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Gordon elected VP of American Soybean Association

WORTHINGTON -- Rural Worthington farmer Bill Gordon was elected vice president of the American Soybean Association (ASA) last week during the organization's business meeting in St. Louis, Mo.

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Gordon

WORTHINGTON - Rural Worthington farmer Bill Gordon was elected vice president of the American Soybean Association (ASA) last week during the organization’s business meeting in St. Louis, Mo.

The election, which pitted Gordon against Valley Springs, S.D., farmer Kevin Scott for the seat, will result in a three-year leadership role for Gordon. He will move from vice president to president of the ASA in 2020, and then follow a year-long presidency with a one-year term as board chairman.

“I’ll become the 100th president of the ASA,” said Gordon Tuesday morning, adding that he will be the sixth president of the association to hail from Minnesota.

Gordon has served as a director on the 54-member ASA board since 2012, and had just completed his second year as treasurer before Thursday’s election. In addition to the national role, he has represented soybean farmers on the Nobles County Corn and Soybean Growers and Minnesota Soybean Growers Association boards since 2004.

As one of six Minnesota directors to serve on the ASA board, Gordon’s new leadership position will have him on the road and in the air more as he travels to the nation’s capital city and abroad to work on behalf of America’s soybean farmers.

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“It will increase my involvement in policy with the ASA,” he said. “I’ll spend more time in Washington, D.C. influencing lawmakers, and probably more international travel to work on trade agreements to get more free trade.”

The ASA represents 300,000 U.S. soybean producers across 26 states and works to impact policy at the federal level. Their three current hot-button issues are passage of a new federal farm bill, resolutions to trade issues and tariffs and pushing for Renewable Fuels Standards that promote a strong biodiesel program.

Twice per year - in March and July - the ASA conducts its board meetings in the nation’s capital city, during which it also meets with representatives and the administration regarding farm policy as it relates to soybean production. The ASA also has an eight-person team working on behalf of the organization in Washington, D.C., Gordon noted.

International trips are typically organized by the U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC), and are funded by the soybean checkoff, which supports soybean research, promotion and education.

“USSEC is overseas with offices in China, Europe and South America,” Gordon said. “They’re working on those trade agreements right now.”

Despite a 90-day ceasefire announced last week between the U.S. and China on threats by President Donald Trump to expand tariffs by $250 billion, there has yet to be any move by the Chinese to purchase U.S. soybeans.

“There was an announcement that China was going to buy a lot more agricultural products,” Gordon said. “There have not been any purchases or suggestions of purchases out of China.

“The short-term pain of these markets is hard to overcome with our already low prices,” he added. “We need to get these markets.”

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While the Chinese aren’t buying, Gordon said he’s optimistic with other trade opportunities. The U.S. continues to work with the European Union, and a new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA, formerly the North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA) has been signed.

“That will be crucial to U.S. agriculture, especially for pork,” Gordon said, adding that dairy will also benefit from the deal.

Meanwhile, Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership is causing more pain for agriculture markets.

“Japan is a major soybean market - it’s a mature market,” Gordon said. “With TPP, 11 countries had an agreement … those countries will have free trade. Trump pulled us out of it; that will put us at a major disadvantage. We need a bilateral trade agreement with Japan as soon as possible.”

More positive news came forward Tuesday with the Senate’s passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, and though Gordon didn’t know all of the details of the legislation, he’s heard there won’t be a lot of changes.

“It was a pretty decent farm bill,” he said. “We should increase CRP (Conservation Reserve Program acres) a little, and we’ll see the CSP (Conservation Stewardship Program) and crop insurance continue to exist.

“This farm bill is going to provide a safety net for farmers,” he added.

The third high priority issue for ASA is biofuels, which have long been under attack by oil producing states and refiners.

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Gordon said a change of opinion is taking place across the country, however, with California’s new biofuels mandate anticipated to be a much-needed boost for the industry.

The Renewable Fuels Standard has been contentious, and Gordon said there seems to be a lack of science-based information in the decision-making process by both the past and current administration.

“We’ve been able to way overproduce (biofuels), we believe biofuels help the environment,” Gordon said.

The biofuels industry is still reeling from former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s actions to grant small capacity waivers to refiners who argued that blending biofuels created an undue hardship to their operations. Those actions led to the loss of 300 million gallons of biofuel blending.

“You can’t find out who they are and there’s no basis why they grant the waivers,” Gordon said. “We would like to know the criteria for granting a waiver and why these 300 million gallons aren’t being consumed. We’re going to fight for those 300 million gallons. Society deserves to have cleaner air and cleaner fuel.”

Dozens of other issues related to U.S. soybean production are dealt with on a daily basis, Gordon said, and he’s looking forward to continuing to be a voice for soybean farmers. He can’t do it alone, however.

“Being vice president is an honor, but it’s really the 300,000 soybean farmers that we’re speaking for,” he said. “I really want to hear from them. We need to all work together. With their voices and our voices, we can make good policies. We need involvement more than ever - we need to stay unified and have a good, strong voice in Washington, D.C.”

A fourth generation farmer, Gordon began farming in 1999 with his dad, Galen. They grow corn and soybeans on 2,000 acres, and have another 250 acres of buffer strips and wetlands.

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Gordon and his wife, Dawn, have four children: Luke, Lance, Anna and Liam. In addition to raising crops and a family, Gordon owns Lindquist Tax and Accounting in Worthington and is an owner/partner in CRG Management Company, a business that provides farm analysis and planning. He is also an outdoorsman, environmentalist and youth hunting educator, and serves on the board of directors for a mutual insurance company.

Julie Buntjer became editor of The Globe in July 2021, after working as a beat reporter at the Worthington newspaper since December 2003. She has a bachelor's degree in agriculture journalism from South Dakota State University.

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