Amidst growing global food insecurity and the challenges posed by a rapidly changing world, few industries embody resilience and innovation like American agriculture. At its heart are the farmers, the lifeblood of our food supply. Earl Roemer, President and Founder of Nu Life Market, exemplifies the critical role agribusiness leaders play in ensuring not only national food security but also a robust global food system.

Under Roemer’s leadership, Nu Life Market has become the largest grain sorghum milling food processing company in the United States, earning recognition as the 2024 Kansas Agribusiness of the Year and receiving the prestigious Governor’s Award of Excellence.

As crises disrupt food systems across the globe, Roemer’s efforts serve as a clarion call for farmers and agribusiness leaders from the heartland to champion American global engagement. Through collaboration, innovation, and advocacy, Roemer is proving that Kansas farmers—and those like them—can be a vital force in feeding the world and shaping a more secure and sustainable future.

Nu Life Market has truly become a leader in sustainable sorghum production and regenerative agriculture. Can you share how this journey towards sustainability started and what inspired that commitment in the work that you do?

To give you a little bit of history, I’m a fourth-generation farmer from western Kansas with a background in animal and plant bio science. I also held national leadership roles in the grain sorghum industry, including chairing the research committee for the National Sorghum Producers. Originally in the United States, no grain sorghum was utilized for food applications, although 100 million people around the world consume grain sorghum every single day. So the question was asked, why not here? I saw the opportunity, and without a doubt, it took a great team and tremendous effort to transition specific grain sorghums into the food industry. Kansas State University, the milling science department, and the food science department helped us along the way. And we’ve grown because of that consumer demand from being a very, very small company with me doing the milling and having one employee to now milling millions of pounds of grain sorghum and selling to all the major food companies here in the US, exporting to seven countries in the world, and having a phenomenal staff of over 25 employees.

As climate shocks exacerbate around the world, can you speak to the resilience of sorghum and how we can benefit from it?

Grain sorghum itself has survived and evolved over thousands of years in the harshest regions of the world. And over those thousands of years of surviving in really harsh climates, sorghum developed spatial characteristics that allowed it to produce the grains. That’s why in East and Northern African countries such as Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt, grain sorghum is a primary food staple. Now we have the opportunity globally to minimize the risks of climate change by utilizing regenerative production management practices with a grain that can produce these very specific characteristics. From a food insecurity standpoint, no matter where it is in the world, grain sorghum can provide nutrition for people that really need it under high-risk situations, primarily associated with drought and heat.

You have lots of experience with connecting the global to the local. What has been your experience with presenting the impactful work you do to the international groups you bring to your farm?

Prior to COVID I served as a consultant for the foreign ag service branch of the USDA, and those programs were implemented by the U.S. Grains Council. My connection with that organization, what we’re doing with grain sorghum, and the importance of grain sorghum for food applications globally, gave us the opportunity to present the technology that we use to companies and individuals in other parts of the world that have a demand for the products that we produce. Recently, we had a whole group from China that visited our company, but we have also had people from Japan and Ethiopia visit. Our technology and our food scientists have the ability to better understand ways to process our products that can help benefit individuals and companies in other parts of the world and also supply products to those companies.

We had a huge disruption with COVID and now we’re just starting up again with these organized programs. Hopefully we continue to do more than one or two per year but obviously it’s related to demand and funding for these programs. Whether it’s through us, the U.S. Grains Council, or USAID, it’s super important to have the funding available to be able to implement these programs and to be able to showcase what we’re doing as a company.

Winning the 2024 Kansas Agribusiness of the Year Award and the Governor’s Award of Excellence are two incredible accomplishments! What’s next for Nu Life Market?

What we’ve seen currently is a tremendous growth in the utilization of our grain sorghum flours for the snack food industry, and that’s been a tremendous growth. There are food safety challenges with other grains, but grain sorghum does not have those issues and we’re able to offer very safe food products without the heavy metals that can potentially cause developmental issues in toddlers and children. Consumers also want to know how and where their food products are being produced so they feel comfortable that the food products that they consume are not only going to be nutritious for them but also be safe for their families. Based on that demand, our team of grain sorghum producers are working to control supply chain identity preserved products. So that’s where we’re headed, and we’re just going to continue to grow.

What message do you hope to convey to both the farming community and the public about the role of American agriculture and the role that farmers play in creating a better, safer world?

Agriculture is massively important for providing nutrition, not only here in the United States but also globally. We’re very blessed in the United States to have not only the natural resources to produce all of these fantastic food products, but to be able to expand on that and offer some of our technology and understanding. To reduce the need for our natural resources and sequester the greenhouse gases, we must position ourselves for the future and that means minimizing the risks associated with these changes.