National Corn Growers Association

USDA Delivers Thousands of Bridge Payments In a Matter of Days

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 15:56:32 GMT

In an afternoon general session, adjusted to fit USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins’ schedule, the agency leader welcomed a record crowd of 12,000 to her home state of Texas as she stares down one of the most challenging moments in farming history. Farmers are facing high input costs, trade uncertainty and surging grain production.

“Between 2020 and last year when I spoke at this incredible event, fuel costs had increased 33%, seed costs had increased 19%, fertilizer prices had gone up 48%, labor up 44% and interest expenses up 71%,” said Rollins.

The frustration in the room was palpable following a year in 2025 where strong production was again unable to overcome swelling costs and expenses. Farmers here are now looking harder to Washington for answers as another season of negative margins stares them in the face.

“We’re seven years out from this last farm bill and all of this information that we’re trying to work with is so outdated, our costs are so different, we have to get something done,” said Jed Bower, the current president of the National Corn Growers Association and an Ohio farmer. “They have forgotten about rural America.”

Help is on the way

USDA did roll out an $11 billion rescue program called the Farmer Bridge Assistance Program as a way to help tide farmers over until safety net pricing adjustments kick in this fall. Those weren’t passed in a new Farm Bill but instead included in the One Big Beautiful Bill signed last year. Sign-ups for Bridge payments are currently underway with FSA even allowing Commodity Classic attendees to finalize their applications on the tradeshow floor. Some of those payments are already in farmers’ hands as Rollins told farmers help is on the way.

“I will not declare victory, we still have so much work to do, but I will declare that we have made great progress on the promises that were made,” said Rollins. “Since [the last time I was here] we have had 15 new trade deals and/or frameworks for US agriculture in key markets like the European Union, UK, Japan, Mexico and Southeast Asia.”

The secretary also pointing China’s return to the market and pending presidential meeting scheduled for later this month. Economists are forecasting the agricultural trade deficit to fall from $41.5 billion in 2025 to $35 billion this year. That shift is happening around a strong export year in 2025 for things like ethanol where exports were up 11%, dairy exports were up 15% and corn exports ending the year 29% higher.

Separately from trade, Rollins noting a litany of deregulation happening across agencies. In a post on X.com, the secretary listed a number of changes already underway. Rollins writing that to date the administration has cut 129 regulations for every new one, resulting in $211.8 billion in net cost savings. She says accomplishments in USDA deregulation agenda include:

Reversing the EPA endangerment finding impacting vehicle emissions standards
Raising poultry line speeds → ~16% lower chicken prices
Rescinding the Roadless Rule → opens 59M acres for timber
Cutting USDA NEPA regs by 66% (streamlining 7 rules into 1)
Reforming H-2A AEWR → saves farmers >$2B/year in labor costs
Clarifying WOTUS per recent Supreme Court ruling
Modernizing Forest Service oil/gas & minerals leasing rules

I’m in Floresville, TX today launching @USDA’s new Deregulatory Agenda for American Agriculture & Consumers! Thank you to the amazing Boening Family for welcoming us to your beautiful farm!!! The Trump Admin is cutting red tape to unleash innovation on farms & ranches while… pic.twitter.com/5NOdTT2dpX
— Secretary Brooke Rollins (@SecRollins) February 26, 2026

USDA systems get an upgrade

While the world focuses on precision agriculture and technology adoption, the systems helping support American farmers has been embarrassingly slow to evolve.

“A GAO audit found that barely 15% of previous upgrades were delivered,” said Rollins. “We have been left with ancient technical architecture with 500 different custom-built systems and databases managed by over 1,000 different contractors that cost the taxpayer over $1 billion.”

The secretary announcing the ‘One Farmer, One File’ initiative as a way to streamline the data collection and services from USDA.

“This creates a single, streamlined record that follows you, the farmer, no matter where you go in USDA system,” explained Rollins. “When this initiative concludes, producers will be able to access their USDA data in a single, modern, secure system built to today’s cybersecurity standards.”

USDA Secretary Rollins watches as a producers enrolls at Commodity Classic

(USDA (X.com))

Rollins says it’s part of the administration’s broader vision of revamping how Americans interact with the government’s digital front door. She also made it clear that these new tools are optional.

“What does this mean? Do I have to do everything on a computer? No, these FSA offices will stay open. You will always have someone to walk into and sit down with to help with paper applications and traditional acreage reporting,” said Rollins. “This is not a mandate to digitize. We are not telling you we’re moving everything to your phone or your computer at home, but instead it is an expansion of options for our farmers.”

