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At its core, the American Sugarbeet Growers Association promotes the common interest of all 11 beet producing states. One of those ways is through legislation.
Luther Markwart, executive director of ASGA, is based in D.C. He and the organization educate lawmakers about sugar policy and the issues impacting growers. Between COVID-19 and the January 6 Capitol riots, ASGA didn’t do their typical fly-in because of a lack of face-to-face meetings.
“It’s going as good as it can be, and one of the challenges is the ability to be able to see and meet people in-person,” says Markwart. “Although we did [the fly-in] virtually, literally over the course of two weeks, we made 307 virtual visits with congressional staff, and that was very effective. Our growers got to talk to a lot of these staff members.”
Earlier this month, the Senate was supposed to vote on the $1 trillion infrastructure bill but has been sidelined. Markwart says ASGA has been focused on tax policy as it relates to that bill.
“If you’re going to do a massive infrastructure bill, you’ve got to have ways to raise revenue,” he says. “Clearly, they look at stepped-up basis, capital gains and all of that. We’ve been focused on that to make sure that our farmers are able to pass farms down to their family members without having to pay these exorbitant taxes which you then have to sell off pieces of the farm and then your operation really doesn’t work very well.”
Climate change has also been a major area of interest. ASGA is making sure that any change in policy is incentive-based and voluntary.
“There’s a lot of thought, a lot of time invested in that, and I think you’ll be begin to see pieces of that come together as part of the next Farm Bill,” he says.
Markwart talks more about planning for the Farm Bill, Michigan lawmakers active in sugar policy, and supply chains in our full conversation on the October 15 edition of the Michigan Ag Today Podcast in the player below.
