As Chris Edgington wraps up his term as NCGA President, we look back at the meaningful progress corn growers made in 2022.
2022 has been another one of those years that throws a lot of curve balls at you.
But in the world of agriculture, you can’t just hit home runs all the time.
It might not get the headlines, but the real work gets done in the singles and doubles that you hit, and you’ve got to hit those reliably.
And so in this episode, we look back at some of the wins for the industry that you might not have heard about, with outgoing NCGA President Chris Edgington as he winds down his term in office.
From tariffs on inputs to new regulations, the association has battled back against developments that would have cost farmers dearly. At the same time, new support for ethanol fuel is moving forward in Washington and could be a huge boon to growers.
Make sure to REGISTER YOUR CONCERNS WITH THE EPA about its plans to revise registration for atrazine, which would effectively limit the effectiveness of this critical crop protection tool.
Also, the Next Generation Fuels Act is one of NCGA’s top legislative priorities. CLICK HERE to ask your congressional representatives to cosponsor it.
https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/ncga?selected=PDM3106386273
Chris Edgington:
One individual in agriculture, for the most part, can't accomplish much. You have to have people working with you. And in our organization, National Corn can't get it all done all by themselves. They need the states to work with them. We need the agri-industry to work with them. And quite honestly, we need the other commodity groups.
Dusty Weis:
Hello and welcome to Wherever Jon May Roam, the National Corn Growers Association podcast. This is where leaders, Growers and stakeholders in the corn industry can turn for big picture conversations about the state of the industry and its future. I'm Dusty Weis, and I'll be introducing your host, Association CEO Jon Doggett. From the fields of the Corn Belt to the DC Beltway. We're making sure the Growers who feed America, have a say in the issues that are important to them, with key leaders who are shaping the future of agriculture. It's been another wild and unexpected kind of year for Growers. Big headline grabbing issues have dominated the conversation even as the NCGA continues to work nationwide on behalf of its Grower members. And as his term as Corn Growers President winds down, we thought it would be a good time to go back and revisit some of the wins for the industry that you might not have heard about with outgoing NCGA President, Chris Edgington, who's joining us from his farm in St. Ansgar, Iowa.
Dusty Weis:
But if you haven't yet make sure you're subscribed to this podcast in your favorite app. Also, make sure you follow the NCGA on Twitter @NationalCorn and sign up for the National Corn Growers Association newsletter@ncga.com. And with that it's time to once again, introduce, Jon. Jon Doggett, the CEO of the National Corn Growers Association. And Jon, I got my first introduction to Chris Edgington about a year ago when we had him on the show to welcome him to his term as NCGA President. Now that year has flown by and here we are already thanking him for his service and sending him on his way after a job well done.
Jon Doggett:
That year really did go by very fast. And Dusty, it's another one of those years that we had a lot of curve balls, a lot of curve balls, and I've been around Washington and agriculture my whole life, and been around DC for 35 years. You can't hit homeruns all the time, in fact, you don't hit him very often. It might not get the headlines, but the real work gets done in the singles and the doubles that you hit and you got to hit those reliably. So it's been a relief to have someone like Chris Edgington at the head of the table this year. He's the kind of guy who rolls up his sleeves and gets the work done. So, Chris, thanks again for joining us from your home in St. Ansgar, Iowa. And for the very last time as the NCGA President.
Chris Edgington:
Absolutely, it's a pleasure to be here. And when you reflect back on the year and where we went and how it happened, and some of the things that happened that really weren't on the radar, Dusty, when you asked me a year ago, "Where were we going and what were we going to do?" And on some of those, we had some success, but a muted type of success that a lot of Growers probably don't totally grasp. And actually in one case, maybe even the general consumer. It's been a really great year to be at the helm as far as the honor and the tradition that come with this organization and the people involved in it. And I will look back and say, "I really enjoyed that."
Jon Doggett:
So Chris, I wanted to come back to something you said when we talked a year ago and we've talked about it a lot and your top priority was facilitating the teamwork that supports the corn industry. So why is that so important to you and how has your understanding of that teamwork evolved over the last year?
