EP. 47 - Meeting Your Lawmakers Where They Are: Advocating for Agriculture During the Congressional Recess

 Print

With priority legislation in front of Congress this fall, don't miss the opportunity to make your voice heard.

Corn growers need to act now in order to support some important pieces of legislation that are moving through Congress in Washington, D.C.

The Farm Bill. The Next Generation Fuels Act. Opening up global trade opportunities to lower the cost of inputs.

Your lawmakers need to hear from constituents like you who support these issues.

And now is the perfect time to let them know.

With lawmakers returning to their home districts for the August recess, we have a golden opportunity to advocate for the issues that matter most to the agriculture community.

So in this episode, we're talking to Lindsay Croke, the marketing director at Illinois Corn, and Luke Crumley, director of public policy and sustainability at Ohio Corn and Wheat, about how local advocacy makes a national impact.

They'll offer practical advice for farmers to stay informed and effectively communicate with their elected representatives and staff, and discuss the opportunities that are available at this time of year for growers to show up and be heard.

https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/ncga?selected=PDM5178080990

Lindsay Croke

Farmers are empowered to go with confidence to their leaders of Congress and in their state government, and talk about the issues that are important to them and the impact on their family farms.

Luke Crumley

The most effective tool in NCGA's tool kit is the credibility of our members, period.

Dusty Weis

Hello and welcome to the Cobcast: Inside the Grind with the National Corn Growers Association.

This is where leaders, growers and stakeholders in the corn industry can turn for big picture conversations about the state of the industry and its future.

From the fields of the Corn Belt to the DC Beltway, we're making sure the growers who feed America have a say in the issues that are important to them, with key leaders who are shaping the future of agriculture.

So make sure you're following the show on your favorite podcast app and sign up for the National Corn Growers Association newsletter at NCGA.com.

I'm Dusty Weis, and today we are diving into one of the simplest and most effective ways for farmers to get attention from their policymakers: catching them while Congress is in recess.

In this episode, we're going to talk about the state of play in Washington since legislators left town for August recess. Plus, what makes corn growers such powerful advocates for ag issues?

And we'll hear from a couple of folks with a lot of advocacy experience to get some practical advice for making the most of time with members of Congress, especially in their home districts.

So to kick off the conversation, we're joined by Lindsay Croke, who leads communications and marketing for Illinois Corn. Lindsay, welcome to the show.

Lindsay Croke

Thanks. Thanks for having me.

Dusty Weis

Lindsay, you've worked closely with corn growers for your entire career now. How have you seen the topic of advocacy and the approach to it change over time?

Lindsay Croke

It's an interesting question. I've been around in this world for 20 plus years now. And one of the ways that I think it's changed quite a bit is the method of delivery and the way that we engage with our congressmen. I recall many hours on a fax machine trying to fax letters in to district offices, and also a couple of campaigns where we were packaging literal cobs of corn and mailing them to offices or packaging like stovetop stuffing boxes with how many pennies a corn farmer would get out of the sale of that product, and shipping those boxes to the offices.

So, you know, now, after some of the anthrax threats and things, we don't really ship physical things into offices anymore. Some of those modes of delivery had changed a lot. But what hasn't changed is that we really need our farmers to contact their congressmen. The messages often are very similar, and it's really focused on what's happening on their family farms.

Dusty Weis

I mean, that's just it. A lot of the time, particularly in a modern context, members of Congress maybe don't have the boots on the ground experience in the farm fields that our members can go out and expose them to. And so if they're going to go to Washington and work on issues that are important to corn growers, then corn growers need to be in their ear.

And that's certainly what we're here to talk about today. We've got another expert as well from a couple states over from where you're at. Luke Crumley, the director of public policy and sustainability of Ohio Corn and Wheat. Luke, you've got a varied background, including work as a district staff member. That means that you actually worked on behalf of a member of Congress in their home district.

What's something that you took away from that experience?

