After last week’s announcement about the Global Renewable Fuels Alliance and Tom Buis moving from NFU to Growth Energy I thought we now had plenty of organizations promoting not only renewable fuels but corn in particular since it is such an integral part of biofuels production today.
However, we now have another new organization. This time it’s the Corn Farmers Coalition.
When corn prices spiked last year, big food manufacturers and oil companies claimed there wasn’t enough corn to feed everyone and make ethanol.
Now we know that was not true. There was always plenty of corn to make ethanol, not to mention corn to export and to feed ourselves and the cattle, chickens and pigs we raise on corn. And the federal Agriculture Department says there will be plenty of corn to meet demand for the foreseeable future.
So corn farmers from 10 states, including Illinois, and the industry’s trade group — the National Corn Growers Association — formed the Corn Farmers Coalition (CFC) to educate policymakers in Washington.
The coalition today launches a Web site (www.CornFarmersCoalition.org), an advertising campaign and a statistical abstract on America’s biggest crop.
“Washington needs to know that corn farmers are using some of the most advanced technologies on the planet to do more with less — to grow more corn using fewer resources every year,” said Mark K. Lambert, Director of the Corn Farmers Coalition. “American corn farmers, the majority of them small business people, are among the most productive in the world.”