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New lobby group forms to challenge ASA in D.C.

By ANN HINCH
Assistant Editor

WASHINGTON, D.C. — With the blessing of outgoing USDA Secretary Ed Schafer, there’s a good chance the USDA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) will launch an investigation of records of the United Soybean Board (USB) and the U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC) concerning use of national soybean checkoff funds.

American Soybean Assoc. (ASA) Chairman John Hoffman of Iowa said it is his understanding the OIG will conduct an investigation based on Schafer’s approval of doing so. This stems from a December request by the ASA for the OIG to investigate ASA’s concerns about checkoff spending and management.

As of Jan. 12, the OIG was still reviewing the issues and allegations in the ASA request and had not formally announced an investigation. Hoffman said the OIG’s process should not be affected by the change in presidential administrations on Jan. 20.
As for how long it could last, “that’s probably dependent on (the OIG’s) workload and work schedule,” Hoffman said, believing it could take upwards of a year or more.

New lobby group

In related news, state soybean officials in Minnesota, Missouri and Mississippi incorporated the United States Soybean Federation (USSF) as a nonprofit with the Minnesota secretary of state’s office on Dec. 31, 2008. Like the ASA, the USSF’s intent is as a legislative lobbying arm for the soybean industry.

Lance Peterson, newly elected USSF president – a Minnesota farmer, past president of the Minnesota Soybean Growers Assoc. and currently on the ASA board of directors – said a rumor that this new organization has been in the works since 2005 was caused by an error in paperwork.

“In fact, our initial discussions started on Dec. 11, (2008),” he said.
That was immediately after the ASA made public its petition to the OIG and a press release citing examples of its concerns. Peterson said some ASA directors and soybean officials in the three member USSF states felt this “negative media campaign” could compromise the ASA’s effectiveness in working with the USB. (The USB is forbidden from lobbying/policy efforts – which is what the ASA does – and instead must use checkoff funds for research, development and promotion.)

“It’s something that could’ve and should’ve been handled in a very different way than the negative way they’ve chosen,” Peterson said of the ASA’s manner of presentation of its petition to the public and press. “It would have seemed more prudent for ASA leadership to go directly to USB or USDA with their audit petition rather than launch this negative effort.”

Hoffman said the ASA is charged with keeping its members informed. “To criticize the way it was handled was disingenuous,” he said. “ASA needed to be transparent and inform its members.” He noted the ASA withheld from the public many of the “personal” aspects of its petition to the OIG, releasing a “soft,” more general version of the document to the press.

“We feel like we’re very measured and moderate in our information we provide to the media and our soybean farmers,” he said, adding the USSF is “a bad thing for soybean farmers.”

“We’re deeply saddened and concerned that they would find the need for a radical rival organization,” said Alan Kemper, ASA vice president and soybean farmer from Indiana. He added that farmers have “very precious and limited dollars” to spend on policymaking. “We do not see a need for a second organization to lobby for soybean efforts.

Weakened lobbyist?

But Peterson disagrees. He said he and other USSF officials don’t see how the ASA can effectively work with the USB and corporate partners after the way the ASA has handled this investigation petition, though he emphasized the dispute is not over the request itself.

“We’re remaining neutral in regard to that part of it,” he explained. “We don’t take issue with the audit itself.” Neither, as far as he knows, does the USB. (Requests by Farm World for an interview with a USB representative were not answered.)

Peterson said the ASA has had many legislative successes in nearly 90 years of existence and he realizes many ASA directors are worried a duplicate lobbying effort will dilute its effectiveness in Washington, D.C.

“We just feel (the effort) needs to be effective,” he said, adding he believes this one incident could weaken the ASA.

Hoffman said ASA success is predicated on being a single voice for soybean farmers. “If you have two organizations knocking on doors in Congress, with two separate messages, in all likelihood, neither organization will get what’s needed for farmers,” he explained.
He said a united voice is still important even though the farm bill has passed, what with the biodiesel tax incentive up for review this year, as well as international agricultural negotiations (such as the Doha round of World Trade Organization talks). On top of that, there are $40 million in federal funds that legislators allocate for soybean research, mostly to land grant universities, and Hoffman believes it is best to have one voice lobbying for its distribution.
Hoffman is “fairly confident” dissatisfied USB people “have a hand in” the creation of the USSF, citing the fact that Minnesota checkoff executive Jim Palmer used to work with the USB. Palmer’s name is on the Dec. 31 filing of the USSF with Minnesota’s secretary of state.

Peterson denied this, adding he is not the only ASA director to help form the new organization. He explained the USSF is currently comprised of nine directors, three from each state (though right now Mississippi only has one), to give those states equal representation – rather than how the ASA directors are based on membership distribution.

Other USSF officers are Vice President Warren Stemme, a soybean farmer from Chesterfield, Mo., and Secretary/Treasurer Jerry Slocum, a soybean farmer from Coldwater, Miss. USSF bylaws say each member state will have 10 farmer-delegates, three of whom will be directors.

Peterson said the USSF is “committed to a sincere working relationship with the national checkoff program” – which is the USB. Its next step is to try to recruit other states to join through their soybean associations, to establish a D.C. office and to hire a lobbyist.

1/14/2009