Farmer delegates for the Iowa Corn Growers Association participated in the first day of Corn Congress at Commodity Classic, where thousands of the country’s top corn, soybean, wheat and sorghum producers and representatives from leading agribusinesses gather this week.

“Commodity Classic is where issues from your farm are discussed on the national level,” said Don Elsbernd, current President of the Iowa Corn Growers Association and a corn grower from Allamakee county. “During the summer months we meet and discuss policy on the local level. From there, those top issues are discussed at the August annual meeting and policy conference and then those same issues are taken to the National Corn Growers Association policy meetings at Commodity Classic. Once they are adopted by all 26 corn growing states, then they become policy direction for our work in Washington D.C.”

Yesterday during debate, six resolutions from Iowa were discussed and passed by the delegate body including policy regarding; greenhouse gas emissions, indirect land use, climate change, atrazine and carbofuran, food safety, and advanced biofuels.

“Climate change and indirect land use are hot topics in Washington D.C.,” said Elsbernd. “These issues have the potential to seriously impact that way we farm in Iowa and throughout the Midwest. That is why we wanted to be sure that positive policy direction was in place as we work with legislators at our nation’s Capitol.”