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Viewpoint By Don Copenhaver, President
Annual Washington trip lets farmers and elected officials interact on issues
Each year, the legislative committee of MFA’s corporate board makes a trip to Washington, D.C. There’s good reason. This yearly adventure, although time-consuming and costly, is one of the most productive things members of the corporate board and I do. The trip is structured around an event hosted by the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives.
The legislative committee for MFA’s corporate board of directors consists of Lester Evans, chairman (Lebanon, Mo., District 13); David Cottrill, vice chairman (Albany, Mo., District 1); Kendall Kircher (New Franklin, Mo., District 6); and Don Mills (El Dorado Springs, Mo., District 11).
NCFC’s Washington conference draws nearly 150 farmer cooperative leaders from across the country. NCFC helps arrange almost 100 congressional visits for attendees. The advice NCFC staffers provide to non-Washington insiders is invaluable. They help explain what we should and (more importantly) should not do in the course of our meetings. It’s good advice because these visits bring us face to face with key policy makers who represent our interests nationally.
During these meetings, our elected representatives get to hear from real farmers and ranchers, the elected leadership behind agricultural cooperatives, as well as the management of the cooperatives. It’s a perspective not often heard in Washington. I know from experience that our elected representatives want to hear our concerns and opinions. It reinforces existing convictions in some and provides perspective to others.
In the interest of efficiency, attending many of these visits with us were Jerry Taylor, president and CEO of MFA Oil Company, and several individuals representing Dairy Farmers of America. As you’d imagine, these men added an invaluable perspective, and we were honored to accompany them.
My first priority in talking to our elected representatives was the Capper-Volstead Act. As my column in the last issue of Today’s Farmer explained, a federal commission recommended ending many portions, if not all, of the Act. I could not disagree more. Cooperatives represent farmers, as this trip each year well illustrates. Farmer cooperatives allow individual farmers to own, structure and lead organizations that help them compete in an increasingly competitive world. The Capper-Volstead Act provides the authority that allows two or more producers to discuss price or cooperatively market their products.
Ending or “sunsetting” the Capper-Volstead Act would be economically devastating and would create tremendous uncertainty for farmer cooperatives, their farmer owners and others in rural communities. This is not the time to put farmers at a competitive disadvantage in dealing with increasingly larger multinational firms and other conglomerates as well as trade-protected industries in other nations.
The proposal would effectively reduce competition. It is hard to imagine a similar proposal that would eliminate the corporate form of business. Why should the cooperative form of business be eliminated? What purpose could that possibly serve?
Next on the lineup of issues was the upcoming farm bill. We asked that the 2007 farm bill be built on the success of the 2002 farm bill. Funding for the 2007 farm bill needs to be adequate to achieve its objectives. We also emphasized our support for allowing producers to enroll in conservation programs with the help of their cooperatives. That effort will streamline the application process and could very well encourage more innovative conservation projects.
We also reaffirmed support of the Farm Credit System. Maintaining an economically viable and sound Farm Credit System is vital to today’s agriculture. The cooperatively owned Farm Credit System supplies farmers and cooperatives with a dependable and competitive source of credit and other financial services.
In addition to these congressional visits, the conference features a high-powered lineup of speakers who address issues of concern to today’s agriculture. We heard from two of the co-chairs of the Congressional Farmer Cooperative Caucus, Congressman Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota and Senator Larry Craig of Idaho. I was also extremely honored to be selected to introduce another member of that body—Missouri’s own Senator Kit Bond.
Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff addressed the conference. He presented the Bush Administration’s position on immigration as well as the department’s focus on drug dealers and criminal activity. From the vantage point of agriculture, that translates into anhydrous ammonia, a sought-after ingredient in methamphetamine production.
Secretary Chertoff also outlined the department’s work on chemical security regulations that impact farmer cooperatives and their members. The items affecting agriculture that are of concern to Homeland Security are urea, ammonium nitrate, anhydrous ammonia and propane. Depending on the amount of these products stored, many farmers as well as their cooperatives will be affected. Stay tuned for specifics when they become available.
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