Host Bill Calkins asked Seth Reed (Global Sustainability Manager at Ball Horticultural Company) to join him for a discussion about the short-term future of our industry. This conversation was recorded live at the 2025 Ball Seed Customer Days open house event in West Chicago, IL.

For this episode, Bill had three “big ideas” that he introduced to Seth one at a time to find out what he had to say about them (and if he had any even bigger ideas or approaches). There are no right answers and neither Seth or Bill own a functional crystal ball. But the goal of this discussion was to share ideas to ponder and potential directions to steer as our industry enters a new era.

Topics discussed:

• Post-pandemic growth vs. new realities
• Labor vs. labor retention
• Production vs. automation