Land O’Lakes Played Key Role in Securing $65 Billion for Federal Broadband Funding

Not long after Beth Ford became CEO of the Land O’Lakes cooperative in 2018, she toured agriculture co-ops and farms across rural America. By early 2019, she was alarmed that many small towns and rural residents lacked high-speed internet service, which she feared would leave them behind in the 21st-century economy. She recognized the technology deficit would greatly reduce access to education and health care and harm job creation. Ford became hell-bent on securing broadband funding at the federal level. Less than three years later, on November 15, she was on the White House lawn to witness President Biden’s signing of the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which included $65 billion for broadband. “I couldn’t be happier, “ Ford said, as she ticked off the names of several Land O’Lakes leaders who helped her build a national coalition that was unrelenting in pressing for broadband funding. She recalls telling her core team: “Look what you did. We know this is so important to all of us, and look at how you drove change.” In an interview with Twin Cities Business, Ford described the steps that she and Land O’Lakes took to build national awareness of the technology gap, to create the American Connection Project to leverage political support, and to work with powerful chief executives in the Business Roundtable to elevate the importance of a bipartisan infrastructure package.