|
|  |
January 26, 2001 * Volume 8 * Number 3
NCGA Policy & Priority
Conference Jan. 18-19 in St. Louis
NCGA Corn Board
members, state grower association and checkoff board presidents, Corn
Congress delegates, Corn Action Team chairmen and NCGA staff gathered
in St. Louis Jan. 18-19 for the 2001 NCGA Policy and Priority Conference.
"We had an excellent meeting -- people were in the mode to get things
done," said NCGA President Lee Klein, adding that this was the first
step toward looking at resolutions for the 2001 year, in preparation
for Corn Congress in February in San Antonio, Texas. The groups also
discussed state and national priorities for 2001 and 2002. "We collectively
shared our priorities as one step toward ensuring that national and
state priorities are in line to achieve results from corn growers within
both programs and policies," Jensen said. Top priorities for NCGA have
been outlined as: biotechnology, ethanol, river transportation, Farm
Bill and new uses/commercialization. Those priorities will be considered
in the development of the budget for 2001-2002. NCGA delegates will
consider proposed resolutions at the Feb. 25-27 Corn Congress sessions.
An open forum for policy discussions will be held at Commodity Classic
before Corn Congress. States are asked to forward any changes in delegate
alternate names directly to Kathy Baker, e-mail: baker@ncga.com.
Corn Board Meets
in St. Louis
The NCGA Corn Board
held their first official meeting of 2001 immediately following the
Policy and Priority Conference Jan. 19 in St. Louis. Highlighting the
meeting were reports from each of the four Corn Action Teams:
- Public Policy
Action Team: Chairman Brent Porteus reported that the team had
spent a lot of time working on the Farm Bill, including visits to
state organizations to gather information for Farm Bill policy development.
The team has concentrated its work on trade policy, rural economic
development, conservation issues, a modified marketing loan and some
changes in crop insurance.
- Customer &
Business Development Action Team: Chairman Vic Miller reported
that the team is focused on three areas of utilization research, value-added
research and some specific research with degerm and fiber fermentation
with expansion in the ethanol market. The goal of the team's work
is commercialization of new markets for corn. Utilization projects
include genome and Vision 2020; value-added research includes polyols,
exploratory research and fiber utilization; and specific research
programs are degerm, fiber fermentation, butanol, PLA and extremophiles.
- Grower Services
Action Team: Chairman Scott Wall reported on the current membership
level of 30,157, small states task force and Web task force progress,
the possibility of a referendum and education committee and lifetime
memberships.
- Production
and Stewardship Action Team: Chairman Jamie Jamison reported on
the team's progress in the areas of the upper Mississippi issue, water
quality, insect resistance management (IRM), Corn Yield Contest and
other issues including biotechnology, transportation, grain quality,
precision ag and nitrogen prices.
Corn Grower Grassroots
Action Halts Issuance of Oxygenate Waiver, For Now
The full-court press
employed by NCGA's grassroots members and their elected representatives
prevailed when the Clinton Administration declined to issue the waiver
allowing California an exemption from the federal Reformulated Gasoline
(RFG) oxygen requirement. Without the strong action taken by this industry,
it appears very likely that California would have received the waiver.
NCGA President Lee Klein noted, "Granting California the waiver never
made any sense. I can understand why state officials wanted to remove
MTBE from their gasoline supplies, but the waiver would have unfairly
hurt ethanol. California would have gotten dirtier air, and the good
reputation of ethanol would have been slandered." Klein praised those
congressional members who conveyed the corn and ethanol industry's concern
to the Clinton Administration, particularly Sens. Tom Harkin (D-IA),
Tom Daschle (D-SD) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) for their extraordinary service
on behalf of their farmer constituents.
Farm Bill Hearings
Will Begin Jan. 31
On Jan. 31, the
House Agriculture Committee will begin its farm bill hearings with testimony
from the Commission on 21st Century Production Agriculture. This Commission
was created in the Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform (FAIR)
Act of 1996 and charged with the task of measuring the mid-term impact
on production flexibility, economic risk by farm size and region, food
security, farmland values, producer income, a documentation of regulatory
relief, tax relief and trade policies. Central to the Commission's mission
is identification of the appropriate role of the federal government
in production agriculture and the personnel and infrastructure requirements
of USDA to support its role after the FAIR Act expires in 2002. Members
of the Agriculture Committee will weigh the Commission's recommendations
heavily as they debate future farm policy. Forwarding those recommendations
will be the job of every Commission member, including past NCGA President
William Northey of Spirit Lake, Iowa.
Customer & Business
Development Action Team Meets with Leading Genome Expert
Members of the Customer
& Business Development Action Team met Jan. 22 via conference call with
Dr. Bill Goure of Mendel, Inc., a nationally known expert in the field
of genomics. After describing Mendel, Inc.'s work in the field of genomics
and issues such as data sequencing, Dr. Goure praised NCGA for the lead
it has taken in the advancement of genomics research.
NCGA Concerned About
Newly Released Hypoxia Action Plan
A federal-state
task force last week released a proposed Hypoxia Action Plan that concerns
NCGA because of potential impacts on farmers in the Midwest. The goal
of the plan is to reduce the hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico. The
good news for farmers is that the proposal relies on voluntary incentive-based
programs; however, NCGA remains concerned about the link between the
Action Plan's reduction goal and Congress' inability to fully fund these
programs in the past. NCGA continues to tell policymakers that the industry-preferred
solution lies in the Farm Bill's conservation programs (CRP, WRP), because
they do the best job of addressing local priorities, and these programs
should be fully funded.
EU Slaps Tariff
on U.S. Corn Gluten Feed
Following a recent
meeting of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body in Geneva, the European Union
(EU) announced a 5 euros per ton tariff on 2.73 million metric tons
of U.S. corn gluten feed. Reacting to this decision, U.S. trade officials
signaled they will seek consultations if EU imposes tariffs that are
not sanctioned by WTO rules. Corn gluten feed is a co-product derived
from the production of ethanol and high fructose corn syrup, of which
5 million metric tons valued at $100 per ton is exported to the EU annually.
Aventis Will Cover
StarLink Costs
Aventis CropScience
USA reached an agreement with 17 state attorneys' general on Jan. 23
to compensate farmers and grain elevator operators who incurred economic
losses due to StarLink contamination. The agreement formalized a process
that had been underway since last fall. Aventis pledged to pay farmers
and elevator operators for economic injury due to StarLink corn, buffer
corn and commingled corn. One provision of this agreement allows the
states to seek redress from Aventis if additional problems not currently
addressed develop in the future. Aventis said it will mail claims documents
to all known growers, elevator operators and others whose corn either
was commingled with StarLink or whose fields were adjacent to StarLink
fields. Growers also can access the following web site: www.starlinkcorn.com
for a claim form and additional information.
D.C. Fundraiser
for Senator George Voinovich
The Ohio Corn Growers
Association hosted a fundraiser earlier this week for Sen. Voinovich
(R-OH) in Washington. Ohio corn growers organized an evening function
that raised $10,000 for the senator. Given the support that Sen. Voinovich
has provided to our industry, this was an appropriate way of saying
"thanks," which was not lost on the senator.
Ohio Corn Growers
Delegation in Washington
Two dozen members
of the Ohio Corn Growers Association jetted into D.C. for a jam-packed
three-day agenda. In addition to a flurry of Hill visits to their entire
congressional delegation, the growers attended meetings at the Renewable
Fuels Association, the USDA and the Embassy of Taiwan.
|