This is the first phase of a multi-year initiative. The Farmer Bridge Assistance Program is the very first program running fully on this new platform.

“After 72 hours we had over 30,000 applications go through the application process at login.gov” said Richard Fordyce, USDA undersecretary for farm production and conservation. “When the producer sees the form on their virtual device and hit sign here, that immediately goes to the county office. It’s then signed and certified and sent for payment, immediately.”

“The results have been stunning,” said Rollins. “In just the past few days, we have seen 50 times more producers sign up online than ECAP did over its entire five-month sign-up period last year. Adoption is up over 5,000% and several billion dollars have already been obligated. Many of you told me you’ve already had the check hit your bank account faster than any program ever before in the history of USDA.”

Rollins called it a new standard for the delivery of services. She says the IT and system upgrades are scheduled to be completed within the next 2 years.

Focus on 2026

Rollins laid out her priorities for the new year as farmers at Commodity Classic look for answers to the difficult balance sheet decisions awaiting their return to the farm. The top 5 boiled down to this:

Continue to deregulate
Strike new trade deals
Lower the cost of inputs
Expand markets at home with biofuels
Strengthen the farm safety net by passing a new Farm Bill

That will be easier said than done as each step comes with its own set of challenges. Rollins will be navigating closing Washington D.C. offices and moving staff to new regional hubs which she hopes to have done by the start of school next fall. Throw in global political uncertainty, stubborn inflation and stiff competition from Brazil, and the challenges are big.

“I want every American to understand that if we are not able to reverse the trend, the farm economy, the increase in inputs, the fewer markets around the world, protection from lawfare, if we’re not able to reverse that trend, then we not only will lose the greatest industry in American history, but we will also lose our country,” said Rollins. “There is no freedom unless we are able to feed and fuel ourselves.”

New Study Shows Corn Farming Delivers Economic Benefits Across All 50 States

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 20:45:43 GMT

Corn farming is an important economic contributor in the U.S., not only to growers and rural communities but across 506 industry sectors in all 50 states.

That’s according to the new “ Study of the Economic Value of Corn Farming in the United States for 2024 ,” a report released by the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) on Monday.

Corn farming for grain generated an estimated $123 billion in total economic output in 2024, with an estimated contribution of $50 billion to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), notes author, Krista Swanson , chief economist for the NCGA.

She writes that corn farming supported over 440,000 jobs and provided $29 billion in wages, strengthening communities in rural America and across the entire nation last year alone.

The report comes as corn prices have dropped and corn growers face many challenges, including higher input costs, tariffs and some trade barriers. NCGA leaders say the report should serve as a reminder to policymakers that corn grower contributions are important.

Here’s a look at the economic benefits corn makes in every U.S. state:

Corn farming benefits communities and individuals across the country.

(NCGA)

The total benefits of corn farming is a sum of the direct, indirect and induced effects, Swanson says.

“Direct effects are valued based on activities happening at the corn farm level. Indirect effects are valued based on activities up the corn farming supply chain, such as input providers,” she says. “Induced effects are valued based on activities filtered back into the economy by household spending of corn farmers and employees up the corn supply chain.”

Direct Effects
In 2024, corn farmers in the United States grew 14.9 billion bushels of corn for grain valued at $64.7 billion, representing the direct output or industry production value. Corn farming provides direct labor wage and benefit equivalents of $9.9 billion.

Corn farming directly contributes an estimated $15.6 billion in value added output, a measure of contribution to the nation’s GDP. To put that into perspective, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates the output of all of America’s farms contributed a total $199.1 billion, or about 0.7% of U.S. GDP, in 2024.5 Corn farming alone directly made up 8% of the total farm-level contribution to GDP.

Indirect Effects
Swanson writes that there are firms in 489 different industry sectors across all 50 states with indirect linkages to corn farming. These firms generated an estimated $36.1 billion in output production value and contributed an estimated $20.7 billion to GDP in 2024. Indirect labor and wage benefits totaled $11.4 billion.

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EPA’s Year-Round E15 Proposed Rule Pushes Sales into 2024

Wed, 01 Mar 2023 19:09:20 GMT

EPA on Wednesday issued a proposed rule by eight Midwest governors, including Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin, to allow the sale of E15 fuel blends all year, starting in 2024.