Luke Crumley

That's right, Dusty, and I'll echo Lindsay. Thanks for having us on here today.

And as Lindsay was talking about mailing in those various gifts to a congressional office, I had to chuckle to myself a little bit of post-traumatic stress because I was a congressional staffer in the early 2010s, when we really got serious as congressional staff about threats.

And we had these boxes that came in… they were called hoods, and they allowed us to screen all that mail. And yeah, advocacy groups had to evolve over time.

But to your point, I have a bit of a different background. I started my career in the United States Marine Corps as a commissioned officer. Then I went to work for a member of Congress while going to grad school, stayed with that member for about seven and a half years in the district office, helping with constituent casework, helping folks navigate the federal bureaucracy, doing field representative work where I would go out and engage with local communities or advocacy organizations like NCGA, and then evolved that into some work on the political side.

And after a couple of members that I worked for decided it was time to move on, and that's when I joined up with Ohio Corn and Wheat.

But to Lindsay's points here, it has evolved. You know, we still had a fax machine in the congressional office when I stopped working in that space back in 2019, and folks were still sending us faxes at that point.

And now we're to the point in just a few years where, NCGA, we leverage resources that allow us to text our members, the members of NCGA, and let them know when something important is happening and allows them to respond within seconds to let their elected officials and the regulators, those federal bureaucrats who don't necessarily have a direct constituency hear directly from corn growers.

It's been awesome to see and be a part of. I have the pleasure of serving on the grassroots committee for NCGA, where the national staff and state staffs get together and work out how we're going to do this even better, and we've got a really bright future with it, because everyone really understands this is how we're going to make a big difference into the next decade.

Dusty Weis

Well, and you're certainly not the kind of guy to toot your own horn here, but I'll call it out, too. I can only imagine that experience working in a congressional district office is wildly invaluable in doing what you do now, because you know what those people are going through. And so that's why I think this podcast episode is going to be such an eye opener for folks here, because we could really talk about the value that in-district advocacy has.

So thank you both again for joining us today.

As we mentioned already, the House and the Senate are on recess right now. The August recess is kind of like the seventh inning stretch for Congress. It's their chance to go home, get their heads right, and then come back and finish the game strong in Washington before they all have to go back to the home districts and spend the final month or so campaigning, because, of course, there's a big November election coming up as well.

But what that means is that in this last month that they're about to head into in DC, there is a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of work that they have to get done before they go back to the districts for campaigning.

So before we get too far into the opportunities that we see during the recess here, let's look at the state of play.

Where do things stand right now as far as a lot of the issues that our members, our corn growers, care about?

Luke Crumley

I think, Dusty, if you were to ask the average corn grower in Ohio right now, the state of play question, they'd be very frustrated. And we've been honest with them that we're frustrated too. The political dynamic in Washington, it's always been partisan. Let's dispel that. It's always been as partisan. There are always things in the way of making good policy happen, and that's why we focus so much on equipping our advocates to show up time and time again, instead of seeing victory only as a single piece of legislation getting passed.

You know, when we're working on these really complex issues, like a $1.2 trillion Farm Bill, $1.2 trillion Farm Bill that is so massive. It's really incomprehensible to the average person, let alone someone who has other real things they need to focus on, like getting a crop in the ground, making sure they're getting their summer treatments done, and preparing for harvest, all while balancing out really low commodity prices right now.

So I think if we are talking about the state of play right now, I think growers are aware that the friction in D.C., we may think it's as bad as it's ever been or worse, but I think we all understand the reality that heading into the fall, we have a compressed schedule. There are these big ticket items out there that are still hanging around, like the Farm Bill, which may have to get extended, may have to go into the next Congress.

