Biotechnology and domestic policy were among the top issues under discussion at the ASGA Annual Meeting held Feb. 8-9 in Scottsdale, Ariz.
The meeting that drew 395 growers, suppliers and spouses was also notable for an historic first achievement. As in Galen Lee becoming the first ASGA president to serve from Idaho or Oregon.
“Being elected president of the ASGA is both a huge honor and huge responsibility,” Lee said.
Lee grew up on his family farm in New Plymouth, Idaho, located about 50 miles northwest of Boise on the Idaho/Oregon border. He noted the honor after pointing out that Pete Funk from the Moses Lake, Wash., area served as the first ASGA president (1976-78).
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering from the University of Idaho in 1988, Lee returned to farming in 1991. He represents the fourth generation of his family working the land.
“We’re still farming 40 acres that my great-grandfather took out of sagebrush with horses and another 40 acres 3 miles away that my great-grandmother homesteaded because my great-grandfather was killed in an accident,” Lee said.
Lee and his wife, Cindy, have eight children and 17 grandchildren with another grandchild due in August.
According to Lee, a family mantra has always been to serve and lead when called upon.
“I have been asked by this board to lead our organization, and I gladly accept that request.”
Dealing with GMOs
Luther Markwart, ASGA executive vice president, admitted growers are currently in a tremendous amount of turbulence with the national labeling standard still undecided.
Legislation to set a national standard for labels on food products containing genetically modified organisms is expected in February.
“It’ll take another month or so before we figure out how it works its way through Congress,” Markwart said. “I am optimistic about it. Whatever path it takes you have got to have the technology. Sugar will find its way once we get some clarity.
“It is clearly understood by the people at the highest level that we have to talk about the safety of this technology and the benefits of this technology,” he said. “We’ve got a big education challenge ahead of us, and we have got to do it—not just sugar but across commodities and throughout the food chain. I know the food manufacturers understand that they have got to do something.”
Markwart also said the cane industry is now looking at biotechnology.
“We are there to help them, collaborate with them and to help them succeed, so it’s not just the U.S. growers and the Canadian industry that are using biotech. We need others to be successful in other countries so that this now is accepted globally.
“The more we can support others getting into this the better we are,” he said. “It removes us from that isolation position. This technology is phenomenal. If you don’t have it, you shut off all kinds of opportunity and other breeding techniques for the American farmer and farmers around the world that need this kind of technology.”
Defending sugar
No issue is larger than protecting domestic policy.
“We fully expect attacks on it both in the House and Senate this year,” Markwart said. “They’ll do it through the appropriations process or any other legislative vehicles that may be under consideration. The confectioners have said they are going to be more creative, more aggressive, so we have to be ready for that.
“Our grower leaders, along with the cane industry, are going to make well over 300 visits to Capitol Hill in the last week of February and first week of March,” Markwart said. They will convey how important the domestic sugar industry is to provide stability and also discuss unfair foreign trade practices.
“It’s the 142,000 jobs of no cost to the American taxpayer,” Markwart said. “It’s an industry that’s essential for the food security of our nation. Those are the messages you have to drive home every year.”
Spokeswomen stand up
“We have to tell our story like we never told it before,” Markwart said while 18 of the 19 biotech industry spokeswomen introduced themselves. “All of biotechnology is being attacked through social media.”
The spokeswomen will work to counteract that.
“I never stepped foot into a tractor until I met my husband,” said Sierra Kanten, of the Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative.
“Everything’s OK and GMOs are safe,” Kanten said. “I want people to know the truth.”
Testing and the FDA have confirmed GMOs are nutritionally the same as non-GMO crops. Sugar from beets and cane or from sugar crops grown using conventional, biotech or organic methods is identical.
“I believe in the future of ag, and GMOs are the future,” added Megan Stevens, also of Southern Minnesota. Stevens is one of two college students among the spokeswomen. She served as the ASGA intern in 2015.
“We need to get the facts out,” said Nancy Wulfekuhle, of the Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative representing Minnesota. “People have the concept if it’s on the Internet it must be true.”
Laura Rutherford, of the American Crystal Sugar Company representing North Dakota, said the spokeswomen have successfully lobbied state legislatures and have used radio, TV and print to explain the facts about sugar from biotech sugarbeets.
“Our group has made an impact, and this is only the beginning.”