Historically, E15 sales were banned in the summer months due to claim that the blend increased smog. However, year-round sales have been on the table for many Midwest states since President Biden suspended the summer ban on E15 in 2022 as a means to mitigate rising fuel costs.

Related article: 8 State Requests for Year-Round E15 Reviewed by US Budget Office

“EPA’s research has shown no significant impact on evaporative emissions when… the waiver is extended to E15,” the agency wrote at the time of the suspension. “With no significant impacts on emissions from cars and trucks, we expect consumers can continue to use E15 without concern that its use in the summer will impact air quality.”

Troubled Waters

While the ethanol industry has been pushing for the legislation since 2022, some stakeholders, including the Renewable Fuel Association (RFA) , are dissatisfied with the proposed rule timeline.

“There is simply no justification for further delaying this action, which is already months overdue,” said Geoff Cooper, RFA president and CEO. “By law, EPA should have finalized approval of the governors’ petition more than seven months ago, which would have given the marketplace more than enough time to adjust and prepare for implementation this summer.”

According to Cooper, the Biden administration was pressured by the oil industry to “ignore” each states’ proposal. In pushing the year-round E15 implementation in 2024, Cooper is concerned the agency would put the oil industry above consumers needs for affordable fuel at the pump.

“We urge EPA to reconsider its proposal to delay implementation. There is still time for the agency to finalize the regulation—or to use other regulatory authority—to allow E15 sales to continue this summer,” Cooper said.

RFA and other groups will be offered an opportunity to share their thoughts on EPA’s proposed rule at a public hearing date to be announced in coming weeks. All listeners must register for by sending an email to RFS-Hearing@epa.gov.

Related article: United Airlines Taps Corn to Bring Ethanol-Based Jet Fuel to Market

Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) echoed RFA’s disdain for the proposed rule in a press release .

“This proposal, while well-intended, still leaves the country with a patchwork of regulations that prevents the nation’s driving public from enjoying the full benefits of biofuels. It also fails to address this upcoming summer driving season,” said Fischer.

According to Fischer, the “best” solution to EPA’s rule is congressional action. Others agree, but in a different form of legislation.

Where to Next for Ethanol?

But E15 regulations aren’t the only ethanol news to keep an eye out for in 2023, according to Neil Caskey, National Corn Grower’s Association CEO.

Caskey says the next ethanol push will be rooted in the Next Generation Fuels Act —a bill that would seek to establish a minimum Research Octane Number (RON) of 98 for gasoline. This research level would be higher than the standard of 91 set today.

The act would also require sources of the added octane value to reduce carbon emissions by at least 40%.

Related article: DOE Cuts $118 Million Check to Biofuels Projects

Caskey says since ethanol has a higher-octane number compared to gasoline, estimates find the act would add 1.8 billion bushels of new corn demand. Beyond crops, Caskey says the bill would offer a lower-cost, cleaner option at the pump.

The Next Generation Fuels Act will likely hit both the House and Senate floor soon, according to Caskey. He says to expect the legislative process to be put into motion later this year.

The Cost of a Farm Bill: 2023 Row Crop Priorities

Wed, 08 Feb 2023 15:35:54 GMT

The 2018 farm bill was stamped with a $428 billon price tag when the bill was passed. Nutrition, crop insurance, commodities, trade and conservation programs were among the programs to receive the most funds.

With the 2018 bill set to expire on Sept. 30, the Congressional Research Service last May released baseline spending for the same programs starting in the 2023 farm bill. The baseline shows a decrease in commodities and conservation, while nutrition, trade and crop insurance increased.

As the debate heats up, here’s a breakdown of what ag groups look to push on the 2023 farm bill negotiating table:

1. Crop Insurance

Industry leaders sounded the crop insurance alarm on the The Hill in Jan. when some 60 groups signed a letter to Senate and House Ag Committee members, pushing for protections from “harmful” insurance cuts.

“Farmers spend as much as $4 billion per year of their own money to purchase insurance from the private sector. On average, farmers also must incur losses of almost 30 percent before their insurance coverage pays an indemnity,” the groups wrote in the letter. “Given the challenges faced by rural America and the critical nature of crop insurance, cuts to the program should be avoided.”

Crop insurance is permanently authorized in a farm bill. However, amendments are often posed to the crop insurance title, adding an element of concern for producers.

Leaders at the American Soybean Association (ASA) are looking to play defense in the title, says Christy Seyfert, ASA executive director of government affairs.

