Today the St. Louis Agribusiness Club presented its annual Agribusiness Leader of the Year Award to Rick Tolman, CEO, National Corn Growers Association. Here’s Rick with his award which was presented by past St. Louis Ag Club President Stephanie Regagnon, Solutia, Inc.
I spoke with Rick right after he received his award. He says that he’s “very moved and surprised and it’s a great honor.” He also says that it’s a tribute to the National Corn Growers because I have a great group of volunteer leaders that I work with and a staff that I work with and they make me look good and make the organization look good. But it’s a real honor for our association to be recognized.”
I asked him about the 2012 Commodity Classic since registration just recently opened. He says it’s going to be a good one with a record number of exhibitors already signed up. He also talks about priorities in the coming year for NCGA.
The EWG article attacked the CommonGround program as a PR campaign for “Big Ag” that obscures “the reality … that women really have almost no voice on the boards of the national commodity organizations” compared to “national organic food and agriculture organizations.”
I had a chance to interview Pam during the recent Commodity Classic about her response to that criticism and about the goals of the CommonGround program itself. She took particular issue with the idea “that this program wasn’t genuine and these people were just set-ups, and that is the furthest thing from the truth.”
Pam says NCGA and the American Soybean Association joined together on the CommonGround program. “So that we can make sure that we have true, genuine voices out there with value statements that come from the heart and from the farm,” she said. “They come from women who are involved in their own operations at home and also are learning how to lead and advocate for agriculture.”
The EWG article noted that there are many more women involved in “sustainable” farming groups like the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and that they “don’t need fancy PR campaigns because their sustainable farming practices speak for themselves.” Pam says that depends on your definition of sustainable. “We’re not organic farmers, we’re production farmers who raise corn and soybeans, but we do it sustainably. I’m a sixth generation farmer and I come from people who have a strong connection to the land and all of us have been charged with leaving it better for the next generation.”
It is true that Pam is the only woman on the 15 member NCGA board of directors, but it is important to note that traditional farming families like Pam’s tend to actually be more traditional families than the general population, in that the women are the primary child caregivers (gasp!) which takes up a large portion of their time when children are young. “In fact, I postponed my involvement in outside organizations until I had my family up and going and raised,” she said. “Since I’m a grandma now and I have two sons back from college, I’m free to go out and get more involved in my own trade association and to be a voice to tell what’s actually going on down on the farm.”
Pam says the CommonGround program allows some younger farm women to take a more active role without the time and travel commitment required in serving on a national board.
The 2011 Commodity Classic is one for the record books.
Attendance at the annual meeting of corn, soybean, wheat and sorghum growers shattered previous records. Total attendance was more than 4826, breaking the previous record at Nashville three years ago by almost 300. Total number of growers was over 1600, compared to the previous record of 1513 in 2009 in Grapevine.
Interesting demographic information gathered from pre-registered growers showed that the average acreage for a grower attending the Classic was 2,326 total – over 1,000 of that in corn. That is also a new record.
Next year, Classic is back in Nashville, maybe to smash even more records!
At Commodity Classic in Tampa, FL, the leaders of all the participating organizations took to the stage during the general session. Included is the President of the National Corn Growers Association, Bart Schott (pictured second from right). Also on stage were Alan Kemper, ASA, Gerald Simonsen, NAWG and Jerry McReynolds, NSP and moderator Mark Mayfield.
Mark asked each of them the question: “What are you doing to enhance public trust and what efforts do you have to make ag more sustainable?” Listen to Bart’s answer here:
The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA)and BASF Crop Protection announced the winners of six scholarships during the 2011 Commodity Classic on in Tampa. This is the fourth year for the NCGA Academic Excellence in Agriculture Scholarship Program which awards five $1,000 scholarships to college students pursuing a degree in an agriculture-related field.
The winners are Hayley Bunselmeyer, a junior at the University of Illinois majoring in crop sciences; Kristin DeSutter, a junior at the University of Illinois pursuing agricultural communications; Amy Peyton, a junior at Iowa State University majoring in agricultural business, economics, and public service and administration; Andy Pringnitz, a junior at Iowa State University studying agricultural business, economics and international agriculture; and Jessica Schwartz, a first-year graduate student at Ohio State University specializing in horticulture and crop sciences. They are pictured here with BASF VP for U.S. Crop Protection Paul Rea and Pam Johnson, a Corn Board member from Lloyd, Iowa and liaison to the Grower Services Action Team.