We have bills like the Next Generation Fuels Act, which is a top priority for national corn that we're trying to introduce the concept of to people still, so that folks outside of the Corn Belt understand we can deliver a high quality, low cost fuel option for the American people. And that goes without covering all the other things like trade issues when we have the national corn team focused so heavily on protecting our overseas markets and opening up opportunities for inputs to come in so that we can address the bottom line issues that our growers are facing.

It is so easy to accept the fact that our growers should be frustrated, they should be ticked off. They have every right to be.

And as we're in the August recess, my only advice to our growers is find a way to channel that constructively. Because when you're in this August recess, you mentioned, Dusty, that this is a time for members of Congress to go home and get their heads right. It's the exact opposite. I can tell you as a congressional district staffer, it is the exact opposite.

You are going full steam ahead because you only get so many days back home with the people who vote for you.

Dusty Weis

Well, and to your point, Luke, about being constructive about it. The last thing that you want when you leave a city like Washington, DC, where there is so much screaming, is to go back to your home district and get screamed at by somebody. That's not effective advocacy.

Luke Crumley

Yeah, the most effective tool in NCGA's tool kit is the credibility of our members, period.

Something like 84% of the American public trust farmers. And we can lose that trust like that just because of one bad action. So when we talk to our growers about the importance of hosting a member of Congress at their shop or joining us for a tour, or going and visiting with them as part of a fundraiser, if that's an opportunity that's available.

You know, these are really important tactics that help us build that credibility more and more over time to set us up not for November 5th, Election Day, but for November 6th and every day thereafter.

Dusty Weis

So you mentioned a little bit of the legislation that we're still hoping to get taken care of this year, or if not next year, then with the next Congress as well. But what are the priorities that corn growers have for that legislation, particularly that big old Farm Bill that you mentioned?

Lindsay Croke

This year we really focused on the Farm Bill, and I would say the top priorities for NCGA and for our state associations are number one, to protect crop insurance. Specifically, I can speak to Illinois farmers. That is their top priority. When we ask them what they want out of a Farm Bill is a robust crop insurance program that works for them.

Secondly, we're really interested in funding for trade promotion projects like the Market Access Program and the Foreign Market Development Program. And so those programs haven't seen any increase in funding in a lot of years.

Luke Crumley

Since George W. Bush was president!

Lindsay Croke

Yeah. And things cost more. So those programs just aren't as effective as they used to be, even though they're very, very important, specifically in Illinois, based on our position on the Mississippi River and the Illinois River, we export more corn than any other state in the nation. So very, very important for corn farmers in Illinois specifically and for all the states.

And then I think we're also interested in those title one programs and kind of how those programs function. Specifically, recently we've talked about having a base acre update, which kind of like updates the program for the crops that are grown today on the acres that are grown today. And so we're just watching how that plays out in advocating for the policy that our farmers adopted in the last session of Corn Congress.

Luke Crumley

I couldn't have said a better Lindsay. And, you know, beyond the Farm Bill, because this is a problem. I'll open this up a little bit for the farmers who are going to listen to this. As a congressional staffer, it is very easy to assume that everything the farm community cares about is contained in the Farm Bill. And we know that that is just patently false.

We have to own the issue of biofuels unlike any other organization, and a good chunk of our policy exists outside of the Farm Bill, especially in that portfolio. A good chunk of our policy priorities exist in other parts of the legislature and other parts of the federal bureaucracy. We have to be competent on a lot of issues. It's just that right now the Farm Bill has to get done.

It has to get done. It either needs to be extended before September 30th, so that Congress has enough time to pass a compromise package in lame duck, or we need to get the darn thing rolling and get it done before September 30th. So that's really important. It's what's forefront in our minds, but we can't drop the ball on all these other things, and also things that we don't normally talk about.

Because starting in 2025, there's going to be a national debate about tax policy because of the expiration of the Trump era tax cuts. And if we are not ready for that, we are doing a disservice to our members. That's why back in January of this year, the National Corn team, through the Risk Management Action Team, started working on that problem in particular and is investing significant resources into understanding what needs to be most important for us to go into that fight in 2025.

