Ford West

What brings you to the House of Representatives today?

Well, we’re here today to celebrate the great harvest that’s going on in our country right now, in agriculture. We’re here at the House Aid Committee, very appropriately just to do that. We’re having a kind of a reception for members so of Congress and their staff.

As you can see, we’re cornering the market on the pumpkins.

How much of your work involves interaction with the AG Committee or government in any way?

Well, our mission at DFI is to represent, promote, protect the fertilizer industry. And obviously, our job is to kind of educate members of Congress about public policy that affects our industry, and the role our industry plays in production of agriculture.

And certainly, we’ve chosen the harvest theme, because it is important for members of Congress to see that we have a role in that.

About 40% of all the food produced in the United States and around the world is because of use of fertilizer, and without fertilizer, probably about 2 billion people would be starving or have to go away, without the use of fertilizer. So, we want to make sure that people remember that.

I know you don’t get up in the morning and start thinking about fertilizer, but we do play a role in society, a very significant role, and we’re pretty proud of that. And we’re committed to telling our story.

And this reception you’re having, you mentioned it’s members of the House, or is it the House AG Committee that are invited?

No. We’ve invited members of Congress, in both the Chambers, from the House of Representatives and the Senate, and the staff. And it’s just a celebration of harvest and our role in that harvest.

How’s the Farm Bill looking to you?

Well, I think Chairman Peterson, I give him a lot of credit for bringing together the different points of view, to get a a bill through the House AG Committee, and getting it moved to the floor.

The Senate in general is marking an amount. We don’t get involved on the day-to-day activities. It is a farm bill. It is farmers. We do support the concept of a public policy of farm bill, having a safety net for farmers. We are not necessarily involved in the day-to-day activities, but we are beneficiary of the support that our government gives to U.S. farmers.

How is the fertilizer industry doing these days, given the ethanol boom and so forth?

Well, it is a probably pretty amazing time right now. I mean, worldwide, and you have to look at our industry worldwide, because of globalization, we’ve seen the largest demand for fertilizer. It’s all time record. And the reason is because, as developing countries around the world improve their family income, and improve their standard of living, they want to improve their diet. Normally, that means going from a kind of a rice-based diet to a meat-based diet.

As we grow more animals, that means we’ve got to grow more grain. And about 45% of all fertilizer is used on corn. And, therefore, we see that worldwide. And if you use that as a background, to the United States, then the demand we see for corn going into ethanol, and we saw a tremendous increase in corn acres last year, from 78 million to 93 million, then the demand for fertilizer really exceeds supply, around the world.

We are looking at ways in which different stakeholders interact, including the government, to form and shape policy. Are you happy with the role you’re able to play?

Well, it’s a get up every day, block in the tackling. We have an educational role to play about what public policy has in impact on our industry, and then, in turn, in agriculture. And that’s just a day-in, day-out, every day job. And it’s, lobbying is education, and understanding the process, knowing whom to go to tell your story.

And that’s what we do. And we are pretty good at that. It doesn’t mean we always get what we want or anything. But, at least we can tell our story, as it relates to the impact on our industry.

I realize this is a special harvest reception, but, on a day-to-day basis, does that involve a lot of visits over here?

It means that we are on the Hill everyday. It means that we are trying to visit the appropriate staff, and follow the legislation, follow the process whether it’s in environmental policy or farm bill policy, energy policy, security is another issue for us. And we’re trying to cover the depth and the breath of the Hill and the legislative process. And then, also, it means working with the Agency, Department of Agriculture, EPA, Department of Homeland Security.

So it’s kind of a never-ending job. Members turn over, staff turns over, and it’s our job to get up here and talk about fertilizer, what it is, what it isn’t, what we do, and give our numbers and statistics about our industry and how it impacts public policy.

To what degree are you guys engaged the hypoxia issue?

Well, we are very much engaged in that issue. And one of the ways we’re engaged in it is to encourage farmers to use our products and a kind of a nutrient management plan concept. We’ve got that boiled down to a message of taking the right fertilizer product, applying it at the right time, at the right rate, and then the right place.

And, of course, we have the technology to do that, with GPS technology running through a field an application. So we have a lot of technology that we need to bring to bear to make sure that we apply the right amount of fertilizer, that gets in the plant, and not have that nutrients available for run off into the environment.

You mentioned anhydrous ammonium. Is that new on the scene?

No. When it comes to nitrogen fertilizer, the backbone of all nitrogen fertilizer is anhydrous ammonium. Basically, we take nitrogen out of the air, combine it with hydrogen from natural gas, and make ammonium. And it’s the building block for all other nitrogen fertilizer materials, urea [unintelligible], ortho-nitrate.

And fundamental to that is energy policy and in a sense, we use natural gas as a food stock and don’t just burn it, then energy policy involving natural gas is key to us. Right now, natural gas is the environmental fuel of choice. The public policy message is use it, instead of other energy sources.

That’s a problem for us, because we have to go into the market place and purchase natural gas, compete with utility gas, who are using natural gas to produce electricity.

Ten years ago, the utilities weren’t using a lot of natural gas. Today it’s about 30% of electricity is produced from natural gas. The supply and demand is the situation’s out of balance. And right now we have a very high natural gas cost in the United States, over $7.

With the other areas of the world that have cheaper natural gas, like Russia, Arab world, and we import now about 55% of our nitrogen for our agriculture uses. And we’ve had to shut down about half of our production that passed through the United States.

To what degree do you guys participate in other ways? Are you guys involved in strategic campaign contributions?

Yes. We participate in everything that’s legal of us to participate in. We have a pact. It’s not a very big pact, but we try to assist those members of Congress that are from farm states, who understand what fertilizer’s role is. And yes, we do participate in that process. But, mainly our education of members is really shoe leather.

Up here every day working with members of Congress and their staff, trying to explain fertilizer every day.

Do you actually really have to tackle, block and tackle people sometimes?

Well, I mean, no. But, I use that term because it’s the, it’s the hardcore work of lobbying. It’s in the trenches, doing every day. We’re not very spectacular. Hopefully, you’ll never see our names in the paper.

But, you can be assured, that our industry is well represented in Washington by the day-to-day activities we do, which is, explain fertilizer.

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