Chris Edgington:
Well, not to be a total sports metaphor type of guy, but one individual in agriculture, for the most part, can't accomplish much. You have to have people working with you. And in our organization, National Corn, can't get it all done all by themselves. They need the states to work with them, we need the agri industry to work with them. And quite honestly, we need the other commodity groups to work with them. And one of the small successes I had this year was starting something for the very first time. And that was a National Commodities President meeting along with policy people. And I think it's something that went over really well and we are probably going to continue that as they move forward. And will it make any headlines? No, absolutely not. What it was, was the opportunity for that networking, that teamwork piece. As we move forward to the farm bill, that's going to be front and center.
Chris Edgington:
There's been some things going on there already, but there'll be a lot more go once this election gets out of the road and we get into a new Congress after the first of the year. And laying the groundwork with other commodity presidents about how we can work together on so much of this is something that I think will pay dividends for us as a Corn Organization going forward.
Jon Doggett:
So let's take a look at a few of those critical, but maybe not so flashy wins. And you've talked about a couple of them that we've racked up over the year. And what would you say in your mind as you look back at 2022, what were the most meaningful wins that you think NCGA has achieved?
Chris Edgington:
There's probably a couple that come to forefront. One of them actually started before I was president and that involved with the Estate taxes and a meeting that goes back to May 2021 or April 2021, I forget, with Congressman Scott and talking about stepped up basis and Estate tax changes and small business implications that could have been very devastating to not just agriculture, but any other small family run business in the United States and the coalition we built around that. And then for those things to not happen, we kept that all at bay, in the various tax provisions and tax fundings and tax things that came out of Congresses as they were trying to still recover from COVID. We kept that increased tax deal at bay, very quiet, most people don't think about it. That was a big one.
Chris Edgington:
And another one that has gotten some attention, but it's the whole deal around tariffs and not so much the tariffs on nitrogen fertilizer, which we did have a win on, and the phosphate is still out there and there's still potential for that. But more of the win that the general consumer can make a difference. More of the win that the general consumer should maybe be... They call it means tested because a lot of these tariffs are countries versus companies or countries versus countries. And they never asked to the general consumer who in the end is the one that pays the final bill. The nitrogen fertilizer, yep, they went through consolidation, but they only talked to the distributors about it. They never really talked to the farmer, "What do you think about consolidation?" They never talked to the farmer about supply and demand on our inputs in any type of level.
Chris Edgington:
We now have their attention. They, as an industry are talking directly to farmers. Still, maybe not as much as we would like, in comparison to some of our other industry partners that we work with weekly, but we're making progress in an area that we've never been before.
Jon Doggett:
So one of the other issues, and I was reminded to the timing of this just yesterday at the very height of the gasoline price situation this year. The administration comes out with an emergency fuel waiver for E 15, so that we could actually use E 15 year round for this last driving season. How big a deal was that? And what are you hearing from other farmers and ethanol plants and other folks? What are you hearing about that E 15 situation?
Chris Edgington:
It was a great win for the consumer. One of the biggest things that happened ism people were asking, where can I get it? Where are the pumps at, to supply E 15 and how do I access it? Because it was worth 50, 60, 70 cents a gallon difference in some markets, compared to traditional fuel. And so the consumer was actively looking for it. So the ethanol industry was happy about that. They had maintained that demand during the summer, the corn farmer was happy, because the grind continued to go and move bushels. The cattle industry was happy because the supply of distillers grains going into the livestock feed was unabated because of the demand for ethanol and the process that happened. And we really have to thank our friends at the USDA and interestingly enough, our friends at the EPA who both were behind that decision, they totally supported that. Not only are elected officials, but also some of those appointed officials that recognized A, ethanol is good for the environment. And B, we could save the consumer a significant amount of money during the summer driving season.
Jon Doggett:
A second hand, I heard a week or two, or maybe it was a month ago from a fairly senior official in the Biden Administration said that, a lot of people were astounded that the president who had some real misgivings about E 15 early on, actually took to the administrator, the EPA administrator and said that was a really good decision. So when a good decision goes. Well, the president likes it when E 15 is 60 cents a gallon cheaper, consumers like it as well. So the other went from the administration on ethanol was for the first time, since the last energy bill was passed. We got the whole 15 billion gallons in the renewable fuel standard in an RVO. That was a big one too.
