The experts on America’s largest crop and members of Congress will brief Hill staffers and reporters on how corn farmers are using technology to boost productivity — and the implications for agriculture policy, ethanol, the environment, exports and the future of the market for corn.
Where: U.S. Capitol, Room HC-7
When: Tuesday, June 9, 9:30 a.m.
Featured speakers:
- Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-Iowa)
- Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.)
- Ross Korves, agricultural economist
- Mark Lambert, director, Corn Farmers Coalition
America’s largest crop is back in the spotlight: California has enacted a low-carbon fuel standard that gives most Midwestern ethanol low marks for allegedly requiring too much land to grow corn to make the fuel. The Environmental Protection Agency now proposes to follow suit. And Congress is considering the Clean Water Restoration Act, which could affect corn farmers by regulating agricultural runoff.
These are only the latest developments in an ongoing debate about agriculture’s role as a producer of both food and energy. Since the 2007 Energy Bill mandated substantially increased ethanol use, opponents have tried to argue that it’s not economically or environmentally sustainable to use corn for food, feed and fuel.
But government data tell a different story.
For example, the Agriculture Department and the Congressional Budget Office both forecast corn prices will stay under $4 per bushel — half last summer’s high — for the next decade.
And contrary to what the opponents say, farmers are growing more than enough corn for food, animal feed, ethanol and the export market — with less energy, fewer resources and less environmental impact.
In fact, largely unnoticed by policy-makers, a new wave of technological innovation is driving stunning productivity gains on the farm, with tremendous economic and environmental benefits:
- America’s corn farmers produce five times more corn than they did in the 1930s on 20 percent less land — and yields are likely to double again in the next 25 years because of cutting-edge farm practices and biotechnology.
- Farmers contributed to the U.S. economy by exporting $13 billion worth of corn in 2008 — even as domestic ethanol production expanded.
- The same innovations driving productivity also bring environmental benefits — less fertilizer per bushel of corn, fewer herbicides, less irrigation and reduced soil erosion.
For more information: Please contact Burke Jensen at 202-261-2892 or burke.jensen@mslworldwide.com.