“In the past, amendments have been proposed to use crop insurance as a funding resource for priorities outside of crop insurance,” Seyfert says. “We’re looking to protect against harmful amendments that make crop insurance more expensive for farmers.”

Read more: Stepped-Up Basis Leaning in Favor of Rural America on House Ways and Means Panel

National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) is aiming to take a different approach.

“We’re looking to maintain and enhance the crop insurance reach for producers by expanding current authority and programs,” says Chandler Goule, NAWG CEO. “To help with continued market fluctuations and erratic weather patterns, we’re leaning more into the revenue side.”

2. Farm Safety Net

Most farmers who grow row crops will soon be making their decision between Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) .

The 2014 Farm Bill first introduced ARC and PLC with a reference price, while the 2018 Farm Bill allowed the reference price to increase by up to 15%, which is why it is now called the effective reference price.

This reference price should be a focus in 2023, according to Wayne Stoskopf, director for public policy for risk management and tax at National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) .

“The effective reference price is definitely something we want to maintain,” he says. “We’re looking at how much it would cost, as well as some of the potential benefits, if it or the statutory reference price we’re to be increased.”

Read more: ARC or PLC - Which Do I Choose for 2023

Goule echoed Stoskopf, saying with the increase in the cost of goods, services and inputs since 2018, a $5.50 reference price for wheat is “simply not a realistic backstop” of what it costs to produce a bushel of wheat in the U.S.

“We’re encouraging Congress to increase budget authority so we can raise the reference price to something that’s reflective of our current circumstances and potential costs in coming years,” Goule says.

3. Trade

U.S. ag exports reached a record high of $196.4 billion in fiscal year 2022, according to USDA. With $237 million in funding for the Market Access Program (MAP) and Foreign Market Development Program (FMD) for 2023, Seyfert foresees another export record. However, her team thinks more funding could be impactful.

“We’re looking to double funding for MAP and FMD in the next farm bill,” she says. “A jump to $400 million and $69 million, respectively, will help us continue to build relationships internationally.”

Read more: SHIP IT Act Could Save Truck Drivers Up to $10,000 and Cover CDL Costs

According to Seyfert, ASA and other associations feel increased investments will open new doors to untapped markets overseas.

A Major Misconception About the Field Corn You See Right Now

Wed, 13 Jul 2022 20:32:31 GMT

Three years ago, an aerial view of Carroll County, Mo., looked more like a lake. The Missouri River flood of 2019 robbed area farmers of crops and vital infrastructure.

“We had six to seven foot of water where we’re standing right now,” says Carroll County farmer Adam Casner. “It’s been quite a rebuilding process – actually still involved in it.”

The flood changed the landscape forever, as Casner’s family relocated their family home that had been planted in the river bottoms for decades. Farther from the river, and on higher ground, they also built a new shop to house equipment.

Crops Off to a Strong Start

The Casners aren’t finished fixing the damage left behind, but the loss of crops is something the young farmers won’t ever forget, even if they’ve come a long way in the three years since.

“We’ve got a very good-looking prospect of crop here,” says Casner while looking out at this year’s corn crop. “We had really good stands, emergence was good. We had some timely rains early.”

Casner says the ground they farm along the Missouri River missed some of the recent rains that traveled across Missouri. While concerned about dryness, he’s thankful for the crop he has.

Planting started about a month behind this year for Casner, but with strong stands and minimal replant in his fields that are a few miles from the Missouri River, the crop is off to a solid start.

The Truth About Field Corn

The lush fields look promising, even if these fields are also ones that can be tangled in misconceptions from those driving by on Highway 65 that runs adjacent to their original home farm.

“A small fraction of the field corn we grow goes to actual food products such as cornflakes or sweeteners or such,” explains Casner. “It’s actually less than 10% that goes towards those products.”

Casner says the majority of the field corn rooted in his fields and other farms across the U.S. goes to other products outside of food.

“When you drive down the highway and see the field corn out here, 90% of that goes to the ethanol, exports and livestock,” he adds.

USDA’s June acreage report showed U.S. farmers planted 89.9 million acres of corn this year, and one out of every four bushels of added corn demand in the U.S. comes from cattle and hog producers.

Livestock, Ethanol and Exports

While some farms may not know exactly where the corn they grow goes after its taken to the local grain elevator, all of Casner’s corn is sent to two local ethanol plants.