“Providing students with the financial resources to complete their education is the key to building strong agricultural leaders of tomorrow,” Pam said. “We thank BASF for its integral role and support in these scholarships.”
These young people really are the cream of the crop, chosen from about 45 entries nationwide. I had a chance to get a couple of comments from each of them, which you can listen to here:
Corn stocks may be a little tight right now, but National Corn Growers Association CEO Rick Tolman thinks that is probably a short term situation.
“Still our biggest challenge is that we can overproduce the market,” Tolman said during an interview after his presentation at the National Ethanol Conference on Monday. “Farmers respond to incentives, there’s an incentive right now to produce. I can guarantee we’ll have a big crop in 2011.”
Tolman makes that confident prediction after an informal survey of the NCGA farmer board members, who are mostly ahead of the game right now as far as being ready for spring planting, compared to where they were a year ago. “We had a great fall, farmers got their crop out of the field, they did their fall tillage, they did their application of inputs. We’re coming into the season in about as perfect a condition as you can have,” he said, adding that odds favor significant yields in 2011 and a larger carryover in 2012.
Rick also gives a preview of the upcoming Commodity Classic in this interview:
After the winter we have had so far, everyone is anxiously awaiting spring about now. For farmers, Commodity Classic is just the place to get ready for warmer weather and planting season.
One of those details that growers have to be thinking about now is refuge requirement compliance and the National Corn Growers Association have developed a way to make that a little easier with the Insect Resistance Management Refuge Calculator. This handy tool is both easy to use and represents the latest products available to determine how to comply with varying and often complex regulations.
“The calculator is a great jump forward for helping growers stay compliant,” said NCGA president Bart Schott. “We have been working on this tool for several years and are glad that we can share this type of tool with our growers.”
Listen to an “Off the Cob” interview with Bart, and Director of Biotechnology and Economic Analysis Nathan Fields, discussing the importance of this tool for growers.
NCGA staff will be demonstrating the calculator at the organization’s Commodity Classic booth this year, along with information about other programs including the American Ethanol- NASCAR partnership, CommonGround and potential legislation for 2011. If you have not registered for Classic yet – hurry up! The deadline is Friday for on-line registration. Hope to see you there!
Some of the young people who are the future of the agriculture industry were given scholarships at the recent Commodity Classic to help them with their education.
Three of the five recipients at Classic are pictured here at the BASF trade show exhibit between Nevin McDougall of BASF and NCGA Chairman Bob Dickey from Nebraska.
Left to right, they are:
John Schultz of Dyersburg, Tennessee, a sophomore at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville studying food and agricultural business; Gina Meyer of New Ulm, Minnesota, a junior at the University of Minnesota pursuing a major in animal science; Carly Cummings of Pleasantville, Iowa – Carly is a sophomore at Iowa State University majoring in agricultural business.
The other two winners not pictured are: Charlene Barlieb of Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania who graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 2009 and will be returning to Penn State this fall to pursue her graduate degree in animal sciences, and Lisa Tronchetti of Paton, Iowa.
I talked with Carly, Gina and John about their backgrounds and their career plans – and you can listen to that interview here:
It’s really fun when you have a brush with greatness and it is no more apropos than when you run into a celebrity in Anaheim during Commodity Classic. Well the celebrity I’m referring to is our very own NCGA past president Ken McCauley, who was featured in the book Power Trip. Now Ken is quite modest and didn’t really tell people that he made it into the book. From start to finish it took more than two years from the time the author Amanda Little visited his farm in White Cloud, Kansas to the time it made it to the book shelves (Fall of ’09).
Needless to say, as soon as I saw Ken I told him I’d read (and reviewed) the book and he was, well, flabbergasted after he got over being shocked. But he shouldn’t be shocked – the book is very good and Ken did an amazing job of getting out a strong American agricultural message. The book is about how tied our world is to fossil fuels. From transportation to medicines, to plastic to agriculture, fossil fuels are a part of our everyday lives, and Little helps us understand how embedded they are, and addresses the question of how we move away from them.
