Celebrating an Important Birthday and Looking to the Future

By Lesly McNitt

During the week of July 13th we will welcome hundreds of corn farmers to Washington on the heels of an important milestone birthday for our nation. Corn farmers and corn production have been a part of every one of America’s last 250 years, and we at the National Corn Growers Association are looking at the many ways that our farmers can continue to contribute to American life and innovation over the next two-and-a-half centuries.

This month, we released a new report  outlining a strategy for securing new demand for American corn. And our work in Washington will play a major role in enacting the plan and eliminating policy and regulatory barriers that stand in the way.

This report provides a roadmap that could collectively unlock demand for billions of additional bushels of corn annually. It identifies three new high-growth markets where NCGA is looking to position American corn to compete: 

• Maritime Fuels: Securing 10% of the global maritime fuel market fueled by corn-based ethanol would equate to 3 billion bushels of annual new demand. 
• Sustainable Aviation Fuel: Securing 10% of the global SAF market fueled by ethanol-to-jet technologies would represent 1.7 billion bushels of annual demand. 
• Biobased Products and Biomanufacturing: Securing 10% of the global biochemical and biobased product market, with corn-based feedstocks capable of replacing the petroleum in 10% of the world’s plastics would total 6.6 billion bushels of potential demand. 

My colleagues and I are already laying the groundwork for these longer-term efforts, and that work will expand over the coming years. In the near-term, we are working to pass legislation in Congress that will allow consumers to access fuel with a 15% ethanol blend year-round. We secured a victory on this legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives, and we are lobbying for Senate passage to lower gas prices and increase corn demand. We are also strategizing for ethanol’s use beyond E15.

We continue to work on expanding foreign export markets and eliminating trade barriers, and we are working hard to ensure that the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement is renewed this year. And of course, none of this is possible if farmers can’t purchase affordable inputs or if their tools are too heavily regulated. That’s why we are raising concerns about these issues, holding U.S. companies to account for bad practices and challenging trading partners who undermine our farmers.

These are but a few of the many efforts we are engaging in to ensure a brighter future for the nation’s corn growers. This work is extremely important to NCGA, because as many of our grower leaders often say, they are not farming just for the season, they are farming with the next generation in mind.

McNitt is the vice president of public policy at the National Corn Growers Association.