NCGA Focused on Advancing Grower Priorities in New Legislative Landscape

Nov 22, 2024

The November 5 election provided a clearer picture of what the next couple of years will look like in Washington. With an overwhelming majority of the votes counted, we are preparing to swear in President-Elect Donald Trump and a new Republican-controlled Congress in January.

The changes in Washington will be top-down. We will have new leadership at all the federal agencies, including those that oversee important issues for farmers, like the U.S. Department of Agriculture. While nominations for leadership roles are coming in quickly, at this writing, we do not know who will be nominated as secretary of USDA.

With our growers facing tough economic headwinds, NCGA and corn grower leaders are already working hard to shape the coming policy landscape.

Our short-term focus is to advance key priorities during the waning weeks of 2024, in which there are fewer than 20 joint legislative days left. Our goals include:

Passing disaster relief and economic assistance for farmers. NCGA is supportive of efforts in Congress to provide relief to growers facing financial hardships, ranging from economic difficulties to natural disasters. This funding is proposed in addition to and as a bridge to a strengthened farm safety net.
Pushing legislation to allow for year-round consumer access to E15. EPA already granted a request from eight Midwestern governors to allow the year-round sale of fuel with a 15% ethanol blend, or E15, in their states beginning in 2025. But there is legislation in Congress that would codify this agreement into law, allowing for year-round consumer access to E15 across the country. We are working to pass this legislation by year’s end. Access to higher blends of ethanol is good for the environment, saves consumers money at the pump and helps expand demand for corn ethanol. Let’s get this done!

A robust farm bill. There is still a chance we will see a strengthened farm bill passed this year, but it’s a big hill to climb in only a few short weeks of a lame-duck session.While we are disappointed that there has not been more public progress, we are prepared to continue our advocacy until a bill that reflects corn grower priorities is signed into law.

Turning to the new year and beyond, our advocacy priorities include:

The Next Generation Fuels Act. With farm income on a steady decline, the Next Generation Fuels Act – which would modernize the liquid fuels system – is the best path forward to capture more of the light-duty vehicle market and stimulate demand for corn. That’s why it has been and will continue to be one of our top legislative priorities. The Next Generation Fuels Act enjoys support from bipartisan members of the House and Senate. But we need additional support from members of Congress. Transitioning the gasoline supply to lower carbon, high-octane fuel, something higher blends of ethanol can provide, reduces emissions and increases vehicle fuel efficiency. Advancing this legislation will be a priority in the year ahead.
New foreign markets for corn. International trade is an important demand driver for U.S. corn, as roughly 15% of the U.S. corn crop is exported. NCGA continues to advocate for proactive trade negotiations that open new markets to U.S. corn. This includes reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers that could impede access to foreign markets. We look forward to working with the new administration to pursue trade agreements or other initiatives that address market access. NCGA will continue to call on Congress to increase funding in the farm bill to open new markets for U.S. agriculture products.

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Video: The 15-Year Bet Behind Every New Variety!

Canada is trying to decide how much agricultural research capacity it can afford to lose. Brian Rossnagel believes the better question is whether the country can afford to rebuild it.

The longtime barley and oat breeder makes the case with a simple fact about his profession: the consequences of today’s decisions may not become visible for 10 or 15 years.

“Pick the right parents. That’s the biggest thing,” Rossnagel says. “If you pick the wrong parents, you’re not going to get anywhere—and you don’t know that until 10 years, 15 years later.”

That warning carries particular weight as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada moves to reduce spending and streamline parts of its science operations. The department’s 2026–27 plan anticipates the loss of approximately 665 positions by 2028–29 and says some research will be reduced where capacity exists in academia or industry. AAFC says the changes will make its science operations more cost-effective over the long term.

For Canada’s seed industry, Rossnagel’s career illustrates what is at stake.

This fall, the retired University of Saskatchewan breeder will be inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame. During his 35-year career at the Crop Development Centre, he helped develop more than 100 barley and oat varieties, including CDC Austenson—one of Western Canada’s most widely grown feed barleys. His induction recognizes not only those varieties, but the collaboration and research system that made them possible.

Rossnagel is quick to emphasize that none of it was the work of one person.

“The first thing I thought about was all the other people who contributed to whatever success I and my program had over the years,” he says. “We know that it’s not an individual who does this. It’s a group—a team.”

That team extends well beyond the breeder whose name appears beside a variety. It includes technicians, pathologists, quality specialists, statisticians, regional testing sites, seed growers and industry partners. It also includes the breeders who came before and those who will carry the germplasm forward.

CDC Fraser barley, for example, moved through three breeding careers. Its parents came from Brian Harvey’s program. Rossnagel advanced the material after Harvey retired, and Aaron Beattie later guided it through registration and release.

That kind of handoff is normal in plant breeding. The person who makes the original cross may never see the resulting variety reach farmers.

It also explains why lost research capacity cannot simply be switched back on when budgets improve.

“If you shut it off, it’s very, very difficult—and particularly costly—to start it up again,” Rossnagel says. “If you have to start from scratch, it’s going to be at least 10 years before anybody notices whether you’re getting anything done or not.”

The concern is not simply how many experimental lines Canada can process. Modern equipment, statistical tools and genetic technologies allow today’s breeding programs to evaluate tens of thousands of lines—far more than Rossnagel could handle when he entered the field in the early 1970s.

But efficiency and automation do not generate every idea.

“If you pare back down, and instead of having six or seven individual scientists concentrating on wheat breeding, you go down and say three people could handle all this, well, that’s half the ideas gone,” he says. “Particularly if you happen to lose the three people who had the really neat and innovative ideas, boy, that’s a problem.”

It is a timely distinction for Canadian agriculture. Consolidating programs may preserve the volume of material moving through a system, at least initially. It may not preserve the diversity of thinking, regional knowledge or willingness to pursue unconventional crosses.

That regional knowledge matters because Canadian agriculture is not one uniform production environment. A variety suited to southern Alberta may face different disease, moisture and maturity pressures than one grown in Manitoba, Ontario or Atlantic Canada.

“Agriculture is applied biology,” Rossnagel says. “Biology, all around the Earth, moves from the poles to the equator. It does not move from Newfoundland to B.C. like politics do.”