Though the winter has been long and harsh, I've had the opportunity to travel on behalf of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association. In late February, yours truly flew to Florida for the Commodity Classic in Kissimmee, Florida. I had the opportunity to spend a few days before the convention at my aunt Jan's in nearby Lakeland soaking up the sun and some good old fashioned R and R. Besides enjoying the sunny and warm weather, I did attend many activities involved with the Commodity Classic. One of the highlights was listening to US Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack speak on farm issues. Also, National Corn Growers held their 1st session of Corn Congress, where I am a voting delegate for Minnesota. It is similar to Congress as each state has a different number of voting delegates depending on membership. Minnesota only trails Iowa in representation. We will have our 2nd session in July. There are many issues that shape our Resolutions booklet. There is always good debate (some long-winded) that truly shows our grass roots organization.
In March, I traveled to Washington D.C. with the same fly-in group as last year. Minnesota Corn was joined by the Southwest Council, which consists of farmers, bankers, insurance groups, and other commodity groups including Rice, Cotton and Sugar from Texas, Mississippi, new Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. We believe that showing our unity within the ag sector both by commodity and geography represents a strong view. We had 100 visits to the House and Senate offices. The visits consisted of a Congressman or their ag liaison. Our message included passing a farm bill now, protecting and strengthening crop insurance, and keeping a strong commodity title in the farm bill. Our lobbying firm Combest and Sell also orchestrated fundraisers for key legislators and champions of ag that I was able to attend. They included House Ag Chair Frank Lucas (R-OK), Rep. Mike Conaway (R-TX), Senate Ag Ranking member Thad Cochran (R-MS), and House Ag Ranking member Collin Peterson (D-MN). See the picture below!
We also had our day on the Hill in March at the capitol in St. Paul. Our Minnesota Corn group visited with state legislators. The goal was to have representation visit a legislator in every county. I personally visited with Rep. Mary Sawatsky and Sen. Lyle Koenen, as they are in my district.
Having good dialogue and voicing our concerns is very important as the amount of people directly involved in agriculture keeps shrinking. I have enjoyed my 2 years as a director for Minnesota Corn Growers. We have such a good story to tell in agriculture and I'm proud to be a farmer.
Regards,
Noah
noah@farmlandman.com
320-894-7528
Posts
