No one seems to know exactly what the hold up is on ratifying the agreements with South Korea, Panama and Columbia, especially since President Obama made increasing exports number three in his list of priorities for the nation during his State of the Union address in January, specifically setting a goal to “double our exports over the next five years, an increase that will support two million jobs in America. To help meet this goal, we’re launching a National Export Initiative that will help farmers and small businesses increase their exports, and reform export controls consistent with national security.”

“If America sits on the sidelines while other nations sign trade deals, we will lose the chance to create jobs on our shores. But realizing those benefits also means enforcing those agreements so our trading partners play by the rules,” the president said. “And that’s why we will continue to shape a Doha trade agreement that opens global markets, and why we will strengthen our trade relations in Asia and with key partners like South Korea, Panama, and Colombia.”

Several agriculture groups got together Monday in Washington to urge Congress to “stop dragging its feet” and pass the Colombia, Panama and South Korea free trade agreements. The South Korea and Panama agreements were both finalized in June of 2007 – Columbia has been sitting around since November 2006. In the meantime, all three countries have been moving forward on trade deals with U.S. competitors.

American Farm Bureau Federation president Bob Stallman says the inaction on the part of Congress is costing U.S. agriculture lost market share and competitiveness. “We are seeing all around us FTAs being negotiated or already negotiated by our competitors, increasing their export potential and putting the U.S. at a disadvantage,” said Stallman. “The three FTAs combined, which are stalled in Congress, represent almost $2.5 billion in additional exports.”

Maryland corn farmer Chip Bowling says U.S. corn exports to Columbia alone have dropped 50 percent, a loss of $273 million to the U.S. economy. “Instead of seeing increasing markets and new opportunities for corn growers, we are fighting to keep our markets away from international competitors,” Bowling says, but passing the Columbia FTA could fix the problem. “Under the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, the United States would have immediate access to Colombia’s market for 2.1 million metric tons of corn at a zero percent duty.”

Listen to Bowling’s comments here:

 That’s also the downside. People will support road projects all day because of our personal engagement with the asphalt and concrete, but ignore our most efficient and environmentally safe means of moving critical goods from coal to corn to construction materials.

 So it is concerning that a critical part of our nation’s transportation infrastructure, the locks and dams along the Illinois River and the Upper Mississippi River, are deteriorating and falling behind technologically after 80 years of stalwart contributions.

 Granted, this oversight may be understandable given the public and government’s focus on political issues from war to health care and economic issues that don’t need any explanation, but the consequence for this lack of vision may carry a big price tag in years ahead.

 The country’s inland navigation system plays a critical role in the nation’s economy, moving more than a billion tons of domestic commerce valued at more than $300 billion per year.  More than one billion bushels of grain (about 60 percent of all grain exports) move to export markets via the inland waterways each year. 

Growing agricultural productivity in the U.S. and growing populations and buying power overseas provide some clues to the critical importance of addressing this issue. Population is expected to grow by 2.5 billion more people by 2050 to more than 9 billion people and many of those hungry eyes will be looking to the U.S. to keep their pantries and their stomachs full.

There are also significant environmental benefits to the inland waterway system.   The backwaters created by the lock and dam system support more than 40 percent of the migratory water fowl and fish breeding grounds and are home to more than 500 miles of wildlife refuge.  In addition, more than $1 billion are generated each year in recreational use – fishing, hunting and tourism.

So if the opportunity arise to tell your local, state or federal elected officials they need to get active now on updating our water transportation system it will be time well spent.

U.S. Grains Council – 2009 Corn Mission from Chuck Zimmerman on Vimeo.

Chuck Zimmerman reports on some final thoughts from the mission:

A consistent theme was the growth potential in these markets. That’s why the USGC has people on the ground working to develop new business opportunities for American farmers. After our team’s final dinner I spoke with them as a group to get their final thoughts on what they’d like farmers back home to know about their experience. We just went around the table starting with the corn grower members. Here are some of their final thoughts:

• These guys worked really hard on this trip. Lots of time spent on the road and with the customers we service. They served as ambassadors for the USGC and corn growers specifically.

You can listen to Chuck’s final interview with the Corn Mission Team below:

Read all about the trip and see all the photos on Agwired and/or USGC’s The Grain Board.

Chuck Zimmerman, who is blogging the trip on Agwired and The Grain Board, reports that Kurt told them the USGC became involved in Morocco about 15 years ago when corn imports were low and there was a huge duty of about 75 percent. USGC formed a relationship with livestock producers and the government that has led to the reduction of those duties to about 35 percent, which has driven growth tremendously, as has an increase in poultry production.

Kurt says that the USGC helped form a poultry organization that provides members with educational materials so that it can compete on a global level. He says that investment has paid off big dividends over the years. Besides corn, he says they are seeing a growth in the imports of dried distillers grains. Kurt says that imports in Morocco could double in the next five years, especially with developments in the ruminant sector.

