NCGA – Current Issues and Initiatives

1. NCGA – Current Issues and Initiatives • U.S. Farm and Ranch Alliance • NCGA Staff Update • Ethanol Alliance • NCGA Image and Activism Campaign • NASCAR • Questions and Discussion

2. National Ag Trust & Image Campaign

3. The organizations listed below agreed to form a relationship tentatively titled, the U.S. Farm and Ranch Alliance The Alliance will work toward a well-funded, long-term, and coordinated trust campaign for American agriculture. Organizations present at the meeting that have expressed interest include, in alphabetical order: American Egg Board National Pork Board American Farm Bureau Federation U.S. Poultry and Egg Assoc American Soybean Association U.S.A. Rice Federation National Cattlemen’s Beef Assoc United Egg Producers National Corn Growers Association United Fresh Produce Assoc National Milk Producers Federation United Soybean Board National Pork Producers Council Western Growers Association

4. Temporary Steering Committee: • John Becherer, United Soybean Board • Chris Novak, National Pork Board • Forrest Roberts, National Cattlemen’s Beef Assoc • Bob Stallman, American Farm Bureau Federation • John Starkey, U.S. Poultry and Egg Association • Rick Tolman, National Corn Growers Association

5. Common Frustrations of Industry Efforts • Many fragmented tactics by farm organizations and other supportive entities • Tactics not coordinated or integrated • High value audiences not always focus • Limited funding meant limited effect • No metrics for success • Hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on uncoordinated research • No agreement on common messaging

6. Vision Concepts • We Will: Enhance consumer trust in the U.S. food production system. Consumers should realize and understand that U.S. farmers and ranchers share their values and are committed to producing safe and nutritious food in a way that protects and enhances the environment, responsibly cares for animals, and contributes to our larger community. • We Will: Maintain and enhance the freedom of U.S. farmers and ranchers to operate in a responsible manner. In particular, the campaign will promote the ability of farmers and ranchers to utilize modern, efficient production technologies and practices to meet the global demand for food. • We Will: Strengthen collaboration within the food production, processing, and distribution systems to improve the identification of, and coordinated response to, emerging food industry issues and concerns.

7. Working Draft Vision Statement Food production partners will work together to enhance US consumer trust in modern food production to ensure the abundance of affordable, safe food.

8. Goals & Metrics • We will annually increase the trust and confidence targeted influencers have in modern food production practices—as measured by regular tracking studies compared against a benchmark survey.

9. Target Audiences • Engaged Consumers or Opinion Leaders—highly educated, higher income, politically-active consumers • News Media (as an audience & a conduit) • Corporate Food Industry Leaders • National & State Policymakers • Key Influencer Organizations (academic, religious, medical, etc) • Local Civic Leaders (as an extended consumer audience) • Farmers & Ranchers

10. Program Elements • Economic & Consumer Research • Advertising (print, broadcast, internet) • Public Relations • Media Relations • Government Relations (education-based programs rather than policy-related) • B2B & Community Outreach • Social Media

11. Guiding Principles: Implementation • Someone needs to wake-up every morning with enthusiasm for winning this war on behalf of American Agriculture • The ideal structure separates program management from program delivery—to ensure higher accountability and to minimize conflicts of interest. • This is a Limited Time Offer—with no intent to create a permanent new organization or a large staff structure.

12. Next Steps: • Retain a temporary contractor to facilitate structure and organization • Meet again within 45 days and include respective elected leaders • Fine-tune details of the governance structure • Fine-tune detals of the funding model • Assess other efforts for fit with our goals and objectives • Alert agri-industry partners to our Alliance • Be operational with a campaign for calendar 2011

