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Corn farmers prepping message for Congress, public

By DOUG SCHMITZ
Iowa Correspondent

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — In an effort to better disseminate accurate information to the public, media and Washington lawmakers on how U.S. farmers are growing far more corn while using fewer resources, a group of farm organizations from 10 states have recently formed the Corn Farmers Coalition (CFC).
“Growing corn used to be a fairly noncontroversial job,” said Mark Lambert, communications director for the Illinois Corn Marketing Board and the Illinois Corn Growers Assoc., an expert in corn marketing and promotion who heads the coalition.

“In fact, people saw it as an admirable thing to do: To live closer to nature than city people, to understand the small yet profound mysteries of growing things, and to raise food for the nation,” he said in an April 30 teleconference with reporters.

But last year, Lambert said U.S. corn farmers were blindsided by misinformation from the nation’s major food makers and oil companies, which he said wrongly blamed producers for the high food prices these corporations claimed were hurting consumer spending.

Despite corn prices doubling as a result of wet planting conditions and a fear of drought, Lambert said the 2008 corn crop was the second-largest on record, with U.S. corn growers using the least amount of resources – such as nitrogen fertilizer – than ever before in modern times to grow the estimated 12 billion bushels.
“The food makers pointed their fingers at corn and ethanol and said ethanol was pumping up food prices and hurting shoppers at the grocery store,” he said. “And the oil companies saw an opening to get some licks in, too, on ethanol – a domestic, renewable fuel which also happens to be one of their competitors.

“But it was last year’s high oil prices that pushed up food prices. If you don’t believe me, all you have to do is ask the (U.S.) Department of Agriculture. We knew it was crucial to refute these lies. Too much was at stake. And we have.”

Established in March, the newly formed CFC’s members include the National Corn Growers Assoc. (NCGA), Illinois Corn Marketing Board, Indiana Corn Marketing Council, Iowa Corn Promotion Board, Kansas Corn Commission, Kentucky Corn Growers Assoc., Missouri Corn Merchandising Council, Nebraska Corn Board, Ohio Corn Growers Assoc., Virginia Grain Producers Assoc. and Wisconsin Corn Growers Assoc.

Now, with agriculture committee members in Congress reluctant to reopen the farm bill, Lambert said the pivotal piece of farm legislation is central to the CFC’s success.

“But President Obama has made it no secret he’s anxious to effect big changes in agriculture, like lopping $10 billion off farm payments in his proposed budget,” he said. “And that sounds great – until you look at the details of his proposal and realize it would hurt small farmers without fixing many of the farm bill’s biggest problems.”

Ross Korves, a ProExporter Network economist, said one example of how U.S. farmers are yielding more while using less is on the west coast. “California farmers grow five times as much corn now as they did in the 1930s on 20 percent less land, using less pesticide, fertilizer and fuel per bushel produced than just a few decades ago,” he said.

“The advances in biotechnology we’re seeing are as game-changing as the introduction of the tractor or, later, industrial pesticide and fertilizer. Corn yields may hit almost 300 bushels an acre by 2030, or 24 billion bushels, close to double the expected production this year, on roughly the same acreage as today.”

The USDA stated farmers would plant about the same number of acres of corn as last year, which would be down about 8 percent from the acreage planted in 2007, Korves noted.

“That deflates the theory that a mad scramble to grow corn for ethanol will somehow displace other crops,” he said.

Darrin Ihnen, a Hurley, S.D., grower and NCGA’s first vice president, said the nation’s real productivity trends now mean there will be enough supply of corn for food, animal feed, ethanol and other industrial uses without planting more acreage – in America or anywhere else, which he said could be applicable to the farm bill.
“Critics – we corn farmers included – thought it was time for a change,” he said. “We argued that government money should provide only a safety net, and only when needed most, as in the event of a disaster. Government help isn’t necessary when yields are good and prices make it profitable to grow corn.”

The coalition is heading for a three-pronged advertising campaign including print, Web and radio, that corn growers produce more from less, with educational ads about the industry’s innovative technology.

 “The goal is to supply accurate, factual information about corn production,” said Shannon Textor, Iowa Corn Growers Assoc. market development director and staff lead for the CFC. “The assumptions about how things on the farm are done today are alarming, and this is a concentrated effort to educate decision makers.”

Lambert said Congress and those who affect their decisions need to know these facts because as decisions get made on Capitol Hill, “bureaucracy can make or break family farmers and the food, fuel, feed and fiber they provide.”

For more information about the CFC, visit www.cornfarmerscoalition.org

5/14/2009