Colorado Legislators Attend Luncheon with Wheat Producers

By Darrell Hanavan

February 27, 2004

Forty wheat producers from throughout the state participated in a noon luncheon with 14 members of the Colorado General Assembly on February 16, to educate them on the importance of the Colorado wheat industry to the state's diversified economy and to develop support for important legislative issues.

The Colorado Association of Wheat Growers (CAWG) and the Colorado Wheat Administrative Committee (CWAC) jointly hosted the annual "Wheat Day at the Capitol" event.

CAWG urged the state legislators to restore funding for the Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA) Markets Division, which the Joint Budget Committee has voted to eliminate. The CDA Markets Division administers marketing orders, including the wheat marketing order (Colorado What Administrative Committee), the Colorado Proud program that puts the state grown label on food products, and the agricultural finance program that has helped over 260 young farmers purchase their first piece of farmland and issued millions of dollars in bonds to establish value-added processing (including Rocky Mountain Milling in Platteville).

CAWG also urged state legislators to support a special agency funding initiative for enhanced programs through CSU Cooperative Extension (CE), Agricultural Experiment Station (AES) and Colorado State Forest Service (CSFS), which addresses the major issues facing agriculture and natural resources in Colorado as well as consumers.

CAWG expressed support for HB 1093 (Rep. Liane McFayden, D-Pueblo and Sen. Mark Hillman, R-Burlington), that would require state agencies that purchase agricultural products to give a preference to products produced in the state if certain conditions are met, including quality and price.

CAWG also urged support for HB 1117 (Rep. Pam Rhodes, R-Thornton and Sen. Mark Hillman, R-Burlington) that would allow a one-time exemption to the five-year waiting period for health insurance carriers that have discontinued coverage in the state to reenter the market. As amended, this bill would require that the carrier also serve an area of the state that has less than three carriers. If passed, this bill would increase the number of health insurance carriers in rural areas.

During the luncheon, legislators were informed of the major economic impact that Colorado wheat production and exports have on the state and national economy. Highlights of the past decade (1993-2002) are as follows:

• Colorado is a major wheat producing state with production of all wheat averaging 83.7 million bushels (or 3.8 of total U.S. production), for a total annual value of $269.7 million (Colorado produced 78.2 million bushels in 2003, the fourth consecutive below average crop);

• Colorado wheat production creates an estimated 18,079 total jobs annually, with approximately 8,352 of these total jobs directly attributed to Colorado wheat exports; and

• Wheat is one of Colorado's top ranked exports by dollar volume since 80 percent or more of the state's wheat production is typically exported to 60 different countries, for a total annual value of $215.8 million (Egypt, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Korea and Taiwan are usually the top export buyers).

The state legislators were also presented with a loaf of bread and informed that the wheat farmers share of a one pound loaf of bread in 2003 was just 5.1 cents of the average retail price of $1.03.

CAWG and CWAC are two distinctly separate organizations with different, but complementary purposes:

• CAWG is a voluntary membership association that lobbies on behalf of wheat growers at the state and national levels of government and provides special programs and benefits to dues paying members including workers' compensation coverage and an informative newsletter; and

• CWAC is a marketing order funded by a producer-approved assessment of one cent per bushel, which is used for education, research, and promotion programs to increase the consumption and utilization of Colorado produced wheat.