This year we begin the process of formulating the 2023 Farm Bill. The first step is to review items under the jurisdiction of the House and Senate agriculture committees. This will be done through oversight hearings to understand successes and shortcomings of the 2018 Farm Bill. Stakeholder and field hearings will outline the needs of agriculture into the future.
The sugar industry uses this process as an opportunity to review elements of sugar policy and see where any improvements can be made. There is always a good deal of analysis that needs to be done if you are going to make any recommended changes to the current policy. This work is well underway, with the intent to have any recommendations ready for 2023.
What is important right now is to use education to frame our issues. Legislators and staff must understand the importance of our industry and its policy. With supply chain disruption across many industries, we are a prime example of a reliable supplier with fair prices for consumers. A new Texas A&M study shows that the sugar industry provides over 109,000 good-paying jobs in rural and urban communities. The beet and cane industry is generating over $24 billion to the economy.
Teams of beet and cane growers will make hundreds of virtual congressional visits again this year as part of our annual fly-in. Last year was a great success, and we look forward to another one. Congressional offices want to know about any pandemic-related supply chain problems for their constituents. Nationwide, we have over 90 strategically located distribution facilities to ensure no such problems exist in our industry. This great story is told by actual growers. It leaves a huge impact on the people who will make decisions on U.S. sugar policy and your future. A special thank you is owed to Zack Clark and Pam Alther, who work with others in the industry to make this event a success. It is our intent to have an in-person fly-in early 2023. Our 2023 annual meeting will also be in Washington, D.C., so our industry leaders can meet with national leaders to discuss the farm bill.
ASGA has added a dozen new board members this year as well as new leadership. At the ASGA annual meeting on Jan. 28, Nate Hultgren of Raymond, Minnesota, was unanimously elected as ASGA president for 2022. Hultgren grows beets for Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative, where he also currently serves as chairman of the board. Hultgren has served on the ASGA board of directors since 2016.
What is important right now is to use education to frame our issues. Legislators must understand the importance of our industry and its policy.
American Crystal grower Neil Rockstad of Ada, Minnesota, was elected as ASGA vice president. Rockstad has served on the ASGA board of directors since 2015, and currently also serves as president of the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association.
A huge thank you goes to outgoing ASGA president Dan Younggren, who has led us over the last two years through tremendous challenges. He has termed out of office and now heads toward a much-deserved retirement. The industry also owes a great debt of gratitude to our retiring board members: Big Horn Basin’s (Wyoming) Paul Wambeke; Michigan Sugar’s Clay Crumbaugh, Adam Hereford and Tom Wadsworth; Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative’s Pat Freese; Montana-Dakota’s Don Steinbeisser Jr.; NEBCO’s Aaron Worley; Nyssa-Nampa’s (Oregon/Idaho) Norma Burbank (executive secretary); Red River Valley’s Kelly Erickson, David Mueller and Rod Olson; and Southern Minnesota’s Chris Long.
We also say goodbye to ASGA vice president and general counsel Scott Herndon, who accepted a job in January to become the president of Field to Market. We will miss him dearly in his role at ASGA. But his move is beneficial for agriculture as producers interface with food producers and retailers on sustainability and climate issues. The linkages between these industries will only grow more important in the years ahead.
The Nyssa-Nampa Beet Growers Association has officially merged with the Idaho Beet Growers Association into the Snake River Sugarbeet Growers Association. As such, on Jan. 1, Norma Burbank, executive secretary of the Nyssa-Nampa Beet Growers, has officially retired. On behalf of all growers across the nation, I want to express our deep appreciation for the tremendous service that Norma provided to Nyssa-Nampa growers for past 23 years. We applaud her for her dedicated commitment. Norma carried out the demands of the position with excellence and set a high bar for the industry.