NCGA’s
Niemeyer Supports Grain Inspection Act in Testimonies (5-25-05)
The National
Corn Growers Association (NCGA) Corn Board member Garry Niemeyer
expressed support for the continuation of the U.S. Grain Inspection
Act in testimonies this week before the House Subcommittee on General
Farm Commodities and Risk Management and the Senate Committee on
Agriculture.
Niemeyer, a corn grower
from Glenarm, Ill., testified on behalf of NCGA, the American Farm
Bureau Federation, American Soybean Association, National Association
of Wheat Growers and the National Grain Sorghum Producers.
“Agriculture today remains the backbone of our nation’s
economy,” he said. “American farmers and ranchers produce
the most abundant, affordable and safe food supply in the world.
We produce over 1.7 trillion pounds of food and fiber. Even though
the number of farmers and total farm land are decreasing, agriculture
products are increasing. Improved technology and efficiencies have
allowed us to maximize our production per acre.”
Niemeyer noted the agriculture
industry employs more than 24 million American workers, which equals
17 percent of the total U.S. work force and that 17 percent of all
U.S. agriculture products are exported yearly, including 99 million
tons of grains and feed.
“Corn exports in
2004 were over 47 million tons alone, and approximately half of
the U.S. wheat crop is exported annually,” said Niemeyer.
“The United States sells more food and fiber to world markets
than we import, creating a positive agricultural trade balance.”
Niemeyer told the committees
agriculture is one of the few U.S. industries that benefit from
a positive trade balance and that supporting reauthorization of
the U.S. Grain Standards Act is directly related and imperative
to the industry’s export markets and profitability. He said
when more commodities are moved into more markets, both commodity
prices and farm incomes tend to rise.
“Reauthorization
of the Grain Standards Act is imperative to our export markets,”
Niemeyer said. “We have built these markets based on product
availability and quality.”
Niemeyer said that since
the passage of the Grain Standards Act in 1916, the U.S. has been
the pioneer in providing quality assurance to overseas buyers and
that other countries have developed similar services as a standard
for guidelines for their own individual exports. “Overseas
buyers continue to seek products from the United States because
they know the official system, with its precise testing procedures,
equipment criteria and conduct standard ensure accurate, consistent
results. The integrity of this system, which U.S. sellers and overseas
buyers rely on, should never be compromised,” he said.
According to
the agriculture industry Niemeyer represents, they believe the cost
of obtaining official services at ports where the Grain Inspection,
Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) provides inspection
and weighing services has become a factor that is contributing to
a gradual erosion of the competitive position of U.S. grain and
oilseed exports in world markets. “U.S. exporters report that
the cost of official grain inspection is one of the largest expense
items they face,” Niemeyer said in his testimony. “These
costs have been increasing at a rate well above the underlying rate
of inflation. GIPSA inspection costs in recent years have been increasing
at more than 7 percent annually compared to other costs in the 1
percent to 3 percent range.”
Niemeyer encouraged the committee to use better management of the
cost of export inspections, take advantage of modern technologies
to enhance efficiency and be flexible enough to respond to a changing
industry structure and an increasingly competitive world market.
He also stated that the
industry supports amending the U.S. Grain Standards Act to authorize
GIPSA to delegate qualified third party companies to provide official
inspection and weighing services at ports where GIPSA currently
provides such services saying that the change will offers other
opportunities for controlling the costs of inspections while holding
the integrity of the system.
NCGA and the other industry
organizations are opposing authorizing GIPSA to collect approximately
$4 million in fees that would cover the cost of the agency’s
standardization activities saying that the user fees for standardization
activities are an ill-conceived approach that will only serve to
make effective cost management in the agency more challenging than
it already is.
To view the
testimony in its entirety, please click on the following link.