“Where we’re standing now, we can hit U.S. Highway 65 and go 10 miles north or south and hit an ethanol plant,” says Casner. “So, that’s where 100% of our grain produced goes.”

One of those local ethanol plants is Mid-Missouri Energy (MME), a farmer-owned ethanol plant that took root 17 years ago.

“By design, our facility has about 10 days of ethanol storage and 10 days of DDG storage behind us here,” says Chris Wilson, the general manager of MME.

Processing 55,000 Bushels of Corn/Day

Today, the rural Missouri plant is in constant motion with an average of 100 trucks entering and exiting the facility each day. In total, MME processes around 55,000 bushels of corn a day.

“One of the nice things about our facility is we can speed up to 60,000 bushels a day or we can slow down if margins dictate to 30,000 or 40,000 bushels per day,” says Wilson.

Out of the 55,000 bushels of corn processed on average, the plant produces:

160,000 gallons of ethanol
415 tons of dried distillers grains (DDGs)
45,000 pounds of corn oil
450 tons of CO2

After local farms unload the corn from their trucks, it’s then processed into ethanol, DDGs and corn oil. The facility stores the product on site before shipped out to end users across the U.S.

“Most of our DDG products ship to the south, so southern Missouri, northern Arkansas, Oklahoma, southeastern Kansas,” says Wilson.

Providing Livestock Feed

By being located farther south in the Corn Belt, MME has prime placement for end users farther south, especially Arkansas’ poultry industry. The majority of their grain travels a couple hundred miles to feed the livestock industry there, but a portion of the DDGs stays local and is used by livestock producers like Brent Sandidge, a pork producer in Saline County, Mo.

“We use DDGs a lot in our gestation rations,” says Sandidge of Ham Hill Farms. “We use it in late nursery quite a bit and then all the way through finishing to the last few diets.”

Sandidge’s operations are located just 16.8 miles from MME, and today, Ham Hill Farms is still a family farm – one that’s been in business for more than a century.

“It’s kind of neat to be able to say you’ve been here that long and are still producing food for people,” he says.

Battling PRRS

Sandidge continues to find ways to become even more efficient as a pork producer, but this past year has been riddled with challenges.

“PRRS (porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome) virus has been a huge problem for us for a number of years. We get healthy and then we have a break again. And we’re dealing with the 1-4-4 L1c variant right now,” says Sandidge.

The most recent variant is not only aggressive and hard to control, but costly. PRRS has been a disease pork producers continue to battle, and it’s been devastating to hog operations across the U.S.

“We had a couple months where we didn’t wean very many pigs, so our sales were basically nothing,” says Sandidge.

The situation is finally improving on his Saline County farms, but he says it’s taken nearly a year to recover.

“We sell about eight loads a week, and we’re just about back to where we’re doing that pretty consistently now,” he adds.

The Inflation Factor

As Sandidge rebuilds, he’s also battling inflation with rising prices on nearly everything they purchase for their farm. As the industry faces higher costs, Sandidge says he continues to focus on managing risk, as well as hedging what they can while also wading through the uncertainty.

“One of the things that happens is we do get a recession, normally commodity prices go down, and so you don’t want to have too much bought ahead at the same time. It’s just a difficult time to be in business,” says Sandidge.

One Team

The Missouri pork producer admits those challenges mean he may only break even this year, but he hopes the strong start to the crops in area farm fields means producers will harvest a large crop this fall, since that crop will help feed his recovering hog herd.

“There’s so few of us actually involved in production agriculture today. If we don’t stick together, we’re not going to have much of a voice,” he says.

New NCGA President, Iowa Farmer Chris Edgington, Assesses Goals and Priorities

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 19:09:28 GMT

Nearly every gallon of gasoline in the U.S. contains a minimum of 10% ethanol derived from corn, according to the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA). Each year, about 30% of field corn goes into fuel ethanol. That makes it the second-largest customer of U.S. corn and a topic that is front and center for incoming NCGA President, Chris Edgington.

“I’ve got probably a half-dozen ethanol plants within a 50-mile radius of my house; it’s in big demand,” says Edgington, who farms near St. Ansgar, Iowa.

NCGA reports corn ethanol is positioned to play an even larger role in the future of transportation fuels, as the U.S. addresses the need for more sustainable fuels.

So, Who Is No. 1?

Edgington is quick to add that the No. 1 customer for U.S. corn by far is livestock – millions and millions of hogs and cattle on farms throughout the country – a fact that he encourages corn growers to appreciate and keep in mind.