Dusty Weis

And Luke, you mentioned the Farm Bill and the deadlines to get anything done in this session of Congress. At the risk of pointing out the obvious here to all note that any member of Congress who's able to step up and make significant progress and get that Farm Bill over the finish line before those deadlines, is going to go back into their districts in farm country with a huge feather in their cap to use during their reelection push throughout the final part of the year here.

Luke Crumley

Well beyond farm country. Because let's not forget that the bulk of the Farm Bill is actually the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and other food programs. So when we talk about the Farm Bill, this is a Farm Bill for all of America, not just farming and rural America. And the folks who go and use those benefits, those SNAP benefits, what are they buying?

They're buying American agricultural products. This is a feather in the cap for anyone in the legislature. Republican, Democrat, House, Senate. It doesn't matter. Passing a Farm Bill is the right thing to do, not only for rural America, not only for corn growers, but for every one of the citizens in this nation.

Dusty Weis

I got to say, there's a lot riding on these 39 remaining legislative days here, folks, including decisions that are going to have a big impact on farmers. But speaking for myself, it can seem like an awful lot to keep up with two. Do you have any advice for growers on the best way to try to keep their finger on the pulse of every darn thing that's going on in D.C.?

Lindsay Croke

I have a lot of ideas. I think one amazing idea would be to start thinking about legislation the way that Luke just presented it. Think about what it means to you from an agricultural district, but also think about what it means to the person that you are talking to and to the people they represent.

So in Illinois and all the states, but specifically in Illinois, that's where I'm at. You know, we have so many representatives that are up in the Chicagoland area with largely urban constituencies. And when we talk to them, when we meet with them when they're home during August recess, we have to think about who they're representing and why the Farm Bill matters to them. And if we don't talk about why it matters to them and the people they're representing, then we're really missing the mark in that personal conversation.

So I think that's one really important thing.

I also really think… I'm coming from a communications perspective. So for me, I think that people need to really think about where they're getting their news from. And really thinking critically about paying attention to their ag associations and their commodity groups looking for accurate, unbiased information about what might be happening on ag related issues in Washington, D.C..

I think that is really, really important, and I would lean into your commodity groups to provide that for you. If you're not already a member of the Farm Bureau or a corn association or a soybean association, I think you should become a member so you have access to that information and the kind of insider ball game that might be happening that you don't know about.

I think you should watch Politico or AgriPulse if you're interested in federal policy, like really think critically about how you're getting your news. And I also think if there's a better way for your association to communicate with you and help you understand and position you for conversations with your leaders, then we want to know what that better way communication is.

I want to get better at making sure that farmers are empowered to go with confidence to their leaders of Congress and in their state government, and talk about the issues that are important to them and the impact on their family farms.

Luke Crumley

Yeah. Where we are right now, there are so many channels where people can find out information. The difference is where do you go to find wisdom? Where do you go to find something that's going to help you as a grower to communicate effectively to your neighbors, to those elected officials when you do have that opportunity? So to drill down on one of Lindsay's points here, if you are not currently a member of National Corn Growers Association, you need to join through your state association.

When you join or renew your membership, you have the opportunity to opt in to those communications. Because we intentionally don't try to flood your inbox. We want you to know that when you see an email from us or a text message from us, that it's actually something that matters in the moment. So when you join, you help us make sure that folks across the country are able to hear that important message from the National Corn Growers Association.

Joining up is the best way to get information yourself and then help amplify all of that messaging that we're trying to push in Washington and in state capitals around the country.

Dusty Weis

And I'll point out one more thing, too. Up here in Wisconsin, I know that if I'm ever going to have the ear of a member of Congress who's doing an event in the district, and I know I'm going to cross paths with them, I just shoot an email over to Wisconsin Corn Growers and say, hey, I'm going to be talking to representative XYZ.