Chris Edgington:
Yeah, it's a big one for a couple ways. A, it's big for current because of the fact that it's the target and the number we've been trying to get to and we got there. But also it's a great indicator of the future and where we need to be. And the fact that as the EPA looks to make more RVO numbers moving forward, that they know that that number is achievable, attainable and reliable. And so they don't have any real misgivings about using that number as they move forward. And one of our goals obviously is as we continue to produce more corn is to make sure that our demand sectors are alive and well and working at full speed.
Jon Doggett:
So shifting maybe to an area that's a little bit more sticky, we all know that the Congress hasn't achieved a lot of things in the Ag space this year. But the introduction of the next generation fuels act in the United States Senate, that's been in the House, it lowers fuel prices, it reduces carbon emissions, it deals with our energy security, it's a big thing for rural economies. What do you see for the next year when we have a new Congress and reintroduce the legislation in both chambers, we're going to lose Cheri Bustos, the House member, who's been the champion on the House side. How you feel about where we're going to be this next year on the next generation Fuels Act?
Chris Edgington:
Really positive. I think we've got a great opportunity here. The fact that it's introduced in both the Senate and the House and by both parties is bipartisan introduction, shows both parties find value in this. They find value in the energy security that comes from having a homegrown fuel. They find value in the climate improvements that come from having a homegrown fuel. You can look at studies from Harvard or studies from the Department of Energy or Argonne labs. And they all show that ethanol is part of this solution for energy in the United States, has been and will continue to be. Not only that, but we continue to develop byproducts for that industry that other consumers are wanting. Distillers grains comes to the top of mind, but there are other byproducts that have come out of that process. So the fact that we've got senators and representatives, both chambers, some of those people will be around next year.
Chris Edgington:
And that they've introduced, it means they're expecting to get it moving forward. Senators just don't introduce bills to watch them hang in the wind, they want things to get done. The house has a little bigger challenge sometimes just because of the dynamics of that chamber and how fast sometimes they turn people over, because they're getting elected every two years and the Senate's a little more stable. But we've got champions in both chambers, in both parties and they recognize that it is part of the solution, whether you're talking about climate, whether you're talking about energy, whether you're talking about economics for the consumer.
Jon Doggett:
It's a win-win and amazing opportunities there, if we can continue to push and continue to get that political support. And the bipartisan nature of the Senate bill was really part of the thing that gives me some hope that we can really get something done next year.
Dusty Weis:
You know, Chris, as you talk about building up support for the next generation fuels act here, everything in DC is all about leverage. And you talked earlier about some of the things about 2020, that weren't really on our radar. I don't know about you, but I didn't have war in Eastern Europe on my bingo sheet for 2022. But I remember back in early May, at that point Russia's invasion of Ukraine had been going on for about two months then. And here in the upper Midwest, my wife and I were driving through some unplanted corn fields because it was too cold and too wet to get out and plant yet. And I looked at her and I said, "Boy, if those farmers can't get out there and get their crops in the ground soon, we're going to have a real famine on our hands, globally speaking."
Dusty Weis:
Now we did, we got out into the fields, we got those crops planted and it's looking to be a pretty successful harvest all across north America with a few challenges here and there, but not to try to force a silver lining on this war in Ukraine and everything, but did this new attention to food security, remind people how important agriculture is?
Chris Edgington:
You know, Dusty, it did and that's an interesting topic area. We probably could do that all on one whole episode. Most consumers are very busy, they got their head down, they're doing their job. They're trying to take care of their family. They want to know when they go to the grocery store, to the gas station, that they can just fill up, buy what they want and go, because they've got other things on their plate that they're trying to deal with. And when you get a situation like the war in the Ukraine, it obviously heightens that whole thought process. Even for here in the US, where food security is probably not really a major concern in a lot of instances because we are such an agronomically agronomy production juggernaut, when it comes to producing commodities of all forms in a lot of places. And so we're going to have stuff in our shelves, but there's other places in the world that aren't, and that's still playing out today about some of the issues where the Ukrainian products were going in Africa or the Middle East and some of the challenges they got.
