07/12/05 Try to join again

Earlier this year, two of three U.S. wheat commodity groups voted in favor of a plan to consolidate. But the board of directors of the third, the U.S. Wheat Associates, decided against the consolidation as presented. The reason was concerns by several state wheat groups in major growing states & Montana, North Dakota, and Oklahoma specifically & about protections and separation between market development and lobbying. That's because several state wheat commissions operate under state laws prohibiting the use of wheat checkoff funds for lobbying. That led U.S. Wheat Associates to come up with a new proposal & one that would increase the firewalls between market development and public policy activities. But another change from the original consolidation proposal made by the National Association of Wheat Growers is that it would not be consolidation. U.S. Wheat's Dawn Forsythe says it would instead be a merger due to complications resulting in consolidation. FORSYTHE: We have sixteen overseas offices and bank accounts that need to continue if our export market development is to continue without any interruptions. So a merger would allow overseas activities to continue hopefully without trying to reapply to foreign governments and the U.S. government for all the permits and the agreements in setting up these offices overseas. U.S. Wheat's board meets later this month to consider the proposal. Passage would result in a vote of U.S. Wheat Associates membership in October. And if the merger concept passes that hurdle, it would go before the boards of N.A.W.G. and the Wheat Export Trade Education Committee during the annual National Grains Congress in January. So what is the reaction with the wheat industry on the U.S. Wheat proposal? One glimpse comes from Sherman Reese of N.A.W.G. He says he personally, and his organization as a whole, has some criticisms of U.S. Wheat's proposal. One is the proposed voting system, designed to appeal those states within U.S. Wheat that rejected the original consolidation plan. REESE: They're proposing that the way to vote follow the money. And instead of a split 50 / 50 that was in the W.I.C. proposal, the state organizations would have the option of whatever split they wanted to negotiate but the votes following the money would be the default. So if the state commission was paying eighty per cent of the money, they get eighty per cent of the vote and the growers would get twenty per cent of the vote. Reese says the key for any consolidation/merger/joining among the major groups in the wheat industry is recognizing that all assets & whether it be manpower or money & belong to each and every individual wheat grower.