AGRICULTURAL COUNCIL OF ARKANSAS
AGRICULTURAL COUNCIL OF ARKANSAS BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING WALNUT LAKE COUNTRY CLUB PICKENS, ARKANSAS AUGUST 24, 2010 10:00 A.M. AGENDA 1. CALL TO ORDER PRES. BOBBY GAMMILL ROTARY INTRODUCTIONS PROMOTION BOARDS’ REPORTS INTRODUCTION OF SPECIAL GUESTS 2. MINUTES OF APRIL BOARD MEETING DON ALEXANDER FINANCIAL REPORT 3. UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS--- ---PAST & FUTURE DR. MILO SHULT 4. MEETING ADJOURNED LUNCH WILL BE SERVED AGRICULTURAL COUNCIL OF ARKANSAS BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING April 30, 2010 Mid South Community College Magruder Hall 108 West Memphis, AR 1. President Bobby Gammill called the meeting to order at 10:10 a. m. He welcomed members present and special guest speakers, Mary Busby and Jackson Whitfield of Stephens Insurance, Billie Ann Askue of QualChoice Insurance and Craig Brown, National Cotton Council. 2. Rotary introductions began with the following commenting on the crops in their respective areas: Bob McGinnis, Allen Helms, F. H. Lyons, J. P. Walt, Herrick Norcross, Bryan Moery, Cal McCastlain, Steve Stevens and Bill Weaver. Their reports varied, depending on the location of their crops. Using their reports as a measuring tool, it appears that cotton acreage has decreased while rice acreage could be on the rise. Commodity reports were as follows: In the absence of Thad Freeland, F. H. Lyons reported on the Soybean Promotion Board. The budget of the Board includes money for promotion advertising. An ad agency has not been commissioned at this time. The group heavily promotes the University of Arkansas’s breeding and genetics program. Cal McCastlain reported on the Wheat Promotion Board. Wheat acreage is down 190,000 acres, weather related. The monetary reserve of the Board is low. He said possibly the Board will consider joining resources with another commodity board for greater accomplishments. Bryan Moery spoke for the Rice Research and Promotion Board. The Board is very proud of the new facility at the experiment station which is state -of-the-art. Over the past 25 years the Arkansas Rice Breeding Program has contributed, because of improved varieties, $429,377,888 to Arkansas’s economy. Bob McGinnis brought the group up-to-date on Cotton Board and Cotton Inc. activities. The Cotton Board CEO has left. A search committee has been placed to find a new CEO. The deadline for submitting names and resumes for consideration is May 15th. 3. Don presented the minutes of the December 2009 meeting of the Board which was combined with the annual meeting. Bob McGinnis moved, Allen Helms made the second, that the minutes be accepted as prepared and mailed to the Board of Directors. Motion carried unanimously. 4. The financial report for March 2010 indicates that the membership is holding compared to last year, in spite of a few cancellations. Expenditures are within the budget. The Executive Board has requested that Don move forward to hire an additional employee which would allow him to spend more time collaborating with ACA members and other farmers and farming interests all over the State. In addition, the new person could more closely monitor government actions affecting agriculture in the State as well as in Washington. 5. Bobby introduced Mary Busby and Jackson Whitfield of Stephens Insurance and Billie Ann Askue of QualChoice to talk about healthcare in America. They talked about the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” (H.R. 3590) and “The Reconciliation Act” (H.R. 4872) which was passed by both the House and the Senate on March 25, 2010 and signed by President Obama on March 30, 2010. This clears the way for the beginning of Healthcare Reform; every provision of the law will not take place immediately. The details of this new legislation will take months, maybe years, to work through the regulatory process. Much of what Congress has passed will require additional regulations in order to bring clarity to this new law. Craig Brown, National Cotton Council, was introduced to the group. He talked about the 2008 Farm Bill, disaster assistance, the WTO Brazil cotton dispute and the next Farm Bill. The 2008 Farm Bill provides that one partial counter-cyclical payment, in an amount up to 40 percent of the projected counter-cyclical rate, may be issued after 180 days of the marketing year. The partial 2009-crop upland cotton counter-cyclical payment rate is l.03 cents per pound. Under the 2008 Farm Bill, producers are required to repay any amount by which the partial payment exceeds the actual counter-cyclical payments determined after the end of the marketing year. Sign-up must be totally finished by June 1, 2010. Disaster assistance is addressed in HR 4213. This will be considered according to offsets of which $27 billion has been taken by health care reform. Senator Lincoln has been working hard on this and is hoping to have it out by Memorial Day. The WTO Brazil Cotton dispute is a long-running dispute brought by Brazil against the United States. The WTO found in 2008 that certain U. S. agricultural subsidies are inconsistent with WTO commitments. In August 2009, WTO arbitrators issued arbitration awards in this dispute, allowing Brazil to impose against U. S. trade. In March of this year, Brazil announced a final list of products that would face higher tariffs; this was scheduled to begin April 7, 2010. Under pressure, prior to scheduled date, the United States and Brazil entered into bilateral negotiations to ask for no retaliation. As a result, the Government of Brazil agreed not to impose any countermeasures on U. S. trade on April 7th. In exchange the United States agreed to work with Brazil to establish a fund of approximately $147.3 million per year on a pro rata basis to provide technical assistance and capacity building. Under the Memorandum of Understanding, the fund would continue until passage of the next Farm Bill or a mutually agreed solution to the Cotton dispute is reached, whichever comes first. The fund would be subject to transparency and auditing requirements. Looking forward to the next Farm Bill, Collin Peterson, Chairman of the House Ag Committee, has a right to call hearings in all agricultural areas in the United States, Even though he does not want to hear from the National Cotton Council, only from grass-root farmers, he must hear a consistent message. The Council plans to offer some talking points to help those testifying before the Committee. What happens with cotton will affect other commodities. The budget baseline will be decreased in agriculture; this will be everyone’s challenge. Changes will have to be made to fit the budget as needed. 6. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 12: 30 p.m. Bobby Gammill, President Don Alexander, Secretary |
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