Chris Edgington:
And when you have countries that count their boats, because of the amount of wheat they need for the amount of bread and they strategically plant it out for, we always carry this much wheat on hand, in case there's a boat issue or this or that and that got disrupted, food security does come right to the front. We've got a lot of allies in agriculture and people don't always look at it this way. But we've got South America, we've got parts of France and some of the other parts of Europe, we've got Canada, we've got South Africa, we've got China, India, and everybody has been very focused this year on making sure they could get as much crop as they could because we don't want anybody in the world to go hungry. Hunger in the world creates unrest, civil unrest. And so yes, it did bring a heightened awareness.
Chris Edgington:
Fortunately, we got our crops in the ground. We're going to have a pretty decent crop year. Mother nature is still one of the biggest wild cards that we have no control over. And she wasn't happy with some of my friends' farther West, apparently, because she was pretty hard on the amount of rain she gave them. But we'll still have a decent crop here, we're still feeding livestock. We're still producing eggs and broiler meat and the vegetable world and all the other things that we enjoy are still alive and well. But it absolutely heightens the awareness when you have a war going on in what is a large agricultural region.
Jon Doggett:
There's another fight we have brewing and it's the battle to protect Ag chemicals, particularly in this case, atrazine from the proposed regulation, by the EPA. Chris, why is this such an important crop protection tool and what can Growers do to make sure it stays in the toolbox?
Chris Edgington:
Well, let's start with what they can do. NCGA has got a Call-to-Action going on to the EPA to talk about this regulation and why we find it detrimental. So why is it detrimental? Atrazine has been around for over 60 years and it is in over 60 corn chemistry products because of the synergistic effect that it provides. We're able to use a little bit of atrazine in some sort of formulated product that allows us to not have to use full label rates on some of these other products. It's in over 90 products across the country.
Chris Edgington:
Sorghum/milo has some different chemicals that they use compared to corn. It's just a valuable tool in the toolbox. It's been the most studied product that we probably have ever utilized. It has always come back positive. But what they're trying to do today is take, then they measured in parts per billion in water, which is currently the standard is at 15 and they want to drop it to 3.4. That will affect over 70% of the corn acres in the country with the amount of product they're able to use. Which means that the synergistic effects will go away and they'll be using more of some other product and probably not with as good of effect. And they want us to do more no-till, more strip-till, more cover crops. And yet they want to take tools out of the toolbox that help us manage our farms through that.
Chris Edgington:
Glyphosate is another one, that they keep trying to take that out of the toolbox. Glyphosate and atrazine have revolutionized corn production as well as other crops. And we will go back to more tillage. I mean, if we don't have the proper chemistries to be able to utilize because tillage also kills weeds, but what does tillage bring? It brings soil erosion from wind, it brings soil erosion from water and it's not beneficial to the soil. So it is a big deal. And so our farmers have the opportunity to reach out, send a response to the EPA, talk about why this affects their farm, what they will have to change in their farming operation. I believe our Call-to-Action goes till the 6th or 7th of October, as the EPA has a comment period. And it's very easy for people to just go to ncga.com and find the link.
Dusty Weis:
I think we'll make it even easier than that, Chris. We'll just take that link and put it right in the episode description. So anyone listening can just click on that link and get your public comment filed right now.
Chris Edgington:
Perfect. So it's a big deal, Jon.
Jon Doggett:
It is a huge deal and I went to the link a week or so ago and it did personalize it just a little bit. I think it took maybe 35, 40 seconds. So it's pretty easy to do, but it's really important that it gets done. So again, Chris, thank you for your leadership in pushing this really hard because we need to have as many comments. We need to have as much excitement about this as we possibly can. And I know that you've worked hard with your fellow Growers to get them to that spot. Chris, is your term winds down, Tom Haag from Eden Valley, Minnesota is getting set to succeed you as President. And he was your Vice President last year and you got to know him a little bit better and maybe mentored him a bit. What advice have you given him?
Chris Edgington:
Well, if you know Tom, you know that Tom's got a mind of his own, comes from living in Minnesota and farming him with the cold tundra. One of the things that you have to remember is assume good intent on most issues and topics and try to find the background story if somebody is really not happy with what's going on or where you're at. And how does that affect the issue that they presented to you or the challenge they brought. And at the end of every day, try to feel good that you accomplished what you could for yourself and for the organization, but lean on people as well. And Tom has some coaching experience in his background and he's another guy that believes in the team. He believes that we get way more done, if you work together as a unit.
