By Allison Jenkins
As the calendar moves through its final months of 2025, countdowns are everywhere—top songs, best moments, biggest headlines. For the American Soybean Association, the countdown for its 105th anniversary year looks a little different: it’s about the advocacy achievements that mattered most to farmers and the unfinished business left to address.
Thanks to grassroots engagement and the active presence of ASA members and staff on Capitol Hill, several long-time policy battles ended with clear victories. Yet, many important issues remain unresolved, setting the stage for continued advocacy in 2026 and beyond.
“Our farmer-leaders have really stepped up,” said Alexa Combelic, ASA’s executive director of government affairs. “Their support is a big reason why we achieved so many successes this year. But there’s a lot left to do. Our industry has some real challenges ahead.”
In honor of ASA’s century-plus-five milestone, here are five highlights in soy advocacy this year and five hurdles to tackle next.
Photo courtesy of North Dakota Soybean Processors
Highlights
- Boosting Biofuel Demand
For soybeans, renewable fuels are a strong source of demand, and 2025 delivered major victories in this sector. At the top of the list is the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed 2026-27 Renewable Volume Obligations (RVOs), which exceeded ASA’s expectations and if finalized, will raise biomass-based diesel levels to 5.61 billion gallons for 2026.
“President Trump wants to establish American energy dominance, and there is a huge opportunity in biofuels,” Combelic said. “If that industry is doing well, it goes beyond just the farm gate. It’s the entire value chain.”
The RVO proposal also prioritizes domestic feedstocks by halving the Renewable Identification Number (RIN) credits for imports, such as Chinese used cooking oil and Brazilian tallow that cannibalized market share U.S. products like soy.
“We asked that EPA do more oversight and testing of what was coming in, and they realized how many resources it would take to do that,” Combelic said. “Instead, they opted to create a program that doesn’t incentivize those imports. It’s actually quite elegant in its simplicity.”
Likewise, the newly updated 45Z Clean Fuel Production Credit included in the federal budget reconciliation legislation, known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” requires the use of North American feedstocks. In addition, the revisions to 45Z eliminate indirect land use change penalties for agricultural feedstocks, which had lowered biofuel production tax credits for fuels made with soy.
In May, ASA President Caleb Ragland (KY) testified before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee during a hearing on “Trade in Critical Supply Chains.”
“When Congress started working on this tax legislation, ASA had two big goals: eliminate the indirect land use change penalty and make the tax credit applicable only to domestic feedstocks,” said Stephen Censky, ASA CEO. “People said we would never achieve it. Guess what? We succeeded on both fronts, and that’s a big win long term for soybean farmers.”
- Passing Farm Priorities
ASA’s advocacy also helped secure other agricultural wins in the reconciliation bill, including an increase in the soybean reference price from $8.40 to $10 per bushel, a change that will ripple through future baselines. Additionally, provisions like the permanent extension of the Section 199 pass-through deduction and the $15 million estate tax exemption add stability for farm families.
“These are needs ASA has been championing for years,” Combelic said. “In a time when farmers are facing economic uncertainty, they can rely on the fact that these tax provisions were made permanent and will support their operations.”
- Expanding Trade Promotion
In another hard-fought victory, ASA celebrated a more than two-fold increase in funding for international market development, also included in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
Funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Market Access Program (MAP), which supports U.S. exporters in developing markets abroad, and Foreign Market Development (FMD), which works to build demand for American farm products, had been stagnant for decades. But beginning in 2027, a new Supplemental Agricultural Trade Promotion Program will allocate between $268 million and $285 million annually for similar activities.
Existing MAP and FMD allocations will remain unchanged—$200 million and $35 million respectively—but the supplemental program will run parallel, more than doubling those dollars for activities such as market research, consumer outreach and trade facilitation.
“This equips us to expand markets globally,” Combelic said. “While China remains unfinished business, stronger promotion funding means we can continue market expansion everywhere else.”
In March, ASA leaders and staff visited the White House to discuss championing U.S. agriculture. From left: Alexa Combelic, ASA executive director of government affairs; Scott Metzger, ASA vice president; Josh Gackle, ASA chairman; Caleb Ragland, ASA president; and Virginia Houston, ASA director of government affairs.
- Debunking MAHA Myths
When the draft “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) strategy attacked pesticides and seed oils, ASA went to bat—building strong bipartisan support, mobilizing farmer voices and educating lawmakers. The final report, released in September, retracted those claims.
“ASA led the coalition of over 300 ag groups to push back on the first MAHA report,” Censky said. “We had more than eight meetings with top White House personnel, and we were successful in getting corrections made in the second report. I’m really proud of that.”
A key strategy was reminding policymakers that EPA’s science-based review process already ensures the safety of crop protection products.
“In the initial report, critical crop protection tools were blamed for a lot of health concerns, even though science doesn’t back that up,” said Madelyn Derks, ASA director of government affairs. “There’s already a rigorous registration system through EPA, and that’s something we wanted to highlight in our advocacy.”
