Many U.S. farmers use Syngenta pesticide, which is owned by China. Its CEO is working to keep farmers' trust.

Jeff Rowe is working to overcome U.S.-Chinese tensions
by being trustworthy partner. (Syngenta photo)

Farm country isn't exempt from U.S.-Chinese tensions, but Syngenta's new chief executive, Jeff Rowe, is working to smooth ruffled feathers and keep American farmers' trust.

"For years, Syngenta Group has been considered a critical partner to thousands of American farmers. Rowe is trying to ward off a different perception: that it poses a threat to U.S. national security," reports Patrick Thomas of The Wall Street Journal. While Syngenta's headquarters are in Switzerland, it is a subsidiary of China National Chemical, a "state-owned enterprise known as ChemChina. . . . The company has faced mounting roadblocks to its business in the U.S. . . ."

Concern over foreign ownership of U.S. farmland and companies has increased over the past decade. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has warned that "'Chinese ownership of companies needs careful review because you can have access to information concerning seeds, technology, and so forth,'" Thomas reports. "Last fall, Arkansas became the first U.S. state to order a Chinese-owned company, Syngenta, to sell its farmland."

Rowe is an Illinois farmer and past executive for DuPont Pioneer. "Despite living in Switzerland, he travels back to his hometown of Princeton, Ill., a city of about 8,000 people, a few times a year to help plant and harvest a couple of thousand acres of corn and soybeans," Thomas writes. 

Rowe understands that some policymakers are skeptical of Syngenta's intentions. He told Thomas, "Despite the publicity, we’re out in the local communities — farmers know us and respect us. If I see someone on the street in Princeton, they think, ‘That’s Jeff Rowe. I know who that is — he’s not a Chinese spy.’"

Rowe's mission is to create a bridge "between the two countries. Syngenta said that it isn’t a political organization and that legislators’ actions are potentially harmful to U.S. farmers and the agricultural market," Thomas adds. "Greg Rebman, an Illinois farmer, says he uses Syngenta pesticides for their effectiveness. If a conflict were to break out between the U.S. and China, he said he would be more hesitant to buy Syngenta’s products—but, for now, it’s a secondary issue."