13. U.S. Farm and Ranch Alliance

14. National Corn Growers Association Organization Chart August 9, 2010

15. NCGA Structure Corn Congress

16. NCGA Full Time Part Time 38 1

17. Executive Full Time Part Time 7 0

18. Marketing Full Time Part Time 13 1 *Based in Washington D.C.

19. Production and Utilization Full Time Part Time 11 0

20. Public Policy(Washington D.C. Office) Full Time Part Time 7 0 * Reports to Director – Communications (STL)

21. Ethanol Alliance August 27, 2010 Chicago, Illinois

22. NCGA-StateImage and Activism Campaign Update August 2010

23. The Three 2010 Planks

24. Campaign Funding to Date Total: $2,045,000

25. Corn Farmers Coalition • National Press Club kickoff held May 26 • Ads began June 1 • Run through July Featured farmer John Adams of Illinois speaks at the kickoff event.

26. Corn Farmers Coalition Large Scale Ads: Metro System Reagan National Airport Hill Publications: Politico The Hill Congress Daily CQ Today Roll Call Online Advertising: Washington Post National Journal Politico Roll Call CQ The Hill AgriPulse Washington Nationals Baseball program Ads Radio: WAMU Public Radio (NPR) - All Things Considered Radio 106.7 The Fan Radio 1580 The Big Talker Radio 94.7 Fresh

30. Radio Ads – DC Area • More with less • Family farms - • Water use • Food Vs Fuel • Carbon emissions • Environment

31. Making an Impression How many people saw the CFC campaign so far? Print – 1 million Radio – 1.1 million Online – 3.9 million Outdoor – 42.9 million Total – 49 million First phase of 2009 campaign reached 20 million These are June numbers; they do not include some radio and online spots and the many who saw the ads at Reagan National Airport.

32. CFC Update – “Our CFC target audience on Capitol Hill were successfully surveyed last week. Over the course of three days we were able to get 203 completed surveys. Of this group 61% saw the ads. The average American is exposed to 247 advertising messages daily so this is a very strong number on ad exposure. Of the people surveyed who saw the campaign 73% said the ads made them feel more positive about America’s corn farmers; 18% were neutral and 9% said the ads made them feel negative about corn farmers. These numbers are preliminary but we should have the final results by Friday of this week. During the two month when the CFC campaign was active in Washington we had more than 17,000 unique visitors to the CFC web site. Although a work in progress it now appears we had at least 62 million media impressions from the campaign.”

33. Image Program • NCGA social media training sessions in 11 states for staff and grower members. Why? • More than 460 million people are on Facebook – two-thirds of whom are beyond college years • In the last year, Twitter grew by two thousand percent • Use of social networking by those aged 35-54 grew sixty percent in the last year

34. Image Program ND 6/29 MN 6/23 IA 6/28 IL 6/8 SD 6/4 NE 6/18 MD 7/13 KS 8/25 CO 6/17 KY 6/14 MO 6/22

35. South Dakota June 4 Illinois June 8 “Thanks again for providing Michele. She is great and gave us a lot of input on what we were doing so far. She also helped me push our staff to get more involved. AND, thankfully, I got the nod to create FB and Twitter accounts …” Kentucky June 14

36. Image Program • Social media pilot program underway through September • Provide a private Facebook network for sharing information • Social media monitoring and response

37. Image Program • Partner with United Soybean Board on campaign promoting value of modern production ag • Recruit, train and promote smart and talented farm women as spokespersons for the industry

38. Grassroots Program • NCGA and consultant assessed grassroots capabilities in seven states and assisted them in developing activism plans • More to be completed by end of calendar year • National issue activism plans – first one underway to support ethanol

39. Grassroots Program • 30-second TV spot targets DC policymakers • Reached three out of five adult viewers in Washington; aired 157 times over one week • Complementary print ads published this week in Politico

41. Grassroots Program • Develop toolbox of tactics, materials and training for states to use • Activism tools on redesigned NCGA.com by 2011 • Secure vendors (patch-through calls, donor data, etc.) • Expanding member contact information and methods

42. NASCAR

43. Governance Key – all parties must have a clear understanding of expectations and deliverables

44. Questions & Discussion