Missouri Corn Celebrates 25 Years

The Missouri Corn Merchandising Council (MCMC) is celebrating 25 years of developing market opportunities for corn growers in the state.

The occasion was marked as part of the Missouri Corn Growers Association (MCGA) annual meeting Tuesday in Jefferson City. CEO Gary Marshall, who has led the organization for over 23 years, was pleased at the turnout for the event. “We had a number of legislators that came in, I think we had over 50 that were registered, and we had a lot of growers there as well, so it was a great time to celebrate 25 years,” Marshall said.

MCGA honored 17 members of the Missouri state legislature with Friend of Corn Growers awards, including Representative Brian Munzlinger who served as chairman of the MCMC in 1993-94. That was the year that Missouri really took the lead in promoting ethanol by expanding use to over 16 percent of the state’s fuel, funding two feasibility studies for ethanol plants and introducing an E85 van at the Indianapolis 500.

Missouri corn growers headed to the state capitol after the meeting to present their legislators with breakfast for the next couple of months – four boxes of corn flakes containing a total of 12 cents worth of corn. MCMC Chairman Keith Witt says the idea was to show them the disparity between the corn prices and products containing corn. “The box of corn flakes costs $2.18, so we’re just putting a little visual to that,” said Witt. “It costs more for the transportation of the box of corn flakes than the actual corn.”

Janet Atkison of KMZU Radio in Carrollton was one of several farm broadcasters who attended the event, which also included a live broadcast of AgriTalk.

Listen to Janet’s report that she filed back to her station while the event was still on-going.