“They are our largest market; they all utilize corn in one form or another,” he told AgriTalk host, Chip Flory, on Tuesday.

In recent years, he notes that the cattle industry has embraced dried distillers grains (DDGs) coming out of the ethanol plants.

“Trucks are hauling (DDGs) out every single day to the cattle feedlots,” he says. “It’s really become a feed of choice that feeders want every day in their cattle ration.”

Whether it’s working to expand the marketplace with higher blends of ethanol, like E15, or working to increase the amount of corn livestock producers use, these are just a couple of the key priorities for Edgington as he assumes his new role.

As he evaluates goals and objectives for NCGA and its farmer members, he notes that at the heart of them all for most growers is their desire to strengthen the family farm for the family and build a legacy.

“We’re all thinking about the next generation,” he says. “We’re looking at how do we grow our operation and make it more efficient for the next generation.”

A Long History Of Service
Edgington also serves as president of the NCGA Foundation, an executive committee member of NCGA’s Allied Industry Council, and as the association’s delegate to the U.S. Grains Council. He also serves as the liaison to the Agriculture Markets Advisory Council and the Renewable Fuels Association.

Previously, he served as the board liaison to the Freedom to Operate Action Team, the Food, Feed and Industrial Action Team, and the Market Access Action Team. He has also served on the CornPAC, the Finance Committee and the Governance Committee. He represented the Corn Board on the Syngenta Advisory Council for Enogen and the National Pork Producers Council.

A past chairman of the Iowa Corn Promotion Board and co-chair of Corn Vision 2020, he was a member of NCGA’s Trade Policy and Biotechnology Action Team prior to his election to the Corn Board. Currently, he also serves as chairman of Rural Development Partners.

Commodity Classic Groups Say Agriculture is the Answer to Addressing Climate

Thu, 04 Mar 2021 14:40:00 GMT

Commodity Classic may be virtual this year, but the groups still have major topics to tackle with the Biden Administration now in the White House. As the core commodity groups iron out their legislative priorities for the new year, the headline is moving from trade to climate.

“This is a big change,” says Tim Lust, CEO of National Sorghum Producers (NSP) . “And when we start talking about how we’re going to make significant changes in agriculture policy, and how farmers are involved in that. It’s been 25 years since agriculture policy has seen a shift this significant from a policy standpoint. So, it ought to get that amount of respect, it ought to get that amount of review, to make sure that we get it right.”

Corn, sorghum, soybean and wheat growers are all focused on driving climate conversations this year, a key topic during Commodity Classic legislative sessions.

“We need to make sure that we have policy that is a guidepost rather than hitching post,” says Jon Doggett, CEO of National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) . Doggett calls the surging interest in climate initiatives corn farmers’ biggest challenge and opportunity.

“Climate change is definitely going to be the conversation that’s going to be occurring in Washington, and we’re going to be at the table – active participants – to make sure that whatever deal is reached is good for the American corn farmer,” adds Doggett. “The biggest challenge is going to be just that: we are going to make sure corn farmers are getting to the table.”

Securing a Seat at the Table

Securing a seat at the climate conversation table is on the minds of every ag commodity group right now, as agriculture wants to help craft such policies.

“I think that’s probably the biggest fear is that policies will try to be crafted by those who don’t know agriculture,” says American Soybean Association (ASA) CEO Stephen Censky. “I think that’s really the importance of the American Soybean Association, engaging, front and center, and having a seat at the table.

Censky also wants to see climate policy reward those who are already sowing seeds of good stewardship, not just thenew adopters.

“If not, you could end up with some real perverse incentives there. For folks that have been doing good conservation for a lot of years, if they’re left out, there’s the possibility that people could be tempted to pull tillage equipment out of the grove or out of the shed that they haven’t used for years, just to qualify for those payments that might be available,” says Censky.

Different Approach for Different Regions

ASA also wants to see the programs be voluntary, incentive-based, and the programs need to cater to the different challenges growers face in the different geographies across the country.

“A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work, because we have very different climates, geographies, soil structures. And so what is working in one part of the country may not work in another part of the country,” Censky adds.

Voluntary and incentive-based programs are also a priority of NSP, but it’s the geography piece that Lust says will be key for sorghum.

“Certainly, cover crops are a great discussion for some areas. But for my hometown that has had less than 10 inches of rain in the last year, I’m not sure that that fit is the same,” says Lust. “I think we just have to understand that regional differences are important there.”

