We are getting ready to head out to Anaheim next week for the 2010 Commodity Classic and I got in the mood this week by attending the Missouri Corn Growers Association annual meeting in Jefferson City where I interviewed two of the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) leaders. On the left is Mike Geske, former president of the Missouri Corn Growers now serving on the 15-member National Corn Board, and on the right is NCGA president Darrin Ihnen of South Dakota. Darrin was guest speaker at the Missouri Corn Growers luncheon and he helped to get the farmers fired up to go and talk to their lawmakers at the state capitol about important issues that could ultimately threaten their livelihood.

One of those issues is a threat posed by the Humane Society of the United States. Our buddies at HSUS are working up a petition drive in Missouri directed at dog breeders – lumping them all in the unsavory category of “puppy mills” – kind of like they lump all of agriculture under “factory farming.” Mike says that is why all agriculture groups in the state are working to keep legislators informed about how food is produced and the importance of the industry to Missouri. “We feel that once they get past the dog breeders they are going to be headed for commercial agriculture,” he told me.

Darrin says the threat posed to animal agriculture in individual states by groups like HSUS ultimately impacts all of agriculture across the country. “It’s very important that we help defend them,” Darrin says. “We can’t be separated when it comes to agriculture. We need to work together.”

This is just one of many important policy issues that corn growers will discuss at Classic next week, the annual meeting that also includes soybean, wheat and sorghum producers. Others include the indirect land use issue, climate legislation, increasing the ethanol blend rate and extending the blender’s tax credit for ethanol. Watch for our coverage from Commodity Classic next week sponsored by BASF and New Holland.

Listen to or download back to back interviews with Darrin and Mike here: