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North American
Millers’ Association

600 Maryland Ave SW,
Suite 825 West
Washington, DC 20024

TEL: 202.484.2200
FAX: 202.488.7416

EMAIL: generalinfo@namamillers.org

Industry Partners

NAMA News
March 2007

Inside this Issue

Degesch America joins NAMA
NAMA welcomes Degesch America, Inc. as an Associate Member of NAMA. Herb Yeaman will represent the company in association activities. Contact information is:

Herb Yeaman, Vice President
P.O. Box 116
Weyers Cave, VA 24486
Tel: 540.234.9281
Fax: 540.234.8225
E-mail: hyeaman@degeschamerica.com

Degesch is a distributor/manufacturer of agricultural pesticides & related equipment.

NAMA forms Biofuels Committee
NAMA has formed a Biofuels Committee. The committee will monitor activities related to ethanol and biofuels, and review a study being conducted by Iowa State University on the significance of biofuels to the US grain, oilseed, transportation and livestock sectors. Members of the committee include:

Gary Duncan, Bunge Milling, Inc.
John Griffith, American Italian Pasta Company
Alan Koenig, Milner Milling, Inc.
Jerry Kuhn, Southeastern Mills, Inc.
Don Mennel, The Mennel Milling Company
George Schember, Horizon Milling/Cargill
Jim Sharp, C.H. Guenther & Son, Inc.
Steve Wickes, Agricor, Inc.

NAMA Leadership/Executive Committee Meetings
May 23-24
Invitations to participate in the Leadership Meeting have been extended to NAMA Board members or their alternates. This is an opportunity for the leadership of NAMA to bring a real-life perspective on our issues to lawmakers and regulatory officials.

Meetings are scheduled with Administration officials, appropriate Senate and House committee staffs, and pertinent associations or organizations on topics of current interest to NAMA members. Participants are also encouraged to visit the offices of their newly elected Congressional representatives. To register for the meeting, contact NAMA president Betsy Faga at bfaga@namamillers.org.

The Executive Committee will meet on May 24 from 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

2007 Division Meeting presentations available online
220 milling members, associate members and industry allies attended NAMA's 2007 Division Meetings held at the Ritz-Carlton in Sarasota, Florida. Speaker presentations

Registration now open for the
48th Annual Corn Dry Milling Conference
NAMA’s Corn Dry Milling Conference will be held May 31 – June 1, 2007 in Peoria, Illinois. Jointly sponsored with USDA’s National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, the conference will feature two half-day sessions on research and topical issues related to corn milling. Of particular note on the program is a discussion of the NAMA funded corn research underway at Purdue University. The program also includes mycotoxins, ethanol and other scientific and technical topics. In addition to the conference, NAMA milling and associates members will meet the morning of May 31, just prior to the conference. Program details and registration information

Ag groups oppose local commodity purchases overseas
NAMA joined six other ag groups in asking lawmakers to purchase only U.S. produced commodities for the nation’s food aid programs. In a letter sent to the Senate and House Agriculture Committees, the group opposed the use of P.L. 480 Title II funds for local commodity purchases overseas. Read more

Letter supporting oat research goes to the hill
Five key members of the House of Representatives signed a “Dear Colleague” letter supporting funds for NAMA-backed oat research programs. The programs are vital to sustaining, and hopefully increasing, oat production in the U.S. Signers were Representatives Tim Walz (D-MN), Collin Peterson (D-MN), Jim Ramstad (R-MN), Stephanie Herseth (D-SD) and Jerry Moran (R-KS). Read the letter

Efforts to end StarLink testing stalled
Members of the StarLink exit coalition, headed by Jim Bair, met with EPA’s Assistant Administrator Jim Gulliford to talk about withdrawing the 2001 guidance that dry-mill processors test corn supplies for the presence of Cry9C protein. The results of the meeting were disappointing as EPA is not willing to act at this time. The coalition will continue to press EPA and FDA (which enforces the EPA pesticide rules) for a successful conclusion. EPA left the door open to a possible resolution before the 2007 harvest.

In an independent StarLink Exposure Assessment conducted by Exponent, test results prove the U.S. corn supply is essentially free of StarLink and there is no meaningful benefit of any further testing. Some samples will continue to test positive at the inconsequential level in single parts per billion, although there has been no health consequence.

The assessment also concluded that current estimates of StarLink Cry9C exposure are well below those estimated in the EPA wet milling paper that gave corn refiners an exemption from testing. To give wet millers an exemption from testing and not dry millers is illogical, especially given the conclusions of Exponent’s assessment.