Can you give me just a couple of pointers, a couple of smart questions that I can ask. And I have never met a staffer who didn't jump at that opportunity to help advance the message that they've got to take care of. So some great points there. And as long as we're talking about that advocacy, there's no word more prized, more valued in Washington, D.C., than the word "grassroots."

And I don't think it gets any more grassroots than the people that spend all day, every day out in farm fields, tending to the crops and the roots that they've planted throughout the year.

You mentioned that NCGA and state organizations like yours have policy experts to dig into those details. So where do farmers come in then? How do they use the expertise that's at that state level and become better advocates for their cause?

Luke Crumley

So I would point out that it's a two way street. Okay. So we as state staff at Ohio Corn and Wheat, we don't claim to be the experts in farm production. We do claim to be an expert in helping connect our growers to the people that need to hear for them, right? But for us to set policy, and this is the same across the federation of states that we have here in NCGA.

We depend on our grower leaders to tell us what's important, right, to give us the big concepts and then equip us to go and fight through those details.

So it's a two way street. We need to understand what the priorities are for the grower. And then on the other end of the equation, when those priorities are being worked through, through the legislative process, through the administrative process, whatever, it's our job to then go and take that Washington speak and make it approachable for our growers so that they know, a, this isn't urgent, I don't have to respond right now, but it's something that my team is keeping me informed on. Or, if it is urgent. Okay, not only is the issue here and I understand it now, but I'm equipped to act and I can use this state staff, this national team to get my ideas directly to decision makers. So it's that two way street.

It's really important.

Lindsay Croke

I would lean back into to something that Luke alluded to earlier, that farmers have a lot of trust everywhere, and no one's going to be more trusted than a farmer in someone's district on a specific ag issue. And so as I think about why do we need farmers? What's the value in this Hill advocacy equation of the farmer? There are exactly three people in Washington, DC that care what I have to say, and it is my two senators and the congressmen elected to represent me.

And if I want to have access to the other congresspeople that represent Illinois in DC, then I have to have someone, at least one person in every district who shows up, who is willing to put the time in, who's willing to learn a little bit of background information on what's happening and who, honestly, all they have to do is apply it to their own farm.

So I know this feels so scary to farmers, potentially. I don't know how to call my congressman's office. What are they going to ask me? They feel like they need to really be up to speed on the issue. Not really. If I reached out to someone and said, hey, we'd like you to call your representative on a Farm Bill issue, all you really have to do is think about, when did I use crop insurance last time? How did that impact my farm? What's my personal story about, you know, maybe I sell all of my grain to the river system for export. What's my personal story? And I need you to pass the Farm Bill, the end. Like that's all it is.

And every single farmer that would show up for us knows their own farm. That isn't a hard thing for them to overcome. So if you're listening to this podcast, if you're interested in the policy space, if anything we're saying is interesting to you, we really need your voice. We really need your voice.

Dusty Weis

All right, well, I've got a voice and a lot of us do, and we've got this wonderful grassroots network spread all across the country here. But looping back to where we started, it's August. It's time to strike while the iron is hot, the congressional members are back in their districts for the recess right now.

So where do we find them? What's the best way to get in touch and make those voices heard?

Luke Crumley

Yeah. So I was joking with an NCAA staffer, I think just yesterday. This person is a prior D.C. staffer for a member of the House, and I'm a prior district staffer. So our perceptions of August recess are very, very different. In Washington, D.C. during the August recess, we used to joke that they'd be wearing flip flops and Hawaiian shirts and kicking back to catch up on their shows while we and the district staff were burning the midnight oil, trying to get our members around.

And that's honestly how we perceive it. Because at least six days a week for my member, oftentimes seven days a week, we had events that they needed to participate in, whether that's a county party meeting where, say, your Democratic Party or your Republican Party has a monthly meeting that they have to be attending or it's a tour of a manufacturing facility, it's a farm shop visit.

