It’s not always easy to catch up with Minden, Iowa farmer Kevin Ross who has spent a lot of time in the past few months at the White House as president of the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), mostly celebrating new trade agreements beneficial to American farmers.

Most recently, Ross attended a White House ceremony last month commemorating the signing of the phase one deal between the United States and China. “One of the biggest pieces for corn is really the biotech portion of the China deal,” said Ross. Another big piece of the deal would be increased access to the Chinese market for U.S. ethanol.

Speaking of ethanol, NCGA was one of the parties in the lawsuit over Environmental Protection Agency’s small refinery exemption (SRE) program under the Renewable Fuel Standard that was recently decided in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. “Just a fabulous result for us and everybody in the industry,” says Ross. “And moving forward, they’re going to have to adjust the way they’re administering the SRE program.”

Ross discusses these topics and gives a preview of Commodity Classic in this interview from the National Ethanol Conference.
RFANEC Interview with NCGA president Kevin Ross, Iowa 5:43