Chris Edgington:
He will lean on myself, he'll lean on Harold, he'll lean on the staff and the other Grower members. He'll lean on the state of Minnesota, just like I've done some things with Iowa. And part of it is, don't totally expect what you're going to get to have happen because you don't know. I had a past President send me a text the other day and said, "What would you call your accomplishments?" And that particular president got to go to the white house three times for bill signings. Very unusual circumstances, that's not going to happen to me. It wasn't on my list of have to dos because I knew that the timing was not right, it's an opportunity of circumstances. The other thing is, you need to be prepared for the unexpected because we've had several things come up, many of them positive, a few of them not, that were unexpected when the year started. And you just have to work your way through it and resolve that you feel good about the decisions you made because you're trying to look at the organization as a whole, not at any one individual or issue, in particular.
Jon Doggett:
So legacy is a word that comes up in the world of agriculture or just about any part of society. So when you were starting out as NCGA President a year ago, you said your goal was to just leave it better than you found it. So if you look back on the last year and you've done a little of that, how do you feel about that legacy leave for Tom and the rest of the organization?
Chris Edgington:
From the organization side, I definitely think that we are in a better spot. We have streamlined some things. Our communication between Grower leaders is better. We got out of COVID, that was part of it. We actually had a year full of meetings. When I look back to what Jon and Kevin had to go through, and both of them had to deal with COVID, where things were completely shut down. And we basically just like the rest of society, we have figured out, we're having meetings. We will show up, people are going to be there now, will somebody be missing? Yeah, it happens. So some of that happened from the Grower side and it would depend on the Grower you ask. Some of them feel that this fertilizer deal is just driving them nuts. We haven't done anything for fertilizer, so we haven't done anything right. The fact that corn is still six and a half dollars or more, and soybeans are $13 or $14. It has helped with that fertilizer situation.
Chris Edgington:
But did I get everything done? Did it all come out smooth and sailing? No, I knew it wouldn't. You always hope for that. I became President of another organization a few years ago and I thought it was going to be a pretty calm and safe year. And then that local organization's pack made its announcements of who it endorsed. And that all blew up in my face like you wouldn't believe. But what I do feel good about Jon and you and the staff are such a huge part of all this is our communication, our transparency, our decision making process is solid. We work through issues, we resolve things, we communicate with each other. It's always interesting, I am fairly engaging, I will ask people questions, even when they're wanting to be silent and people have gotten used to that. But they've also gotten used to, it's okay for Growers and staff to talk on a regular basis on whatever topics they're working on versus only during board time or only during special meetings.
Chris Edgington:
If you got a question in the middle of the day, I picked up the phone and called whoever it was, because if I tried to remember for a special time, I forgot it, because something else came up to replace it, probably. That to me, shows an organization that's working well together, where people understand that we're all working towards the same thing. We've all got different roles and different responsibilities, but at the end, we are working to produce more corn, create more demand, more markets, and be productive for both our Grower members, as well as the 300,000 checkoff members that invest their funds into our programs, to work on projects that are dear and near to the Grower leaders.
Jon Doggett:
It is a really nice legacy that you're leaving and you should be proud of it. And one of the other things you should be proud of Chris is the support that you've had from your family. So what are you looking forward to the most about getting to spend a little bit more time back on your farm in St. Ansgar, Iowa?
Chris Edgington:
Well, obviously one of the things is just getting back into the farming operation that I never really left, but I kind of was stepping sideways while they were trying to move forward. And I really enjoy producing crops. I keep learning more about what I'm doing and how to do it. And the fact that I share that with my dad, my brother, my son, our daughter, sometimes. And then all the other extended family. My wife has been a huge supporter. She will enjoy me being home a little bit more. Although, she does know that I still have one year of quite a bit of travel and activities. And Jon, when I got into this and my lady asked me a month ago, how I got to be in this seat and it took me two and a half hours. Now there were a couple interruptions and a few things. But it all goes back to the premise who better to talk about agriculture and production, than the actual people doing the producing of it.
