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NCGA to Growers and Friends: Speak Out Now on Ethanol, Boats and Small Engines
 Several recreational trade associations have recently called on members to contact the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and ask it not to implement a proposed waiver that will allow ethanol blends in gasoline to be increased from 10 percent to 15 percent. As the nation's premier organization representing corn farmers, the National Corn Growers Association is asking farmers and ethanol supporters to reach out to the EPA and provide their own experience on the issue - even if they have already provided a comment on higher blends. |
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Free Webinar with ACRE Program Experts
Does it make sense to enroll your farm in the Average Crop Revenue Election program for 2009? If you have more questions than answers, mark your calendar for a free "Ask the Experts" webinar session, 8-9 a.m. CDT Wednesday, July 1. The session is open to the public and is especially recommended for farmers, landlords and Farm Service Agency personnel looking to get added insight into the new farm safety net program.
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NCGA Conference on Land Use
Online registration is now available for the National Corn Growers Association's upcoming conference on land use and climate impacts of corn-based ethanol. Scheduled for Aug. 25-26 in St. Louis, it will provide sessions on such topics as land use change, nitrous oxide, new technologies and their effect on greenhouse gas emissions, domestic and international yields, satellite data and land conversion greenhouse gas emission factors, defining renewable biomass and distillers grains.
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Corn Farmers Heard on Capitol Hill
What started as a simple idea - farmers telling decision-makers how good they are at their jobs today - evolved into a major educational campaign in Washington this spring. The result was an infusion of fact-based information about how innovative farmers are growing more corn every year with fewer resources while protecting the environment.
The Corn Farmers Coalition campaign, which included print advertising, web-based advertising, and messages on National Public Radio, generated 10.6 million impressions with a targeted audience of congressmen, senators, staffers, think tank operatives, environmental representatives, agency folks and key administration personnel. Using state-of-the-art focus group assessment, CFC defined and refined its messages.
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Ag Groups Concerned on Food Safety Bill
Prior to the full committee markup of the Food Safety Enhancement Act, H.R. 2749, in the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, the National Corn Growers Association and several other agriculture commodity groups sent a letter to Chairman Henry Waxman outlining their concerns with the legislation.
While some progress was made during full committee markup, the passed legislation does include some of our initial concerns such as expanded authorization for to the Food and Drug Administration to mandate facility-specific product safety standards, allowing on-farm inspection and regulation and access to on-farm records which bring concerns of confidentiality. A positive outcome of the markup was that farms will be excluded from registration fees.
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USDA Stresses Importance of Surveys, Data
In a meeting with the National Corn Growers Association, representatives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's statistics branch stressed the importance of good data in helping drive policy and funding decisions, and thanked growers for taking the time to provide important information.
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Research Shines Light on Hypoxia
A new analysis prepared for the National Corn Growers Association looks at some of the assumptions surrounding hypoxia - low oxygen -- in the northern Gulf of Mexico and helps clarify the causes, effects and scope of the phenomenon.
"We've always known there were a lot of misconceptions about the hypoxic zone and its causes, based often on a lack of data," said David Ward, chairman of NCGA's Production and Stewardship Action Team, which funded the hypoxia report. "It is our hope that this report will help keep the discussion as grounded and data-driven as possible."
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Meet Jon Holzfaster, Board Candidate
 Eighth in a series of profiles of candidates for the NCGA Corn Board. The election will be held at July's Corn Congress in Washington.
Jon Holzfaster, of Paxton, Neb., is chairman of the Nebraska Corn Board, vice chairman of the National Corn Growers Association's Ethanol Committee and a member of the NCGA political action committee.
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