Agriculture is the Answer

As the discussions continue to take shape during virtual Commodity Classic this year, and then the commodity associations take those desires to Washington, Censky says agriculture has to remembers its part of the answer when it comes to addressing climate.

“Our soybean farmers believe that agriculture – and soybean farmers themselves – are part of the solution,” says Censky. “Many times in agriculture, agriculture gets blamed. But we really see the good work that soybean farmers have been doing for decades, the continued good work that will be there.”

Returning to ASA from his most recent time at USDA as Deputy Secretary of Agriculture under the Trump Administration, Censky was able to get a firsthand look at all the tools USDA has at its disposal to craft programs within agriculture. Censky says Secretary Tom Vilsack is returning to USDA with eight years of experience, time he thinks will pay off for farmers as the climate conversations continue.

“He knows the kinds of programs that are available, the levers that you can pull, he knows the structure of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and those voluntary incentive-based programs,” says Censky. “I took it as a very good sign that we have Secretary Vilsack andwe have the Biden administration, that have said one of the first things they want to start is the dialogue with farmers. I think that dialogue is key to making sure they understand that they need to talk to agriculture, and they need to come up with solutions that actually work on the ground.”

Related Stories:

The Carbon Contract Conundrum

NCGA CEO Says Climate Policy Needs to be Guidepost Rather Than Hitching Post

EPA Grants RFS Waivers on Eve of Inauguration

Wed, 20 Jan 2021 15:16:48 GMT

In the Trump Administration’s final hours, the EPA granted two small refinery exemptions to the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) and appears to have reversed a previous denial.

EPA does not release information on who has received the waivers, but the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) notes the two waivers granted for 2019 amount to a loss of 150 million gallons of biofuel demand.

The RFA also notes that the EPA website indicates a previously denied 2018 waiver request was reversed, resulting in an additional loss of 110 million gallons of biofuel demand.

The RFA immediately threatened to challenge the waivers in court.

“This midnight-hour attempt by the Trump administration to damage the Renewable Fuel Standard and sabotage the ethanol industry’s recovery from the COVID pandemic simply cannot be allowed to prevail,” RFA CEO Geoff Cooper said in a statement. “With just hours remaining in his shameful term as EPA Administrator, Andrew Wheeler couldn’t stop himself from doling out a few more Clean Air Act compliance exemptions to his well-connected friends. But the fact remains that today’s action by EPA is completely without legal merit. It flouts both the statute and recent court decisions that clearly limit EPA’s authority and ability to grant these exemptions. And while this action comes as one last sucker punch from the Trump administration, we are confident it will be a hollow victory for the politically connected oil companies receiving today’s waivers, as the new Biden Administration will most certainly act quickly to restore the volumes erased by these waivers.”

Related:

Biofuel Groups Hopeful Biden Administration Will Restore the RFS

Biofuel organization Growth Energy notes these latest waivers bring the total number of Small Refinery Exemptions (SREs) granted by the Trump Administration to 88, representing 4.3 billion gallons of biofuel demand.

“Farm families and biofuel workers across the country have worked tirelessly to make a living over the past few months despite a global pandemic. And yet, the Trump Administration’s SRE abuse has piled on to the uncertainty and difficulty that rural Americans are facing every day,” added Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor in a press release. “Given President-elect Biden’s commitments on the campaign trail, we‘re confident his incoming team will swiftly work to reverse the damage these oil handouts have done to rural America by this midnight maneuvering.”

Outgoing EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler had earlier indicated he would wait until the Supreme Court had reviewed a suit over the waivers before making a determination on the outstanding 2019 and 2020 waiver requests. The court is set to review a 10th Circuit ruling that the waivers were meant to be extension, so refiners could not be granted a waiver to the blending requirements of the RFS if they had not been granted a waiver every year since it was implemented in 2010.

“It shouldn’t be a surprise to those who have been paying attention for the last four years that this EPA would undermine corn farmers and the ethanol market on its way out the door. There is no reason for the EPA to take this action now, especially with the Supreme Court set to consider the Tenth Circuit ruling in the new term,” said National Corn Growers Association President John Linder. “Corn farmers need an EPA that will follow the law as written and intended by Congress. NCGA looks forward to working with the Biden Administration to rectify the harm caused by this EPA’s abuse of small refinery exemptions and restore the integrity of the Renewable Fuel Standard.”

