Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Missouri Corn Talk, your go to weekly agriculture podcast delivering fast, reliable updates on market development efforts, ethanol demand and the issues shaping today's corn industry. I'm your host, David Geiger. Corn growers are making their voices heard from Jefferson city to Washington D.C. this week on Missouri Corn Talk, we're joined by Missouri Corn Director of Public Policy Derek Steen to talk about a busy stretch for Missouri Corn Growers association members. From pushing year round E15 legislation through the US House to fighting for transparency and fairness in fertilizer markets, to wrapping up another productive legislative session in Missouri. MCGA has been front and center in the conversation. We'll also discuss about how grassroots involvement from Missouri corn growers continue to make a key difference at every level. Derek, thank you so much for joining us today. Let's talk about Missouri corn growers showing up and getting their voices heard. They were in Washington, D.C. pushing for year round E15 as well as fertilizer transparency. These are policies that protect farm profitability and strengthen rural communities.
What went on and what was your experience there?
[00:01:02] Speaker B: Yeah, so a lot going on in Washington, D.C. as is always probably throughout the year in our nation's capital. But the agricultural front, we had a number of issues that got teed up actually in the same week. This was just last week. Several of us were in Washington, D.C. both here in Missouri as well as in other states, primarily prior to a House vote on year round E15. You know, we have corn growers been working on trying to get a Nationwide year round E15 passed for really a couple years now. And we finally made some movement last week. The U.S. house did vote on this legislation and approved it, which was great. And we were in Washington D.C. last week basically prior to that vote, working on the Hill to try and make sure the votes were there for that to pass. And glad to report back that we were successful and that it was successfully voted on and passed. Also going on last week was in the US Senate was a hearing on fertilizer. You know, there's just been a lot of talk about why the price of fertilizer right now is so high. And you know, this is actually an issue that Missouri corn and others in the corn industry have been working on for probably three or four years. Really since COVID we have felt like that the price of fertilizer is unexpectedly high and unreasonably high. And we're trying to find solutions to that. We're trying to find solutions to bring down the price of fertilizer. And I think there's a couple levers that Congress can do to, to help with that. And so this hearing that the Senate had was an important step in that to sort of clarify in daylight what we feel like are some issues within the fertilizer sector. And so again, we were in Washington D.C. last week talking about E15, but we were also on the Senate side talking about fertilizer and the high price of fertilizer.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: Derek, both of those issues are very important for farmers right now. Let's dive more on the E15 side.
Year round is important. It passed the House, it's at the Senate. What does this mean once again for farmers to have access to E15 year round, infrastructure wise as well as grain selling wise?
[00:03:05] Speaker B: You bet. Let me address the Senate part of that first. That will kind of address what benefits that's going to provide to really to the US So since the House has passed the bill, it is headed to the Senate. You know, the good news is President Trump's already thrown support towards E15.
So we get the Senate to act on this, it's a done deal like the President's going to sign E15 legislation. But we've got, we've got a lot of work to do in the Senate. There is some fierce opposition amongst a few senators on this current version, this current legislation on E15. And unfortunately in the Senate it's, we have to have more than a simple majority to get a bill passed. You have to have 60 votes. 60 out of 100 votes. And so it just makes our job harder. You know, we're ready for it, we're prepared, we're gearing up for that battle and for that advocacy work in the US Senate when, when they decide to move on this bill. But it is going to be an uphill battle and man, we are going to need, we're going to need our growers by our side on this one in the Senate. And so you'll probably hear more from us, you know, in the future about how we can ramp up our advocacy in the US Senate and specifically, you know, here in Missouri, we'll, you know, we working on our two US Senators really why this is important for everyone, not, not just farmers. And I think, you know, that's been part of our message is while this is obviously going to be good for farmers, allowing year round E15 has the potential to increase corn consumption annually by 2.4 billion bushels. If E15 was fully adopted across the US that's, that's three and a half times the corn production that Missouri produces every year. So this is huge this is a big number if we can get E15 at the pump all around the US but it's not, you know, it's not just good for farmers, it's good for drivers and consumers because we know that E15 at the pump is cheaper, as much as 10 to upwards of $0.30 cheaper per gallon at the pump. And that's. That saves every family money. And man, right now, with the price of gas the way it is, we need those savings anywhere we can get it. Lastly, you know, it's good for the economy and really particularly for our rural communities. E15 production of ethanol, just like biodiesel, is good for our rural communities, especially where those plants are located. You know, we have six ethanol plants in Missouri, biodiesel plants. Those are important to those communities. They support jobs, they support the local economy.
