Why Care About Corn?

The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) is an interest group that has over 40,000 dues-paying corn growers in the U.S. and has affiliated organizations in 27 states. Their main mission from their website is “to help protect and advance corn growers’ interests.” Specifically, the organization focuses on ethanol, trade, biobased economy, farm bill, and animal agriculture among other issues. To make an impact, the organization promotes research in these areas, advocates and lobbies on behalf of corn farmers, and spreads educational content for corn producers. The cost of membership for members differs from state to state, but it typically ranges from $20-$50. Along with benefits from the organization's political efforts, members can expect to receive other selective incentives, like access to exclusive webinars and reports with insights by NCGA’s chief economist, college scholarships for children of members, and discounts at Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s.

Currently, the organization is fighting for year-round E15, which the organization says would increase the demand for corn by ~2.4 billion bushels annually. With this increased demand, the price of corn would increase, directly benefiting all corn farmers. An estimate for the benefit of year-round E15 to a farmer who has equal parts corn and soybean is $5 per acre and the average corn farmer has 278 acres of corn, so the estimated benefit per corn/soybean farmer would be $1,390. Unlike the selective incentives mentioned earlier, these benefits would not be restricted to members of the organizations, so the benefits are available to all 500,000 total corn farmers in the United States. Based on these numbers, this means that there are a significant number of farmers who are able to free ride off of the benefits of the NCGA’s lobbying efforts, considering there are only 40,000 paying members. 

Lastly, looking at how this would impact consumers, it could actually lower fuel prices at gas stations; however, it is likely that they could see higher food prices due to the pass through from higher corn prices. It is also known that E15 provides worse mileage than alternatives which counters the benefit seen at the pump. Ultimately, the small costs are spread across many people, and they are also hard for people to see, which creates very little incentive to organize an effort against corn farmer interest groups.