The EPA website indicates there are still 30 outstanding SRE applications for 2019 and 15 pending applications for 2020.

Biden EPA Designee Reaches Out to Corn Growers

Mon, 21 Dec 2020 19:08:37 GMT

President-Elect Joe Biden officially announced his climate cabinet on Saturday, including the nomination of Michael Regan of North Carolina to be EPA Administrator. On the eve of that announcement, Regan was on the phone with the CEO of the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA).

“Friday night, I got a call from Michael. He called me on my cell phone, he called me at night. It was not set up, and I was completely surprised,” NCGA CEO Jon Doggett told Chip Flory on the AgriTalk Radio Show. “He just wanted to introduce himself and said, ‘You know, we’ve got a lot of work to do together if I get confirmed, and I’m looking forward to working with you.’”

Doggett said much of the conversation focused on working with corn growers to reverse climate change.

Doggett quoted Regan as saying, “I know the RFS (Renewable Fuels Standard) is important to the corn industry, and climate change is important to Joe Biden and the rest of the country. And we are really looking forward to helping farmers find opportunities to help us address climate change.”

“That was really good to hear,” Doggett noted.

Doggett said he highlighted some of the needs of corn farmers that intersect with EPA regulation.

“We have to have our tools, we have to have GMOs, we have to have glyphosate. We have to have those tools that allow us to be sustainable, not only environmentally, but economically. And he gets that,” Doggett said. “And again, the outreach was truly, truly amazing.”

Regan is currently the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Quality in North Carolina.

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Biden Plans to Tap Top NC Environmental Regulator to Lead EPA

Major Agricultural Issues to Watch During Upcoming Biden Administration

What Vilsack’s Return to USDA Would Mean for U.S. Farmers and Ranchers

What Ag Retail Can Expect From A Biden Administration

Delaware Ag Secretary Sees Biden USDA Focus on Trade, Climate

NCGA: We Learned from 2019 Super Bowl 'Corntroversy'

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 06:22:31 GMT

The following is an opinion editorial from National Corn Growers Association President Kevin Ross. The views expressed are those of the writer.

I’ll remember both for as long as I live. Ram’s famous, “So God Made a Farmer,” ad because of the way Paul Harvey’s booming voice portrayed farmers to the rest of the world. Bud Light’s infamous corn syrup ad because of the way it trashed a corn product in a misguided – and apparently unlawful – attempt to differentiate.

As I look back on the great “ Corntroversy ” of 2019, I see it wasn’t all bad for corn farmers.

We formed a friendship with Molson Coors that continues to this day.
We sparked a conversation about the impacts of misleading consumers.
We stood up for farmers who can be over-looked by advertisers (e.g. Chipotle’s GMO campaign which they all but acknowledged they couldn’t deliver on, and the grain-free pet food trend which science says may not be so healthy for pets.).

Representatives of Anheuser-Busch Inbev told us shortly after this all began that they never intended to offend corn farmers. I believe that’s probably true, but what that also revealed to me is they planned this without any consideration of corn farmers as constituents of their supply chain. As a farmer, that frustrated me.

Then it motivated me to do something about it. That started with understanding why we don’t have a seat at the table when brands make promises that impact us. To me, it boils down to these two things.

The first is the reality that farmers are far upstream that we can be a regrettable afterthought at times to brands that are trying to meet the changing needs of consumers.
The second is a more painful reality that consumers can be a regrettable afterthought at times to farmers.

While we can’t change the first reality, the second is full of opportunity. It begins with seeing consumers as a customer base with different needs and brands as partners to help meet them. It’s a shift from trying to force education about farming to a posture of service that’s aimed at working together to deliver customer satisfaction at every step – from the farm all the way to the dinner plate.

That’s when the seat at the table we all crave as production agriculture will open up. That’s when we’ll be surprised more by what we were able to improve in our value chain and less than what we see during a pretty big football game.

Here’s to a Super Bowl full of fun and football, one that’s free of silly food fights and full of advertisements promoting corn products.

Kevin Ross, President
National Corn Growers Association
Minden, IA

Related AgWeb coverage from 2019:

Bud Light Pays for Super Bowl in Lost Sales, Miller Lite Gains Ground

Farmers, Beer Drinkers Furious Over Bud Light Corn Syrup Super Bowl Ad

Corn Growers, MillerCoors Respond to Bud Light Corn Syrup Commercial

Super Bowl Ads Threaten Beer Alliance