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Corn Congress Charts Course for NCGA, Brings Growers to Capital
 This week, grower leaders and staff from state and national corn associations gathered in Washington for a series of team and committee meetings, Capitol Hill visits with lawmakers and the semi-annual Corn Congress, where grower leaders from 28 states elected two new members of the National Corn Growers Association Corn Board and reelected three current Corn Board members. During proceedings, Corn Congress delegates ratified Chip Bowling, a Maryland grower, to serve as the new first vice president elect for the 2014 fiscal year. Additionally, the delegates elected Kevin Ross of Iowa and Paul Taylor of Illinois to the Corn Board. Current board members Rob Elliott of Illinois, Jon Holzfaster of Nebraska and Wesley Spurlock of Texas were re-elected. "Each year, we have a terrific slate of candidates for the Corn Board, growers who have already had an impressive career of volunteer service for American agriculture," NCGA Chairman Garry Niemeyer, who chairs the nominating committee, said. "It's inspiring to see such an interest on the part of these growers, especially at a time when our industry faces so many challenges. They are all going to be a great addition to the board, and do great things for all farmers." For more information about the fiscal year 2014 Corn Board members elected this week, click here. For more information on newly ratified 2014 NCGA First Vice President Elect Chip Bowling, click here. The NCGA Corn Board represents the organization on all matters while directing both policy and supervising day-to-day operations. Board members represent the federation of state organizations, supervise the affairs and activities of NCGA in partnership with the chief executive officer and implement NCGA policy established by the Corn Congress. Members also act as spokespeople for the NCGA and enhance the organization's public standing on all organizational and policy issues. The week kicked off with action team and committee meetings, during which each group carefully considered the current issues and opportunities most relevant to farmers in their target area. Specifically, the farmer-led teams discussed changing situations, and the possible ramifications of these changes, in areas including public policy, ethanol, biotechnology, government regulation, trade and grower services. After both discussion and expert presentation, the teams decided upon any policy changes to recommend to Corn Congress as a whole for adoption. For more information on the NCGA action team and committee meetings, click here. Following the action team and committee meetings, the delegate body of Corn Congress convened to review NCGA policy and elect the aforementioned leadership. During this session, the delegates reviewed current organizational policy, demonstrating their support by making extremely minimal substantive changes to current policy.  During Corn Congress, attendees enjoyed presentations from industry and government notables including AgChat social media experts Brian Scott and Ryan Weeks, U.S. Grains Council Chairman Don F ast and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, who NCGA honored with the 2013 President's Award for his work advancing issues important to growers and agriculture. For more information on NCGA's President's Award and Secretary Vilsack, click here. During Corn Congress, NCGA and DuPont announced a new program to develop corn farmers for agricultural leadership opportunities. With more focus on food than ever, the NCGA DuPont New Leader Program will help to empower growers to share their story of their farms and the benefits of a robust agriculture system with key audiences, including consumers, media and decision-makers. The NCGA DuPont New Leader Program will bring farmers from each affiliated state to two sessions to develop and hone their communications and leadership skills. The first session will be held in Des Moines in November, and the second session will take place in Washington in July 2014. In between the two sessions, those farm couples involved will be encouraged to be actively participating and honing their skills in state and national programs. To learn more about this new program, click here. For nearly a full working day, delegates, staff and attendees deepened their interaction with the federal government through visits to their state's House and Senate legislation on Capitol Hill. Lobbying for prompt conference discussions and the full passage of a five-year farm bill and stressing the importance of ethanol to our nation's rural economies and energy security, these delegations took grower concerns directly to federal legislators. Click here to view photos from all of this week's activities. | 
