Corn Farmers Coalition

The Corn Farmers Coalition returned to Washington with another major educational program aimed at policy makers and opinion leaders who affect the fate of America’s family corn farmers.

The first campaign ran throughout the summer of 2009. Messages focused on how tech-savvy, innovative farmers were growing more corn every year while using fewer resources and protecting the environment. This go-around, messages will focus on how farm families drive the agricultural industry.

The Corn Farmers Coalition program is supported by the National Corn Growers Association and 14 state organizations, including the Kentucky Corn Growers Association. The goal is to introduce a foundation of facts seen as essential to decision making, rather than directly influencing legislation and regulation.

“Our mission is to put a face on today’s family farmers, showcase the productivity and environmental advances being made in the industry, provide factual information on how innovative and high tech corn farmers have become,” said Darren Ihnen, NCGA past president. “This is a corn farmer image effort designed for thought leaders in Washington. When all the business news out there seems to be negative, corn farmers have a great story to tell.”

The Corn Farmers Coalition launched a major advertising campaign June 1 that put prominent facts about family farmers in Capital Hill publications, radio, frequently used web sites, the Metro and Reagan National Airport. The program, which puts a focus on family farmers telling their story, will continue until Congress recesses in August.

“Washington needs to know corn farmers are using some of the most advanced technologies on the planet to do more with less — to grow more corn using fewer resources every year,” said Mark K. Lambert, director of the Corn Farmers Coalition. “American corn farmers, the majority of them small family businesses, are among the most productive in the world.”

The coalition met with media, members of Congress, environmental groups and others to talk about what’s ahead: how U.S. farmers, using the latest technologies, will continue to expand yields and how this productivity can be a bright spot in an otherwise struggling economy.

The campaign was a raging success, making 63 million media impressions, three times that of the 2009 campaign. (That’s media jargon for the number of times a message was seen or heard.)

Visit www.cornfarmerscoalition.org for more information.