Agricultural Business Council’s Newsletter October 2007
Upcoming Events:
• October 17 – 11:30 a.m., Baxter Black, world-renowned Cowboy Poet and Rick Smith, president and CEO of Dairy Farmers of America, will deliver a dynamic presentation to local Kansas City business leaders in Kemper Arena. For more information go to www.americanroyal.com.
(All Council members are encouraged to participate in this event. There will be no Council meeting in October in lieu of this great event.)
• November 9 – Your Council will be hosting a breakfast meeting featuring Paul Ryan, host of America’s Heartland. America’s Heartland is a magazine-style, public television series sponsored by the Monsanto Company and the American Farm Bureau Federation. America’s Heartland has traveled to more than 40 states and produced more than 150 stories about the generous earth and the people and processes that bring a rich bounty that feed, fuels and clothes consumers here and around the world.
• November 14-15 – Your Council is sponsoring a reception at the KS Agribusiness Expo being held in Overland Park, KS. This expo provides an opportunity to hear numerous presentations pertinent to the ever-changing industry.
More information can be found at the following website: http://kgfa.harvestmanager.net/mx/hm.asp?id=kansasagribusinessexpo. Please come to the reception on November 14!
Council Activities
Your Agricultural Business Council has been busy in several opportunities during the last few months:
During the August meeting we hosted U.S. Senator Kit Bond (MO) in a joint meeting with the Greater Kansas City Chamber’s Federal Affairs Committee. More than 100 persons attended this meeting in which Senator Bond informed the group about farm policy, transportation infrastructure, energy and environmental issues. Senator Bond’s leadership on the Senate Environmental & Public Works Committee, now chaired by Senator Boxer (CA), is critical on so many issues important to the agricultural industry. Bond also provides enormous leadership and support on both transportation infrastructure and energy issues to the region.
It was announced at this meeting that the Council, along with the Chamber’s Federal Affairs Committee, would plant nearly 100 trees as part of the metropolitan region’s tree planting program in honor of U.S. Senator Kit Bond (MO). Senator Bond is an avid tree planter.
Your Council was contacted in early September by the White House to help put together a very small gathering of representatives throughout the food chain to meet with USDA Secretary Johanns, and Health & Human Services Secretary Leavitt during quick visit to Kansas City.
Members of various Kansas and Missouri producer organizations as well as Cargill and Applebee’s participated in this meeting to discuss food safety of imported products with the Administration’s representatives.
Our September meeting was hosted by the Missouri Dept. of Conservation at its Urban Conservation Anita B. Gorman Discovery Center. It is a beautiful wildlife area east of the Plaza...a wonderful place to visit. The topic of this session was new emerging energy trends.
Trevor McKeeman, National Institute for Strategic Technology Application & Commercialization, presented the many projects being conducted by NISTAC to produce energy from sources like algae, biomass, and methane digesters.
Coffeyville Resources’ Kevan Vick discussed how this company is leading the refining and fertilizer industries by utilizing waste petroleum coke to manufacture fertilizers without natural gas as the major feedstock. This company also recently announced its plans to implement carbon sequestration to reduce emissions by capturing the carbon and injecting it into the soil in order to build upon the domestic crude oil supply.
Issue Trends
Cause for concern -- The Courts have recently ruled on two important cases related to the industry. – In Illinois, a U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the state’s right to ban horse slaughter, the decision is worrisome – not for the decision itself, but for the reasoning "States have a legitimate interest in prolonging the lives of animals that their population happens to like.” What does this mean for livestock production? In Washington, the State Appeals Court ruled that the Right to Farm law only covered preexisting practices, not the operation itself, so any change in farming practice could be considered a nuisance.
Climate Change -- The City of Kansas City and area communities will be joining together to support a metropolitan-wide climate change protection plan. The city launched its plan in spring 2007. One of its programs will be a tree-planting effort. Your Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City, in partnership with the Greater Kansas City Chamber’s Federal Affairs Committee, volunteered to have its member’s plant nearly 100 trees within the region’s boundaries. If you are interested in learning more about the city of Kansas City’s climate change protection plan, please see the website: http://www.kcmo.org/manager/OEQ/cpp-progress.pdf