Just back from the international climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, National Corn Growers Association president Darrin Ihnen says it was an “eye-opening” experience.
Ihnen—a corn grower from Hurley, South Dakota—says he was somewhat surprised at the animosity that many countries feel towards the U.S. and even U.S. agriculture. He says there is a real misunderstanding of how modern agriculture operates.
“There’s a misunderstanding of how we produce our grain—how we produce our livestock,” says Ihnen, “and really, a lot of the protestors were all about getting away from especially animal agriculture—going to a vegetarian, organic diet. That’s their angle to save the planet from greenhouse gases.”
And Ihnen says money was a major focus, with the haves versus the have-nots.
“To me, it appeared like they wanted our money to fix the problems they have that didn’t necessarily have anything to do with greenhouse gases or climate change,” he says. “It’s just the fact that they wanted to redistribute the wealth. They wanted our dollars because we were the ‘rich Americans’.”
As to what impact the conference will ultimately have on climate change legislation in Congress, Ihnen says that is still unclear. “Hopefully, if things do move, they’ll be sensible,” he says. “Our position at the National Corn Growers Association is we want to be part of a solution, if there’s a solution to be had. But yet we don’t want bad legislation that will regulate us out of business.”
While in Copenhagen, Ihnen also met one-on-one with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. Ihnen says he expressed concerns about USDA chief economist Joe Glauber’s recent comments that ag and forestry offsets would cause 35 million acres of cropland to shift to forestry by 2050. He says Vilsack’s response was that the assumptions used in calculating those numbers were incorrect and that USDA would attempt to clarify the issue in a final economic analysis before the end of the year.
“Ihnen says he expressed concerns about USDA chief economist Joe Glauber’s recent comments that ag and forestry offsets would cause 35 million acres of cropland to shift to forestry by 2050. He says Vilsack’s response was that the assumptions used in calculating those numbers were incorrect and that USDA would attempt to clarify the issue in a final economic analysis before the end of the year.” IN OTHER WORDS; People are going to get really mad when they find out what we are going to do to them…we will come out with a better smoke and mirrors statement later & then blame this on the other political party…+ as I have said time and again – the liberals just don’t get it – they still beleive that farms are not needed for food because they get all the food they want at the grocery store!!!
Of course, in part, we can thank Wayne Pacelle, and his band of animal rights activist at The Humane Society of the United States has spread the word as the authority on farm animals worldwide. I wish “the world” knew how much HSUS has affected our economy in their social movement to remove farming and ownership of any animal worldwide. Don’t get me wrong I love my veggies, but also like a nice steak once in a while. But then again, I am a farmer.
Andy