Listen to Chuck’s interview with Kurt here:

See photos from the trip here: USGC Corn Mission In Morocco Photo Album

The team includes – William “Sparky” Crossman representing the Virginia Corn Board, Jim Stuever with the Missouri Corn Merchandising Council, Bob Timmons of the Kansas Corn Commission, Darren Armstrong with Corn Growers of North Carolina, Jerry Griffith representing the Kentucky Corn Promotion Council, Joe Zenz with the Wisconsin Corn Promotion Board – and USGC Director of Membership Shannon Schaffer. That is not in any particular order, since Chuck didn’t identify them from left to right in the photo. I only know him because we’ve been married for almost 30 years! Oh – and Shannon is the guy in the middle.

Follow their travels on Agwired and in pictures through the USGC Corn Mission In Morocco Photo Album

During a conference call from China this morning, Guy talked about what they have been seeing. “China corn farming was certainly not what I envisioned it to be,” Guy said. “They have soils that are just as good as ours, very large fields that are very comparable to our Midwest farms.” Guy says they found most farmers had just about five acres, but they were small holdings all close together, giving the impression of vast acreage for miles. They also found out that harvest is done by hand and takes a typical farmer about ten days.

As a representative for all corn growers, Guy will be reporting back to the NCGA board what he has learned in China. “I think this gives us a better perspective about how much corn can be grown in that part of the world, how efficient they are in their corn production and to what extent they use irrigation. It was truly an eye-opening experience to me.’

Cary Sifferath, USGC Senior Director in China, talked about the drought conditions in the country and high corn prices. “Those high prices have led to some opportunities for US feed grains products, specifically distillers dried grains (DDGS) products from the US ethanol industry,” Cary said. “We had roughly 8,000 metric tons of DDGS that was exported from the US into China and right now for 2009 we can easily predict 250,000 to 300,000 tons of distillers dried grains being imported by China’s feed and livestock industry, especially in the southern and coastal areas of China where DDGS has become a very competitive feed ingredient.”

Lots of photos from the tour are already posted on the USGC Flickr photo album here and commentary can be found on the USGC blog The Grain Board.

Listen to Guy Davenport’s remarks from China here:

It was officially announced today that former USDA Undersecretary for Rural Development Thomas C. Dorr will serve as president and CEO of the U.S. Grains Council, effective November 16.

Before serving the USDA for seven years, Dorr was an Iowa farmer for 30 years and a member and officer of the Iowa and National Corn Growers Associations. Dorr is taking the helm of the organization as it is about to celebrate 50 years in 2010, succeeding Ken Hobbie, who has been with USGC for 33 years and served as president and CEO for the last 19 years.

Dorr says his first priority will be to work with the Council’s membership, Board of Directors, and staff to clearly define, not just the challenges, but the opportunities for international grain trade.

Chuck Zimmerman with Agwired interviewed the new CEO:

A campaign sponsored by the Missouri Corn Merchandising Council and the U.S. Meat Export Federation has produced these colorful posters to be used in retail campaigns and special culinary events.

“While consumers in Japan always say that safety is a top priority, we have found that they actually respond more positively to messages that convey quality and wholesomeness,” said USMEF Japan Director Gregory Hanes. “This type of image helps us subtly address consumers’ safety concerns, but do so in a more positive and appealing manner by stressing the quality of corn-fed beef and pork.”

Earlier this summer, a delegation of producers representing the Iowa Beef Industry Council, the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, the Nebraska Beef Council and the Nebraska Corn Board went to Tokyo on a trade mission organized by USMEF to promote U.S. corn-fed beef in both Japan and South Korea.

Alan Tiemann, a corn and soybean farmer from Seward, Nebraska was on that mission and says that USMEF’s promotional efforts are paying off in Japan. “In the grocery stores, markets and restaurants where USMEF has promotions going on, U.S. beef is very well-received,” he said. “We see a lot of meat going off the shelves where they are doing promotions, and it’s been fun to watch those programs produce results.”

The bad news is that between the overall economy and low prices in key export markets, U.S. beef and pork exports have been down this year. Add in the H1N1 problem and pork exports were down about 30 percent in June of 2009 compared with June 2008.

The National Pork Producers Council today urged the USDA to help U.S. pork producers to help recover from the economic crisis that has caused them to lose an average of more than $21 on each hog marketed for the past two years. Among other things, NPPC wants USDA to work with the U.S. Trade Representative to open export markets to U.S. pork. Several countries, including China, continue to impose unwarranted bans on U.S. pork because of the H1N1 flu.

Rest assured that corn growers will continue to do what they can to help open markets and increase meat exports as well.

The commercial, now posted on You Tube, shows a gentleman and his dog reacting as many of the products in their home that contain petroleum disappear. Everything from the TV remote, to his easy chair and eventually the shingles on his home mysteriously go “poof” as evidence of how much we depend on petroleum.

I am sure some marketing/ad agency guru persuaded Occidental this cute concept was a good idea. However, in the decade of $4 gasoline not everyone views the commercial that way. For those concerned about our reliance on imported oil for more than 60% of our needs, this looks somewhat like a clarion call. All I could think while watching this is maybe we can still avoid the images portrayed in the spot by taking aggressive steps to reduce this petro dependence.

Maybe they didn’t get the memo that virtually everything we make from petroleum can be made from agricultural products like corn. Carpeting, ethanol, film and plastic resins are being made today. Combine this knowledge with the growing production capacity of corn producers and I think Occidental may have let the genie out of the bottle.

Life Without Oil sounds like a goal to me.