You are trying to fill every single day with multiple events and trying to squeeze every bit of public exposure out of that opportunity of having that member of Congress home. And it can be difficult to try to figure out when you're going to have those opportunities because their schedules aren't public. It's not public record. So it's not like you can just hop on their website and see exactly where they're going to be.

And in fact, from a security standpoint, it'd be a really bad idea on their part. Right?

So it's really important for folks to hear this message again. When you join organizations like Ohio Corn and Wheat, Illinois Corn, and NCGA, the National Association of Wheat Growers, or whatever, when you join an organization like that, you're hooking into a team, and it's a team that oftentimes does have visibility of some of those opportunities.

So in my role, I not only manage our grassroots, I also manage our political action committee. I manage our grass tops activity. And when growers approach me the way you just described earlier, Dusty, with picking up the phone and calling Wisconsin Corn. And, you know, just yesterday I got a call from a grower. He was approached by someone who wants to have a member of Congress out to his farm.

What's he do? He picks up the phone, he calls me, and now I know I can notify a few other people who are interested in this space, that this is an opportunity they can take advantage of.

And we're constantly doing that throughout August in Ohio, trying to make sure that every member of our delegation that we know of an event, we're trying to get a grower there in front of them.

So we will help equip you to do that. And when you join an organization like NCGA, you hook into an infrastructure that helps you do that more effectively.

Dusty Weis

So you're able to go out, you're able to meet them at events… I'll add county fairs. A big one up here in Wisconsin, we've got breakfast on the farm, which is a great opportunity. And even in my hometown of Monroe, Wisconsin, we've got a big celebration coming up in September called Cheese Days. And I can promise you that every single congressional representative that represents Monroe, Wisconsin will be in the Cheese Days parade.

But if you can't meet them out and about, bring them to you. Lindsay. What if they're too busy to make it to a visit to your farm? Can you go meet them on their turf?

Lindsay Croke

Dusty, you can always call your district office and request a meeting. If you're really interested in meeting your member of Congress.

Luke Crumley

I want to put some context around here because we all do this, myself included. We put this target on trying to get in front of the member of Congress or the member of your state legislature. I want to share some math here, and I share this when I train advocates within Ohio.

If you take the average number of people that a member of Congress represents, a little over 780,000 780,000 people. If you were to give each and every one of those people an equal amount of time throughout the year, and you never let that member of Congress go to sleep, stop to eat, or go to the restroom, each one of us would get less than 45 seconds.

Each one of us would get less than 45 seconds if we had the most draconian approach possible. Right? That's why members of Congress have staffs. Now, it's great to get in front of the member of Congress. That is the decision maker. But that decision maker is an inch deep and a mile wide on literally a thousand issues.

So what can we do to equip them? We can build credibility and relationships with their staffs. And this is where the district staff comes in. Really valuably for growers, because it is not easy to get to Washington, D.C. every few weeks if that's what you need to do.

Instead, you can develop, you can cultivate a relationship with a local staffer who may not be writing legislation, but who is tasked with understanding what's happening in the community and conveying that through their team to anyone who needs to know it.

And there are organizations that are really successful at doing that, but it starts with us as an individual being able to say, okay, I need to understand this member of Congress is a human being. They are not going to be everywhere I want them at all the times I want them. I need to have a little bit of humility and accept that.

But I also need to have a little bit of ambition and be willing to go build a relationship with these 20 and 30 somethings that work for them, who actually do the day to day work for the constituency, and who have the ear of that member. And as I build credibility with them, I build credibility with the team.

That's what's important in August. It's not necessarily trying to target and get in front of the member. It's about not missing a single opportunity to build credibility, whether that's in person, at a district office, in front of the member, or on social media, by simply not posting something derogatory when you feel inclined to do so.

Lindsay Croke

Developing a relationship with staff is so, so important. And frankly, if this August doesn't feel like your window, if a farmer were willing to work to have a phone call or meet in person with the district staff once a month, by the time we get to next August, that farmer would 100% probably get a meeting with his or her member of Congress.