In an recent blog from Mark, he celebrated that fact that Food Inc. didn’t win an Oscar. Unfortunately you can’t mention that “documentary” without thinking of Michael Pollan who wrote Omnivore’s Dilemma and promotes a world of organic farming. When on Ken’s farm, Little asks him about Pollan to which he replied, “It’s not a way to maximize production.”
Ken explained that the drawback of these organic methods is that they require more labor and time, and in turn generate lower profits. Organic farmers also tend to have lower yields per acre and higher prices.
The question Little didn’t ask him: How is the world going to feed 9 billion people without production agriculture? It’s not.
Ken is very conscientious about sustainable farming since his land, puts food on his table too. Farmers understand more than most that they must take care of the land that feeds them. I just wish consumers understood that better.
Well, to better understand our addiction to oil and the need for production agriculture through the eyes of a great man, Ken McCauley, then be sure to read Power Trip.
This year, the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) will launch an image and activism campaign to reinforce the importance of agriculture, according to NCGA President, Darrin Ihnen during a press conference at Commodity Classic. While many people are still confused about food versus fuel, an issue perpetuated by media around the world, and the debate continues around international indirect land use change, it’s time to set the record straight. Ihnen noted that a few simple facts can take care of both of these issues. This year, corn farmers harvested 13.2 billion bushels of corn, or 165.2 bushels per acre, on 7 million less acres than in 2007 when the harvest was nearly identical.
In an effort to curb misinformation and ensure effective policy is put into place, corn growers around the country have been getting involved. One great example is the outpouring of comments around indirect land use, E15 and the RFS2.
“We’re proud of the tens of thousands of farmers who commented to the EPA on that subject (E15). In fact, this is a perfect example of how we’ve seen a resurgence of activism on the part of American agriculture and we’ve held numerous discussions with our allies around the world on this,” said Ihnen.
He continued, “That’s why this year we’re launching an unprecedented image and activism campaign to do two things. First, we will aggressively reinforce the importance and positive image most Americans have with farmers and the products they grow. Second, we will create a more united and vocal army of farmers and their friends who can speak out against the myths and misinformation that we see so often.”
The Corn Farmers Coalition will focus its efforts in the beltway and the activism/grassroots campaign will focus on Americans around the country. Ihnen stressed that the campaign will be more successful the more people are involved and said in closing, “We’re excited about this challenge and invite all interested parties to join us.”
Today the St. Louis Agribusiness Club presented its annual Agribusiness Leader of the Year Award to Rick Tolman, CEO, National Corn Growers Association. Here’s Rick with his award which was presented by past St. Louis Ag Club President Stephanie Regagnon, Solutia, Inc.
Pam says NCGA and the American Soybean Association joined together on the CommonGround program. “So that we can make sure that we have true, genuine voices out there with value statements that come from the heart and from the farm,” she said. “They come from women who are involved in their own operations at home and also are learning how to lead and advocate for agriculture.”
The 2011 Commodity Classic is one for the record books.
At Commodity Classic in Tampa, FL, the leaders of all the participating organizations took to the stage during the general session. Included is the President of the National Corn Growers Association, Bart Schott (pictured second from right). Also on stage were Alan Kemper, ASA, Gerald Simonsen, NAWG and Jerry McReynolds, NSP and moderator Mark Mayfield.
The winners are Hayley Bunselmeyer, a junior at the University of Illinois majoring in crop sciences; Kristin DeSutter, a junior at the University of Illinois pursuing agricultural communications; Amy Peyton, a junior at Iowa State University majoring in agricultural business, economics, and public service and administration; Andy Pringnitz, a junior at Iowa State University studying agricultural business, economics and international agriculture; and Jessica Schwartz, a first-year graduate student at Ohio State University specializing in horticulture and crop sciences. They are pictured here with BASF VP for U.S. Crop Protection Paul Rea and Pam Johnson, a Corn Board member from Lloyd, Iowa and liaison to the Grower Services Action Team.
Corn stocks may be a little tight right now, but 
One of those details that growers have to be thinking about now is refuge requirement compliance and the 
In partnership with BASF, the National Corn Growers Association 