Chris Edgington:
And I get thanked a lot. I got thanked this weekend, after I got done being chewed out by a guy on a topic, but I got thanked for being on the radio, for talking about our issues, for being engaged in that and taking care of that. And producers, a lot of them don't want to do it. They don't want to leave the farm, they don't want to get on the radio or write a letter to the editor or anything. And I guess I kind of got past that a long time ago. I really enjoy telling Ags story. I really enjoy talking about all of the innovation and all of the things we do. And I just got off of a call with a bunch of companies. And one of the things they're talking about is sustainability and environment. And they all got all these goals, but very few of them actually have Grower members on any form of advisory council trying to help them talk about practices.
Chris Edgington:
They might have a test farmer, they might have this, but they actually don't spend a lot of time across the entire country with Grower members, Grower leaders, that may or may not be their suppliers, because one of the challenges we face and I've said this in front of Congress, around the farm bill is, we produce corn in 48 states, or maybe it's 49. It's Texas to Minnesota, it's California to Maryland and Maine in the domestic plus obviously Hawaii and if you want to throw Puerto Rico in there. But the weather's not the same, the soil's not the same, the markets aren't the same. And so when somebody wants to paint the entire ag corn production area with one brush, they do not understand what's really going on. And some of our companies that we sell to, have some of those same challenges.
Chris Edgington:
They are getting better, I will say that, but they want to paint corn production is with one brush. So whether you're in South Texas or Northern Minnesota, you guys should be able to do it exactly the same. That would be fine if mother nature treated them both exactly the same, but they don't. And the soils are different, you've got glacier soils in Minnesota and you got something else in South Texas. It's an interesting deal, but going home, it will be a challenge for me to be a little less outgoing at the same time. I have some goals for our operation at home that I'm probably the driver behind and some of its things that I've been exposed to. That's like, "Yeah, we need to look into some of this stuff". And by being home, I'll be able to implement some of those.
Jon Doggett:
Well, Chris, I would say having worked with you all these years, I do know that you have a lot of energy that is needing a little bit of direction, and you've always been very focused on that. So I am sure the rest of the family is going to have a few interesting moments over the next few years in translating that energy you've used for the industry to the energy that you're going to spend at home. So that ought to be a really interesting thing to watch from afar.
Chris Edgington:
Jon's heard me say this more than once, as I've got up and gave a few retirement type comments to people. And it is truly an honor to sit in this seat, when you walk into the National Corn Grower's office and you look at the pictures on the wall, there's not very many faces there, for an organization that's close to 60 years old. In the early years, some of those guys did this for two or three years in a row, and then maybe even came back as they were trying to get it organized. And simply, the honor to lead, what is the largest, most dynamic commodity organization in the US has been a privilege. It was not something I had on my radar 10 and 12 years ago, I can guarantee you that.
Chris Edgington:
And now that it's come and it's happened, it's like, "Why would I have ever missed this opportunity to have done this and to represent American farmers both domestically and internationally". When you travel international and you're representing agriculture in the US, it is amazing, the conversations you get in with people, because some of them have a better idea where Iowa is in the US, than some of our East or West Coast citizens. Do I get every state right, every time? No, but I do know where the Midwest is. And I do know the East coast and the West coast. So the respect that American agriculture has around the world is probably part of the reason that it feels so good to represent American agriculture around the world.
Jon Doggett:
Well, we've been visiting with Chris Edgington, from St. Ansgar, Iowa. And he is NCGA's outgoing president. So Chris, thank you for your service to the organization. And thanks for joining us once again, here on the podcast.
Chris Edgington:
Thank you.
Jon Doggett:
I'm NCGA, CEO, Jon Doggett, and we hope you'll join us real soon again for the next episode of Wherever Jon May Roam, The National Corn Grower Association podcast.
Dusty Weis:
That is going to wrap up this edition of Wherever Jon May Roam, The National Corn Grower Association podcast. New episodes arrive monthly. So make sure you subscribe in your favorite app and join us again soon. Visit ncga.com to learn more or sign up for the Association's email newsletter. Wherever Jon May Roam is brought to you by The National Corn Growers Association with editing and production oversight by Larry Kilgore the third. And it's produced by Podcamp Media, branded podcast production for businesses, podcampmedia.com for the National Corn Growers Association. Thanks for listening. I'm Dusty Weis.