Because you have proven yourself workable, you've proven yourself reputable. You've proven that you're focused on your issues. I mean, it's almost maybe a screening process is a bad way to say it, but it kind of is like that. Members of Congress don't have time to engage with every single person, so they're looking for the people who best represent the general industry and are able to eloquently share the story of their family farm in a way that the congressman can understand it.

And, you know, to circle all the way back again, if you're nervous about that, representing your family farm in a way that's understandable, plug into an association. And please, please use the resources at your disposal. We need farmers who are interested in doing this, and we're excited to work with you.

Luke Crumley

Yeah, I may not suggest once a month, but at least once a quarter. That's a really good pace.

Lindsay Croke

You can make a phone call once a month.

Luke Crumley

Yeah, we had people that called us every week. So I had one guy who called me every single day for a while.

Dusty Weis

I think that's such great advice, not just to take that approach and to build and nurture these relationships, because they are relationships, at the end of the day. But to remember that the other person on the other end of that phone, or the other end of that social media message is a human being, too.

Whether you're talking about someone who's a member of Congress, who you see on CNN or Fox News or MSNBC, or the staffer who's fielding dozens and dozens of phone calls every day there, they're people, too.

Luke Crumley

You also never know where that person's going to end up. So a couple of stats here. The average tenure for a member of Congress right now, I think is still right around five and a half years. Don't quote me on that specifically, but it's pretty low. Most people don't realize that because we think of career politicians, but a member of Congress's tenure is oftentimes very, very short on average.

Legislative staff are even more compressed. I think it's something like 18 months average time in a specific portfolio area for a specific member, and then you're trying to move on to the next gig. And whether that's with a new member or a new portfolio within the office. But there's this churn in D.C.

It's a little bit different in the district office. I worked for one member for seven and a half years. I worked for his successor for a year, and then I came to corn.

So I had eight and a half years to build a relationships in the community where I saw many, many, many legislative staff move on to other things. So you have that component.

But I'm going to use my first boss in the House of Representatives as an example, to the point that you never know where these people are going to end up.

I first met him when I was in college. He was fairly new to Congress still, and I didn't know this about his background. But prior to being in the state legislature, he actually held the job that he ended up hiring me to do. So he had worked for another member of Congress doing casework, doing field rep work, gone to the state legislature, and then got into Congress himself.

When you invest the time in building relationships, building credibility, building rapport with these people, you never know where it's going to land you. And he would receive phone calls to his personal cell phone 15 years later from people he had helped when working for that previous member of Congress. And this is a 20 to 30 year span for his career.

That's incredible that these people still remembered what he did for them as a young staffer, and that he still was invested in them enough to be picking up the phone and asking his team to help them out.

Dusty Weis

And people don't forget it when you treat him like a human being either, and they'll hold on to it forever. Although I've got to say, it's a busy time of year for growers only getting busier as we head into the fall here. And I'm going to say something to both of you, Lindsay and Luke, that I know that you've heard a thousand times, if you've heard it once…

"Well, I just I don't really like to get involved in politics."

What do you say to someone who might be hesitant to do advocacy work, because it means interacting with politics?

Lindsay Croke

I guess I would say, then don't complain.

I mean, it's really that simple, right? Like, we have a farmer who always says the world is run by people who show up. We want you to show up. And the thing is, is that you don't have to show up in person. I was thinking through as Luke was talking like, notice when your member of Congress does something great and send them an email to the district office like, thank you for doing this or showing up here, or I saw you quoted in the paper, that was great, right?

Like, I think that they need that too and that's a great way to build rapport. I think that it's not that hard for someone who wants to get engaged. And I also think that, you know, everybody has their passion point. Right? So maybe this politics isn't your passion point. There's an opportunity for you to get involved in some regard in your industry.

