--- description: Find out why Beth Ford is one of the 100 most influential people of 2024. title: Beth Ford: The 100 Most Influential People of 2024 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt72008866f58151cf/698a558bdb298772f326b8a4/time-100-2024-beth-ford.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 17, 2024 # Beth Ford by Larry Fink  A portrait of Beth Ford during the Land O Lakes Annual Meeting in Orlando, FL. on March 2, 2022\. Photo by Ackerman + Gruber @ackermangruber A portrait of Beth Ford during the Land O Lakes Annual Meeting in Orlando, FL. on March 2, 2022\. Photo by Ackerman + Gruber @ackermangruberAckerman + Gruber Beth Ford says everyone who eats needs to know more about where the food comes from. Why? Because without understanding and investment, the interconnected global food chain is vulnerable. We need to start at the critical beginning—with farmers. One of Beth’s first jobs was detasseling corn in Iowa for $2 an hour. Today, she leads an American icon, Land O’Lakes—a cooperative of thousands of farmers, who Beth reminds us carry the most risk in the food supply chain. That’s why she’s been at the forefront of a national effort to invest in America’s rural communities, from wider broadband coverage, to helping farmers adapt to the [changing climate](https://time.com/collection/time100-climate/6333606/beth-ford/ "undefined"), to stronger trade efforts and more funding for agricultural R&D. The farm-to-table movement has been happening at restaurants since the 1970s. But thanks to Beth, the farm-to-_boardroom_\-table movement is just beginning. She’s showing corporations and the government the absolute necessity of investing in rural America. _Fink is the founder, chairman, and CEO of BlackRock_ _Order your copy of the 2024 TIME100 issue_ [_here_](https://magazineshop.us/TIME%5F100 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2024/6964919/beth-ford-2/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2024/6964919/beth-ford-2/"},"headline":"Beth Ford","datePublished":"2024-04-17T11:02:39.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T02:27:57.504Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2024/6964919/beth-ford-2/","keywords":["TIME100","franchise","Magazine","Special Project","sponsorshipblock","Accolades","2024TIME100","T100Titans2024"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt72008866f58151cf/698a558bdb298772f326b8a4/time-100-2024-beth-ford.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt72008866f58151cf/698a558bdb298772f326b8a4/time-100-2024-beth-ford.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2024/6964919/beth-ford-2/","name":"Beth Ford"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"See Everyone on the TIME100 2024 list","description":"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/73p9kgIN/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2024-04-17T11:00:00.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/73p9kgIN.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2024/6964919/beth-ford-2/","duration":"PT1M59S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2024/6964919/beth-ford-2/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```