Coalition tells Senate MAP/FMD merits increased funding
The Market Access Program (MAP) and the Foreign Market Development (FMD) Program were created to bolster U.S. trade expansion efforts. They have proved valuable to the U.S. agriculture industry, and NAMA receives funding under the FMD program. The programs were originally authorized in the 1985 Farm Bill at $325 million. The 2002 Farm Bill set the funding level at $200 million. The proposed level for the 2007 Farm Bill is $225 million.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry is reviewing U.S. agricultural trade programs. Testimony provided by the Coalition to Promote U.S. Agricultural Exports, of which NAMA is a member, asked for the return of MAP/FMD funding to the original authorized level of $325 million. Read the testimony

NAMA sponsors National Ag Day
The Agriculture Council of America (ACA) organizes National Ag Day. It is held the first day of spring every year. ACA is a nonprofit organization composed of leaders in the agricultural, food and fiber community, dedicating its efforts to increasing the public's awareness of agriculture's role in modern society. NAMA joined ACA and other agriculture organizations in sponsoring this special recognition of America’s agriculture.

Secretary Mike Johanns, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Chairman Collin Peterson, of the House Committee on Agriculture, joined farmers, Congressional leaders and representatives of corporations in raising awareness of the essential, dynamic role of agriculture in the world economy. This year's Agriculture Day theme -- "Convergence of Food and Fuel" -- highlighted the scope of American agriculture, an industry that puts food on our tables and fuel in our cars.

WalkAmerica fights prematurity for its fifth year
Teams are now forming for the March of Dimes WalkAmerica. The Grain Foods Foundation (GFF), of which NAMA is a member, is a sponsor of the event. We would like to invite your company to participate.

The March of Dimes national campaign to fight prematurity is in its fifth year. The money raised goes directly to research to find the causes of premature birth and how it can be prevented, to support families whose babies must spend time in neonatal intensive care units and to provide women with the latest information on having a healthy pregnancy.

As last year, GFF will have booths set up across the country with representatives of the Mullen team present and banners at other sites.

Join the GFF team at one of the upcoming walks. Form a corporate team. Go to http://www.walkamerica.org to join a team or create your own. Call 1.800.525.WALK (9255) for more information.

InStyle magazine picks up GFF healthy baby PSA
InStyle magazine picked up the healthy baby Public Service Announcement (PSA) created for the Grain Foods Foundation (GFF) by Mullen. The PSA is on page 463 of the April issue. InStyle’s monthly circulation is nearly 2.7 million readers. The advertising equivalency of this placement is approximately $116,000. InStyle readers are the target audience for the Healthy Baby campaign. Its readers are 88% female between the ages of 25-54 and the median age is 36.

This is in addition to recent placements in the LA-based issues of Allure, Glamour, JANE and Self magazines.

Invitation to participate in wheat tours
The Wheat Quality Council has invited interested parties to participate in wheat tours to be held April 30 and July 23. The tours are for three days and offer participants the opportunity to acquire fundamental wheat industry knowledge. The first is a hard winter wheat tour in Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and Oklahoma. Register before April 13. The second is a hard spring wheat and durum tour in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota. Register before July 2. The cost is $200 for Wheat Quality Council members and university/government personnel and $250 for all others. To register, please contact Ben Handcock at the Wheat Quality Council, 605.224.5187 or bhwqc@aol.com.

NAMA in the news
Groups Seek Corn On CRP Land
The Corn and Soybean Digest
March 4, 2007

At plant in Oella, cutbacks signal a return to basics
Baltimore Sun
"Many communities have lost local milling operations," said James A. Bair, vice president of the North American Millers Association, noting that only about ...
March 8, 2007

The Effects of the Ethanol Industry Becomes a Key Topic During ...
Grainnet
"In the past couple of years, attendance at the North American Millers' Association's (NAMA) 2007 division meetings has grown significantly. ...
March 14, 2007

Conference calendar
2007 Annual Meeting, Savannah, GA
Mansion on Forsyth Park
September 27-29, 2007

2008 Annual Meeting, Lake Tahoe, NV
Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe
September 25-27, 2008

2008 Division Meetings, Palm Coast, FL
The Club at Hammock Beach
March 15-18, 2008

Since the Last Newsletter
Members who would like to review the activities of NAMA staff during the past month go to http://www.namamillers.org/mbr_SLN_03_30_07.cfm.

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