So you need to figure out what that opportunity is for you and what you're passionate about and try to give back in some way.

I understand it's busy. We're all busy. You just have to make time for the things that are really important.

I also really think, just to add to this whole conversation, one of my personal passion points in my career here with corn and agriculture is encouraging farmers to think bipartisan and really thinking about like, maybe I think I don't want to go visit my member of Congress because he or she is from a party that I don't feel like I'm affiliated with, but again, by seeing that person as a person who probably wants the same general things for our country or for your state that you want and just see a different way to get there, there's still a lot of value in that.

And frankly, if agriculture wants a seat at the table when policies are being discussed, we have to be able to have a seat at the table when both parties are in power.

That's the way that we can be effective. So I always want to encourage farmers to really think through that. This whole thing is a big chess game, and we have to think about how we're going to play the game strategically and be effective. And so think bipartisan, show up. Thank people.

Luke Crumley

I will echo what Lindsey just said with a couple of addendums. And now the disclaimer here is I'm a lobbyist, and I spent a good amount of time working in partisan electoral politics. So when Lindsey says don't complain. Like that's the gut reaction that I have too, right?

But the reality is that the vast majority of people are never going to pick up the phone and call a congressional district office. The vast majority of people are never going to write a letter to their member of Congress. The vast majority of people don't vote in a given year.

So let's flip the script a little bit here. When you join an organization like National Corn Growers Association, one of the things that you're able to do is hook into a team that has lobbyists like me to help you exercise your First Amendment right, the right to redress grievances to the government.

That's what lobbying is. It's just using a third party to help you do it. So if you don't want to get in politics because it's either frustrating or it seems to be too much of a burden, whatever. When you join, you are equipping your industry to go do it regardless. Number one.

Number two, if the vast majority of people don't get involved, if the vast majority of people don't care enough to do the bare minimum, when you do, you are that much more credible.

So our growers who have been on the fence, who have maybe wanted to try it out but have had that reticence because we think of politics as dirty, we think of it as not very glorious, not very glamorous. I get it 100%, I get it. But when you show up, you're doing something that most people won't ever do, and you're going to have impact that most people never will have.

Dusty Weis

I think there's a lot of wisdom in that, and certainly we get to see it regularly at a national level. We get to, on this podcast, tell the story of some of the great work that the National Corn Growers Association is doing. I'm really glad that in this episode, we got to get down and see what's happening at the state level as well, because but for the work that's happening in the state chapters, it would be impossible for National Corn Growers Association to do what it does on a national level.

And so thank you both, Luke and Lindsey, for all the work that you guys do in Illinois and Ohio. Thanks as well to all the other state chapters that are out there grinding on behalf of corn growers every day as well.

And let's just recap here, there's a lot at stake between now and the end of the year in Congress. Corn growers have a big opportunity to make an impact while senators and representatives are home during the August recess. So get out there. Make your voice heard, respectfully. Remember, there's a human on the other end, but remember that they're probably pretty interested in the story that you have to tell, and probably pretty proud to be able to go and represent you in D.C. as well.

So Lindsay Croke, communications and marketing director for Illinois Corn, and Luke Crumley, director of public policy and sustainability for Ohio Corn and Wheat. Thank you both so much for joining us here on the Cobcast.

Dusty Weis

And thank you for listening. We hope you'll join us again next month for another episode of the Cobcast: Inside the Grind with the National Corn Growers Association.

If you're on Twitter, you can follow @NationalCorn. For more news and updates from the NCGA, visit NCGA.com to sign up for the association's email newsletter and make sure you're following this show in your favorite podcast app.

The Cobcast is brought to you by the National Corn Growers Association, with sound engineering by Matt Covarrubias and editing by Emily Kaysinger, and it's produced by Podcamp Media, branded podcast production for businesses. PodcampMedia.com

For the National Corn Growers Association, I'm Dusty Weis.

Back to In The News