine, is this a credible source?

22:37

And the other thing that is that is very concerning to me as a journalist is how challenging local news has become.

22:45

My very first job, even before college, was with a small town newspaper, tiny little town,

22:51

but we had a newspaper and it was such an important part of that community.

22:55

And as we look at who is going to tell the news for a small town,

23:01

it's the people living in that town who are going to be most motivated and who most care about that community that can do it.

23:07

But in order to do it, that takes money and that's increasingly difficult to find.

23:12

So I wish I had an answer for that challenge. I don't I'm very happy to see institutions taking on that challenge.

23:19

And I know that is is on the radar screen at SDSU.

23:22

And I hope that someone can figure that out because we do not want to lose that local voice.

23:27

Anyone has any ideas, we're open to them. And so what I'm hearing.

23:31

Exactly. So building off of that for students who are interested currently in sustainability or in journalism in any of those areas,

23:39

what would you recommend that they do now to learn more or gain more connections?

23:44

Right. So I would say one thing an easy place to go.

23:47

Green Bills is a nonprofit, I would call it an information source for all things sustainability, and they cover sustainability in multiple industries.

23:58

AG And food is one of them, but certainly not the only one. So Green Bazaar.com is a great place to start and get your feet wet and see what

24:05

people are talking about and start to learn the language of sustainability.

24:10

Because like so many things, it has its own language and you have to learn a ton of acronyms like GHG and Flag and SB and ESG.

24:22

Go there and start figuring out what those acronyms all mean because you will be meaning to use them.

24:27

And then on the networking side, I want to stress to people that I have yet to hear of people when approached.

24:36

Would you do an informational interview? Would you talk to me about what you do?

24:39

Who say, No, I can't think of anybody who's ever said no.

24:43

Feel free to reach out if you decide, Boy, I'm really interested in solar power as a sustainability type profession.

24:52

Go on LinkedIn, find out who are the companies working in that area and who is working there and paying them.

24:57

And. Most people, and especially this is true in agriculture, most people will say, Yeah, I'm happy to talk to you and when you do talk to them.

25:05

But at the end of that meeting, ask them for three names of other people who might be good for you to talk to,

25:12

and better yet, ask them if they can connect you via email so that you're not basically cold calling those other people.

25:18

And most people I know are happy to do that too. And that way you can kind of just keep building that network as you go along.

25:24

As someone who's been sending a lot of cold emails for interviews for the podcast, I can confirm people don't say no, that's a great place to start.

25:33

You have a published book. What led you to publish a book and what was that process like?

25:37

I have kind of two hats in the publishing world.

25:40

I actually the book that I published is a kind of a workbook for kids when they move to a different house.

25:48

And what led me to do it as I thought I was actually at a cocktail party and I heard somebody mentioned,

25:54

well, wouldn't it be nice if, like, blank like and I decided, Yeah, why don't we do that?

25:59

So it really just built off of that germ of an idea that I happened to hear while I was talking with someone at a networking event.

26:07

And then it also played in with some other work that I have been doing for years.

26:11

I've been writing nonfiction titles on the side as my night and weekends job for a company that does books for the curriculum enhancement market.

26:20

And I've actually written over 300 titles for them because I've been doing it a long time and they tend to work in series,

26:27

but they'll do everything from biographies to series about different dog breeds to environmental series, which were of course one of my passions.

26:37

And that one I just started because I happened to answer an ad in the newspaper.

26:41

People go, What's an ad in a newspaper? We didn't used to do those.

26:44

So that started out that way, and it kind of interested me, got me first interested in publishing,

26:50

which then led into deciding, well, I'm going to to do this book and try my own hand at that.

26:56

And it didn't exactly work out because I was doing that at the height of the real estate market.

27:01

And then the market crashed and it's never completely come back.

27:04

So but you learn a lot from failures, right? So just one last question to wrap up this wonderful conversation.

27:11

What other advice would you like to share with students either about what they're currently doing or for the future?

27:16

Well, first of all, I'm so excited for students right now just because there are more opportunities and things are far less rigid than they used to be.

27:25

I'm look at what the work world used to be like, and I shudder a little bit because it was one size fits all.

27:32

Thankfully, that is starting to change and it couldn't happen fast enough.

27:36

I would say another piece of advice. I think it's important for everyone to answer the question What are the problems that I really like to solve?

27:44

That is another important clue for what kind of work is going to get you excited.

27:49

And again, that's what you're looking for. You're looking for something that the thought of it, it just gets you excited, get you pumped.

27:55

And a lot of times, well, is there a problem there that that I think needs to be solved or that I would like to solve?

28:01

So let's go for that one. And again, as we talked about before, don't be afraid to ask people for help and to ask lots and lots of questions.

28:09

And I like to think that those of us coming out of journalism, communications programs are better at that than most.

28:15

So we should be even more comfortable getting information.

28:18

But there are just so many opportunities. And I love, love, love how bold young people are nowadays.

28:26

Take that and run with it. I'm feeling fired up now. I got some inspiration.

28:30

I'm ready to go talk to people, ask questions. Well, I was going to ask, So what is it that you want to be doing?

28:35

Helping me later on email? Like you said, there's so many opportunities up and coming.

28:41

And you mentioned earlier how sustainability wasn't really there when you started and now it's flourished so much and things are changing

28:48

rapidly and it's great to see that development and how it's been changing in the professional world and how you've adapted to that.

28:55

And we're all adapting constantly, right? It sounds like a little side piece of nugget information there is that everyone's making mistakes as we learn.

29:03

Yeah, completely. And we like to joke in sustainability. Oh, that was so 48 hours ago.

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48 hours is a quick turnaround. Thank you again for talking today.

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I learned so much about sustainability and there's corn products in athletic shoes as well

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as some great advice about work experience and how to find different positions on LinkedIn,

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as well as gaining those connections with other people. So thank you again for taking the time to talk with us today on Coffee with Kojo.

29:31

Thank you so much for the opportunity. It's been fun.

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This podcast is a property of the School of Communication and Journalism at South Dakota State University, which reserves all rights to its use.

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Music by Cody Johnson and Tyler Addison. James is licensed through AMP Music.