And you take those away and some of those areas, those rural areas will struggle, will struggle mightily. So we want to make sure our ethanol industry is robust in Missouri as well as across the US So it's really a trifecta of benefits to the US and allowing it to be sold year round helps streamline the sales. The bill also helps fuel retailers with infrastructure issues and allows them to more easily certify all their equipment for E15 use.
Something that's a little bit of a problem right now.
So there's just a multitude of things in this bill that are going to help ensure that E15 is not only sold, but sold robustly throughout the U.S.
[00:06:06] Speaker A: let's take a note on fertilizer as well. Big issue for farmers right now, especially as they're trying to plan for next year. There's already a lot of issues when it comes to input costs right now. What are some of the conversations and what did you hear then from the folks over there in Washington, D.C. about what's being done to help deal with fertilizer costs?
[00:06:27] Speaker B: Yeah. So, you know, fertilizer right now alone accounts for 34%, roughly 34% of the total operating cost to plant corn this year. And that is an exceedingly high amount. We all know that fertilizer prices have gone up. They continue to go up and stay high for three or four years now. You know, three or four years ago, while they were high, it wasn't as problematic because the price of corn was, was a lot higher as well. But the problem now is we've got high input costs coupled with low market prices for our commodities for corn. And that's creating quite a problem across the countryside, certainly in Missouri, for corn farmers trying to just Break even, for that matter. And so I think lawmakers in D.C. have started to notice this and pay more attention to this. And of course, we've got the conflicts going on in the Middle east, which has certainly exasperated those issues as well. As far as the availability and pricing of fertilizer, this hearing that the US Senate had is really the first hearing of its kind focused solely on fertilizer. And really, I think lawmakers were trying to just get a stronger grasp on what's driving that. What's driving the price of fertilizer. They had testimony, witnesses from the fertilizer industry as well as from farmers. There was a corn farmer from South Dakota that testified in that hearing, did an awesome job representing farmers across the U.S. but really, you know, I think ultimately what we feel like is that there are structural issues in the fertilizer industry. We are down here in the US to just about five major fertilizer companies that pretty much dominate the market. And when you only have a few companies that make up a given market, the idea of competition doesn't really exist anymore. They. They have the ability to enact quite a bit of control on. On both the market and prices. And so, you know, while we have our opinions and our suspicions about things going on in the FER industry, in the market, you know, it's up to lawmakers to figure that out and see what's really occurring.
And the problem we have is there's just not a lot of data, pricing data, and market data out there to really get to the bottom of it. So I think that was one takeaway in the hearing, was both lawmakers and farmers in the industry all need to figure out a way to produce more data and more transparency in the market to ensure that things are being run fairly. Something that we just have some doubts about right now. So hopefully, the takeaways from the hearing and sort of where we go from from where the Senate left off in the hearing is there are three or four bills that have been introduced in the Senate by senators, and we're hopeful that those bills get some traction and maybe start to move. And those bills are really designed around ensuring that there's more transparency in the market, ensuring and sort of requiring the industry to report more data around pricing and availability and supply to try and get a better handle on this. The other thing I'll just mention is there's still a tariff, there's still a countervailing duty that the US has imposed on phosphate imports from Morocco, as well as a couple other countries, but specifically Morocco. It's about 16% is the tariff, which is just unnecessary right now. Fertilizer is high. We shouldn't be putting an additional tariff on imported fertilizers. We've been calling on the administration to remove that duty and I think they're starting to hear us on this topic. So we're hopeful that they will remove that duty. That would have some immediate impacts on the price of at least phosphate fertilizer, which farmers are going to start stocking up on for fall application. So a lot going on in this space. We're just getting started, really in D.C. on this, finally getting some traction in the Senate, and hopefully we'll be able to get some solutions that'll bring down the price of fertilizer in the long term.
[00:10:10] Speaker A: That is Derek Steen, the director of public policy for Missouri Corn. Thanks again for joining us this weekend for the work that is happening on behalf of Missouri corn growers both in Jefferson City and in Washington, D.C. from year round E15 and fertilizer transparency to legislative victories here at home. And it's clear corn growers are trying to move that needle. Thanks to those willing to step up and help make a difference. Derek, thanks for your time.
[00:10:34] Speaker B: Thank you for having me. And we look forward to summertime here.
[00:10:38] Speaker A: And that's it for this week's Missouri Corn Talk. This podcast is made possible by the Missouri Corn Merchandising Council and the Missouri Corn Growers Association. To learn more about the work being done on behalf of Missouri corn farmers, visit mocorn.org I'm David Geiger. Thanks for listening.
