NCFC champions issues crucial to ag co-ops
ince 1929, the National
Council of Farmer
Cooperatives (NCFC)
has been the national
association representing
America’s farmer cooperatives. There
are nearly 3,000 farmer cooperatives
across the United States whose membership
includes a majority of our
nation’s more than 2 million farmers.
NCFC ensures that farmer cooperatives
have a strong and effective
voice in addressing public policy
issues at the national level. It synthesizes
a wealth of information to keep
members current on antitrust and tax
legislation and other legal issues, as
well as agriculture, trade, energy,
transportation and environmental policy.
It also tracks and analyzes economic
trends.
A member-led committee system
forms the basis for NCFC’s policy
direction. Among these committees
are: The Legal, Tax and Accounting
Committee through its subcommittees
and task forces, it provides NCFC
with policy guidance in the areas of
law, cooperative accounting and
finance and tax policy. The
Government and Public Affairs
Committee identifies the national
public policy issues affecting farmer
cooperative businesses and their members
and develops, with NCFC staff,
strategies for addressing these issues.
The Cooperative Education
Committee plans the director’s
education conference held in conjunction
with the NCFC Annual Meeting,
which gives the farmer directors of
NCFC members the opportunity to
come together and address issues of
cooperative governance, board responsibilities
and the changing nature of
the food and fiber marketplace.
NCFC has a proven track record of
effectively communicating, through its
close working relationships, the interests
of its members to Administration
officials and members of Congress,
including the Congressional Farmer
Cooperative Caucus.
Recent issues on which NCFC has
taken a lead role include:
- Access to equity capital — As
farmer cooperatives must compete
in a rapidly changing marketplace,
one of the greatest challenges faced
by farmer cooperatives is access to
the equity capital necessary to modernize,
expand and take advantage
of new market opportunities.
NCFC strongly supported introduction
of legislation in both the House
and the Senate to eliminate the
third layer of tax imposed on farmer
cooperative dividends paid on capital
stock under the Dividend
Allocation Rule. This discriminatory
tax structure (regular corporate
dividends are taxed only twice)
unfairly limits the ability of cooperatives
to raise equity capital and
reduces patronage paid to a cooperative’s
farmer members.
- Addressing changes to cooperative
laws — A number of states
have either changed or are planning
to change their cooperative laws to
allow outside investment in farmer
cooperatives as a means of raising
equity capital. Through its LTA
Committee, NCFC has carefully
monitored these developments, and
is looking at how such changes may
affect federal policies and programs.
In particular, NCFC has been
active in efforts to ensure that these
new generation cooperatives will
continue to have access to a competitive
source of credit from
CoBank.
- Strengthening USDA programs
for cooperatives — NCFC was
instrumental in ensuring that farmer
cooperatives have the ability to participate
in USDA programs, including:
the commodity purchase program,
export programs, Value Added
Producer Grants, 2002 Farm Bill
conservation programs and the
Business and Industry Loan program.
NCFC continues to work to
ensure sufficient funding for these
programs and continued eligibility
for farmer cooperatives.
- Interaction with policy makers-
The annual NCFC Washington
Conference brings farmer cooperative
directors, CEOs and senior
management to Washington help
further the policy interests of farmer
cooperatives. Attendees meet with
top policy makers from Congress
and the Administration to help put a
farmer’s face on cooperatives for
these officials.
Contact Information: Web site:
http://www.ncfc.org. Telephone: (202)
626-8700. Facsimile: (202) 737-6430.
address: 50 F Street, N.W., Suite 900,
Washington, DC 20001. President &
CEO: Jean Marie Peltier; Board
Chairman: John E. Gherty, President
& CEO Land O’ Lakes Inc.
