NCGA Corn Action News: Friday, March 8, 2010

General Session Features U.S. Ag Secretary

Vilsack at Commodity Classic U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack addressed the General Session of Commodity Classic 2010 speaking directly with growers on his respect and appreciation for growers and his desire to revitalize rural America.

Vilsack began his address acknowledging the incredible advancements made in American agriculture, such as exporting over $22.5 billion in product annually, producing an abundance that allows Americans to eat extremely affordably and creating a more energy secure country. He then went on to note that, despite these achievements, the ability to profitably run a farm is decreasing and fewer young people are choosing to become growers.

Vilsack then announced his intention to "fight for rural America and its values." Using dual strategies of domestic and global expansion, in tandem with expanding non-farm rural opportunities, he advocated a strategic plan to revitalize rural communities. In outlining this plan, he highlighted adoption of targeted overseas marketing strategies, expansion of biotechnology and fostering the biofuels industry as key plan components.

Acknowledging that a shrinking farming and rural population will lose direct political impact, Vilsack advocated a strategy of "reconnecting people with their food." He went on to explain that this would entail building alliances to grow political impact and creating opportunities for the entire nation to understand the importance of agriculture.

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Organization Presidents Address Tough Issues

Interview with NCGA President NCGA President Darrin Ihnen, along with his counterparts from the American Soybean Association, National Association of Wheat Growers and National Sorghum Producers, confronted the tough issues facing U.S. growers during the General Session of Commodity Classic 2010. The discussion, held in a talk-show format and led by emcee Mark Mayfield looked at issues such as ethanol, sustainability and climate change legislation.

The session began with commodity specific interviews with the president of each organization. Leading the program, Ihnen spoke on issues important to corn growers such as increasing the utilization of higher ethanol blends and ensuring climate change legislation does not place U.S. agriculture at a disadvantage. Calling higher blends a "game changer," Ihnen stressed that by allowing the use of ethanol blends over E10 would lessen dependence on foreign oil while bolstering rural economies.

Ihnen followed by explaining NCGA's opposition to H.R. 2454, which would create a cap-and-trade system. Citing an Informa Economics study commissioned by NCGA to explore the potential impact of this legislation on growers, Ihnen explained that NCGA opposes the legislation as the system created would raise production costs, decrease the amount of land used for crop production and would provide opportunities only to the limited number of growers able to continuously practice no-till farming.

Following the individual interviews, Mayfield spoke with all four presidents about the issues currently facing the entire agricultural industry such as sustainability and the image of American agriculture. Noting that "we are much stronger together than we are as individuals up on this stage or as separate commodity groups," Ihnen advocated a unified approach to shared challenges and adversaries.

Click here to listen to Ihnen's comments.

Growers Become Their Own Best Advocates

Agricultural Economist Jay Lehr passionately urged Commodity Classic General Session attendees to become strong advocates for agriculture in the face of ongoing attacks from groups such as the Humane Society of the United States, the Environmental Defense Fund and many others. Outlining the vehicles and messages that growers should use, Lehr pushed for the sustained advocacy efforts.

Lehr provided not only stirring examples of the challenges that growers face but also concrete examples of ways in which to fight back. He explained that by speaking out about agriculture, growers can dispute the misinformation that is becoming increasingly common. Lehr urged growers to speak out in various forums such as at local school and at meetings of clubs such as the Kiwanis and Rotary.

He also urged them to take further proactive steps such as hosting an open house on their farms during the summer, utilizing social media such as Facebook and Twitter and responding directly to inaccurate media reports through phone calls or letters.

Pointing out that agriculture truly has a great story to tell, Lehr listed several topics that growers can use when addressing misconceptions. By informing those outside of the industry about the overwhelming number of farms run by families (currently 99 percent), environmentally friendly practices such as reduced tillage, the technologies revolutionizing the industry and the actual story of sustainability, growers can combat negative images surrounding farming.

NCGA Leadership Brings Message to Wide Audience

The National Corn Growers Association seized the opportunity to tell the story of U.S. corn growers, holding a news conference for the array of media already assembled for Commodity Classic. During the session, NCGA President Darrin Ihnen, Chairman Bob Dickey, First Vice President Bart Schott and CEO Rick Tolman presented on many current topics and fielded questions. Coverage of this event will help showcase grower achievements and highlight public policies that would benefit agriculture.

Ihnen began his presentation noting that while there is still corn in the field, USDA forecasts indicate a record harvest of 13.2 billion bushels and record average yield of 165.2 bushels per acre. He went on to explain how this incredible harvest, achieved despite difficult weather conditions, disproves the false food versus fuel argument.

Addressing other arguments, Ihnen explained, "We can meet all needs and even those of growing markets well into the foreseeable future without significantly increasing corn acreage."

During the conference, Ihnen again stressed the shortcomings of the current indirect land use formula used by EPA. He also clarified that the current request to the Department of Energy would only enable those who chose to use a 15 percent ethanol blend but would not mandate it.

Finally, Ihnen used the conference to announce the NCGA joint Image and Activism Campaign that will launch in 2010. Noting that the effort will unite various sectors of agriculture, the campaign will reinforce the positive image of farmers while urging them to take an active role in telling the story of their industry.

Following the presentation, media attendees demonstrated significant interest in the association's current policy stances with questions relating to ongoing attacks on agriculture, higher blend options, Corn Farmers Coalition activities and livestock industry relations.

Commodity Classic provides a valuable forum for growers to promote agriculture in that it brings both producers and media from across the country together. Throughout the week, NCGA will continue efforts to promote positive images of the industry while advocating for public policy that provides and maintains opportunities for growers.