The Council of Producers & Distributors of Agrotechnology has named Rachel Pick its Vice President of Government Relations, effective November 2, 2026 — a hire that puts a working Iowa farmer and two-administration Washington veteran at the center of the crop protection industry's lobbying bench.

Pick brings nearly 20 years of Washington experience. She served on the staff of U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and held senior USDA roles during the first Trump administration, working in the Office of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and later advising USDA General Counsel Stephen Vaden, now Deputy Secretary of Agriculture.

She is also a fourth-generation Iowa corn and soybean farmer and remains active in her family's 2,500-acre operation.

What does Pick bring to the file?

"Rachel brings relationships at the highest levels of government and firsthand knowledge of production agriculture," said CPDA President & CEO Terry Kippley. "She understands how Washington works and what regulatory decisions mean for farmers and the businesses serving them."

Most recently, Pick led federal advocacy for AmericanHort on agricultural workforce policy, crop protection, the Farm Bill and appropriations. She also chaired the Pesticide Policy Coalition's Legislative Subcommittee, coordinating roughly 40 grower organizations to preserve access to crop protection tools. Earlier, she held leadership posts with U.S. Farmers & Ranchers in Action.

Her portfolio covers the issues that directly shape input costs for growers: registration timelines, product availability and the regulatory fate of adjuvants and inert ingredients.

Who is she succeeding — and against what backlog?

Pick succeeds Andrew Walmsley, who CPDA says expanded the association's Washington access and influence before leaving for member company Atticus.

"Rachel is well positioned to build on that progress," Kippley said. "Our priorities include reducing EPA's pesticide registration backlog, strengthening American manufacturing and supply chain resilience for crop protection products, adjuvants and inerts, and advancing practical ESA solutions through drift reduction adjuvants."

Those priorities signal where the fights will be: a registration queue that slows new products to market, domestic supply exposure, and Endangered Species Act compliance that CPDA wants solved through drift-reduction chemistry rather than usage restrictions.

What Pick says she will do

"My roots in agriculture shape how I approach advocacy in Washington, where policy decisions have real impacts on my family's farm and others across the country," Pick said. "I'm excited to join CPDA and work alongside its members to advance policies that support innovation and keep effective crop protection tools accessible and affordable."

The promise of "accessible and affordable" tools carries a caveat: affordability depends on EPA timelines, ESA rulings and supply chains that no single lobbyist controls. What CPDA has done is hire someone who has farmed the consequences of those decisions — and lobbied on them from the coalition side with about 40 grower groups behind her.