USDA, EPA, GREET, NCGA and the rest of Commodity Classic’s alphabet soup 

By Chris Cherry, Indiana Corn Growers Association President

The Commodity Classic is an interesting annual event. Leaders from corn, soybean, wheat, sorghum and equipment manufacturers get together to share information and plan for the future. More than 11,000 people attended this year’s event which wrapped up earlier this month in Houston, Texas. 

Whenever that many farmers and ag stakeholders are in one place at the same time, it attracts both government officials and media. The 2024 Classic had plenty of both. 

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack was one of those government officials. This year, EPA Administrator Michael Regan joined him. Both spoke during the Classic’s General Session, and that’s the largest single gathering of farmers during the event. 

Vilsack mentioned working toward year-round sales of E15, a blend of 15 percent ethanol with 85 percent petroleum. Most gasoline in America is blended with 10 percent ethanol. Vilsack also talked about Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) and getting approvals for it from EPA. He said the environmental impact of SAF should be judged by EPA applying the GREET model. GREET is the Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions and Energy use in Transportation, and it has been the rule for judging new fuels since 2021. 

However, Vilsack did not mention any new initiatives for E15 or SAF. 

When Regan addressed the crowd, he announced the creation of the EPA’s Office of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. Rod Snyder, who serves as EPA’s Senior Ag Advisor, will lead the new office. Snyder is a former lobbyist for the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA). We aren’t against improved communications between EPA and farmers, but it wasn’t “exciting” news. 

The Classic was also an opportunity to talk to other corn growers from across the country. A lot of that talk happened during planned events by the NCGA. 

Among those events was the NCGA Corn Congress. NCGA leaders ratified a new strategic plan for the organization, modernized its objectives and positioned the association to focus on increasing demand for corn. The vote to approve the new plan happened on Saturday, March 2 as Corn Congress concluded its Houston meeting. Other votes and work with the NCGA Policy book included support for the use of the GREET model to accurately show the greenhouse gas emissions of corn ethanol and continued support for a mandatory base acre update. 

The current NCGA policy supports a mandatory base acre update to be included in the next farm bill. A resolution was offered to change this position to a voluntary update over several years. After debate on the delegate floor, the delegates chose to keep the current mandatory base acre update language. 

Other resolutions of note, NCGA delegates passed resolutions to support policy that expands ethanol markets and encourages corn to be a preferred feedstock for SAF production. 

ICGA members were also able to visit many of our corporate partners at the Classic’s Trade Show. This was a great opportunity to visit with the leadership of these companies to learn about new products in the pipeline and raise concerns we have on the farm. 

As I said earlier, the reason these opportunities happened is because we had thousands of farmers in one location at one time. Our numbers matter. If you’re not an ICGA member, send an email to Khyla Goodman at kgoodman@incorn.org.