Soy Connext 2026: Soy Excellence Centers build skills, careers and stronger protein industries worldwide

USSEC’s Soy Excellence Centers are filling knowledge gaps across livestock, aquaculture and feed industries while creating communities where professionals can continue learning throughout their careers

Editor’s note: More than 800 U.S. Soy buyers, sellers, growers and forward-thinkers from around the world attended Soy Connext 2026, hosted by the U.S. Soybean Export Council, August 5-7, 2026 in Chicago. Attendees came together to exchange ideas, open markets, and move the soy business forward. From the latest research and sustainability strategies to real-world trade opportunities and supply chain solutions, every session, conversation and connection was designed to create momentum for the global soybean industry.

The global animal protein industry depends not only on advances in nutrition, production and feed manufacturing, but also on having skilled professionals who can put that knowledge to work.

That workforce development challenge is at the heart of the Soy Excellence Center (SEC), an initiative designed to provide early- to mid-career professionals with technical training, continuing education and connections to experts and peers across the global food and agriculture industry. SEC programs serve professionals across poultry, swine, dairy, aquaculture, feed manufacturing and the broader food and agriculture value chain, with training that includes soy nutrition, feed formulation and other technical topics.

Brent Babb, executive director of the Global Soy Excellence Centers with the U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC), said the program began in 2019 with its first center in Egypt and has expanded rapidly. During the past year alone, SEC recorded approximately 25,000 participant trainings.

• building skills
• sharing knowledge
• strengthening communities

“We're looking for livestock professionals who are early to mid-career, but essentially, we want people who are already vested in the protein industry,” Babb said. “They've already made a choice that this is what they want do in their career.”

Training designed for working professionals

Rather than functioning as a traditional university program, SEC is intended to complement the education and experience professionals are already gaining in the workplace. Programs provide technical information that employees may not have access to through their companies or local industry associations.

SEC offerings combine workforce training, continuing education, access to experts and a growing professional community. Curriculum is intended to build foundational skills, while continuing education provides exposure to current science and production practices.

Much of the training is delivered virtually. Babb said participants typically move through a structured learning process using videos and live virtual question-and-answer sessions with experts over about four weeks. Graduates receive an SEC certificate and then can remain involved through the SEC community.

That continued engagement is an important distinction.

“You move from structured learning into a community, where you're with colleagues throughout the region, sometimes throughout the world,” Babb said. “And you can continue to learn from each other.”

Filling technical knowledge gaps

The model allows SEC to work with companies of very different sizes and with employees performing very different jobs.

For small businesses, particularly in developing protein markets, formal employee training may be limited or nonexistent. Larger commercial organizations may have internal training programs but still lack access to specialized technical expertise.

SEC works with companies and their human resources teams to provide training in areas including nutrition, feed mill operations, biosecurity, etc.

Babb pointed to feed company sales teams in Latin America as one example. Employees may be responsible for selling feed products without having extensive formal nutrition training. SEC provides an avenue to build that knowledge without requiring them to return to university.

“They can better understand the product, the feed, and the customers they're talking with,” he said.

This approach reflects SEC's broader mission of helping food and agriculture businesses build capacity while giving individual employees opportunities to advance professionally.

Turning knowledge into action

For Babb, measuring SEC's impact goes beyond counting participants or graduates.

The program tracks participation, graduation and continued engagement, while surveys provide feedback from both participants and their employers. Companies have reported benefits ranging from leadership development to lower production costs, reduced mortality and improved feed conversion.

The larger objective, however, is applying what participants learn.

“We want our knowledge put into action,” Babb said. “We can do the training, but it's our participants that take the knowledge and turn it into action in their companies, feed mills and poultry operations.”

That philosophy also connects SEC with USSEC's broader market development efforts. Participants may not be making soybean purchasing decisions today, but many work for companies purchasing U.S. Soy and may eventually move into decision-making positions.

Training can introduce participants to factors and benefits such as the operational efficiency and consistency of U.S. Soy while building their broader understanding of nutrition and production.

From SEC student to community leader

Dr. Pragati Salutgi's experience illustrates how the model can work at the individual level.

Salutgi, a regional category manager at Adisseo, has been associated with SEC for more than two years. She has progressed from participant to community champion, helping lead technical discussions and sharing information with other members. She was also recently recognized at Soy Connext as an SEC STAR Award winner, the program's top achievement recognition.

For Salutgi, the value has come from both the technical content and the ability to exchange knowledge with other professionals.

“The experience is absolutely fulfilling in terms of technical depth of content that is available on the community platforms,” she said.

She said the communication and collaboration generated through those interactions are difficult to quantify. Even after moving into a role where she helps lead discussions, Salutgi still views herself first as a learner.

“I always prefer to be a student because as a student I can learn more and I continue to learn,” she said. “The SEC has absolutely been a boon for me in my career trajectory.”

The technical depth of subject matter expert sessions has been particularly valuable, but Salutgi said SEC has also expanded her understanding beyond technical nutrition to include value-chain development.

For her own professional development, the impact has been significant.

“Being on the SEC has been path-defining for me,” Salutgi said, explaining that she has gained knowledge she would not have found elsewhere and has been able to integrate it into her work in nutrition.

Investing in the next generation

The program is provided to participants at no cost, Babb said, with support from U.S. soybean farmers through the checkoff, state soybean organizations, USDA and other partners. Participants or their companies may share some expenses when travel is involved.

This investment ultimately serves two connected purposes: developing the professionals who will help shape the future of global protein production and strengthening their understanding of soy within those production systems.

For participants such as Salutgi, however, SEC's value extends beyond any single training course. It is the combination of technical education, professional connections and continuous learning that can influence an entire career.

As Babb sees it, that is where the program's impact becomes most meaningful. The training provides knowledge, but the real measure of success is what participants do with it once they return to their businesses and industries.