A bipartisan group of former leaders of America’s major agricultural commodity associations and biofuels organizations, farmer leaders, and former senior USDA officials, sent a letter to Congress this week sounding the alarm about the current state of the farm economy and the potential for “widespread collapse of American agriculture.”

In a letter released today to the leadership of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees, twenty-seven former agricultural executives and officials with decades of experience detailed how current Administration policies have harmed the farm economy and the need to take substantial action. The signatories include past presidents and CEOs of the American Soybean Association, National Corn Growers Association, National Pork Producers Council, National Barley Growers Association, National Milk Producers Federation, US Grains Council, and Renewable Fuels Association, past Directors of the Illinois and Nebraska Departments of Agriculture, and other farm leaders and senior agricultural policy experts.

Among the letter signatories are former presidents of NCGA Harold Wolfe and Pam Johnson, past NCGA CEO Jon Doggett, former RFA chair Randy Doyal, and past RFA CEO Bob Dinneen.

“First and foremost, what we want to do is to start a conversation,” said Dinneen. “Let’s focus on the solutions. We outline what we think some of them might be, but we don’t have all the answers. Let’s figure that out. The bottom line is we’re in a perilous state, and we say that without hyperbole or exaggeration. It is perilous. We need to figure it out.”

Dinneen says the group offered nine actions that can be taken to help restore the farm economy. “Let’s end the tariffs on farm inputs. Let’s try to open up markets elsewhere. Let’s stop some of the chaotic trade policies that are out there. But there’s more than that. We think even on biofuels, there are things that can be done, and Congress has been irresponsible in not addressing the things that they could be doing to increase biofuel demand. Let’s get E15 year-round done once and for all.”

Read the letter to Congress and learn more in this interview with Dinneen.
Interview with Bob Dinneen (14:39)