- Delivering on Dicamba
The future of another key crop protection tool, dicamba, has also been in question over the past few years, but EPA proposed the registration of three over-the-top products in 2025: Engenia, XtendiMax and Tavium. The decision was welcomed by ASA farmer-members who rely on this technology to control broadleaf weeds in dicamba-tolerant soybeans.
“I think the most important thing is that the EPA is moving on this,” Derks said. “Weeds can easily steal more than 50% of a soybean crop’s yield, so we need a dicamba label that’s usable, workable and cost-effective.”
Previous over-the-top dicamba labels were vacated in February 2024 by a federal court, and the products were unavailable to growers during the 2025 growing season. The re-registration is pending while EPA wades through the vast number of submissions made through a public comment period that ended Sept. 6, but Derks says she’s hopeful for a positive outcome.
“ASA submitted comments after talking with our growers and our regulatory team to learn their perspective,” she said. “We know that EPA has their work cut out for them, but we want them to take those comments into consideration and make the necessary changes.”
Hurdles
- Securing Soy in Trade
Despite strong advocacy by ASA and its members, in early October soybeans still have been left out of trade negotiations between the U.S. and China in 2025.
In his Feb. 5 testimony before the Senate Agriculture Committee, ASA Chairman Josh Gackle (ND) emphasized the need for a comprehensive five-year farm bill and urgent action on economic challenges facing U.S. soybean farmers. He warned that potential tariffs and trade uncertainty, particularly with key export partners, threaten global market access.
The omission underscores the stakes of maintaining market access to the world’s top soybean buyer.
“This is the second time we’ve seen what happens when conflict disrupts trade—we lose a huge portion of our market,” Combelic said. “Soybean growers pride themselves on producing the largest export commodity, and we need that China market to do it.”
Among ASA’s efforts is a high-profile media presence that spotlights the issue well beyond the agricultural stage, Censky said.
“We initiated a major campaign to lift up the message that any trade deal with China has to include soybeans,” he said. “I think we’ve been massively successful. We’re hearing from the administration that soy will be part of a deal, but the proof of the pudding will be in the tasting.”
- Completing the Farm Bill
While many essential agricultural provisions were included in the reconciliation package, ASA continues to push for a so-called “Farm Bill 2.0” to finish the job. Conservation programs, crop insurance and priorities such as the Ag Labeling Uniformity Act are among the pieces that remain on the table.
“We’re partway there, but we still need a full farm bill to provide authorizations for key programs and ensure the farm safety net remains functioning,” Combelic said. “ASA continues to engage with our agriculture champions in congress to make sure our priorities are known. Still, we likely will need to work through another extension before congress has ample time to deliberate a larger package next year.”
- Dialing in Dicamba
While soybean farmers welcomed EPA’s movement toward a new dicamba label, some parts of the proposal could seriously limit its use. For example, cutoffs above 95 degrees and limits on tank mixes would hamstring growers fighting resistant weeds.
ASA Executive Director of Government Affairs Alexa Combelic (far right) joined Shannon Campagna with Portfolio Strategies and Brian Ronholm with Consumer Reports on a panel to discuss the Make America Healthy Again Commission and potential impacts to agriculture. The panel was part of the North American Agricultural Journalists annual meeting and was moderated by Helena Bottemiller Evich of Food Fix.
“The devil’s in the details,” Derks said. “As we dug into the new label, we noticed that there were restrictions that would essentially make dicamba unusable in a lot of our southern states. We’ll continue to have conversations with EPA about providing additional flexibility.”
- Protecting Soy’s Image
Soy oil remains a lightning rod in food and health debates, from infant formula reviews to emerging definitions of “ultra-processed foods.” ASA is working to protect soy’s food-manufacturing market, which accounts for half of domestic demand.
“ASA wants to ensure that soy oil is not inappropriately maligned in updated dietary guidelines for Americans,” Combelic said. “We have to keep reminding policymakers and the public that soybean oil is healthy, affordable and essential in countless food products.”
ASA is anticipating more localized efforts to impose warning labels or restrictions on seed oils and pesticides, requiring strong coordination across the organization.
“Increasingly, we’re seeing the MAHA movement at the state level where they’re trying to require disclosure for seed oils on packaging and warnings about pesticides that aren’t supported by science,” Censky said. “We’ll be working very closely with our state associations and other allies to try to prevent that from happening.”
- Relieving Farm Stress
During ASA Hill visits in July, Iowa soybean leaders met with Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA). Photo courtesy of the Iowa Soybean Association
Soybean farmers continue to be squeezed by the loss of Chinese demand and the rising cost of crop inputs. A strong soybean harvest is expected, but per-bushel market prices for this year’s beans are less than the per-bushel cost to produce them.
“The ag industry is in a world of hurt right now,” Combelic said. “All of these things will shape the narrative as we advocate for policies to help put growers in a better financial position.”
Ultimately, ASA and its farmer-members want to see solid, long-term solutions, not just a temporary bailout, but Censky said he and his team have been in conversations with Congress and USDA about a program to “bridge the gap.”
“We’ve been active behind the scenes working on some sort of assistance to help farmers stay in business as we wait on improved markets,” Censky said.
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