Left to Right
Front Haley Carlson, Emily McDermott, Marshal McDermott (seated), Adam Freund, Clayton Saeugling. Back Row Eric Miller and Representative Jack Drake.

Five Atlantic FFA Officers attended the 30th Annual FFA Legislative Symposium on January 27, 2015. The Legislative Symposium is a chance for Iowa FFA members to advocate to their district senator and representative. Atlantic members arrived at the FFA Enrichment Center for a layout of the day. After opening ceremonies, FFA members listened to two guest speakers, Craig Hill from Iowa Farm Bureau and Libby Crimmings from the World Food Prize. The next activity was a breakout session to learn about approaching their legislators and what to advocate to them. The day continued as the FFA members traveled to the capitol building to seek out their senator and representative. Atlantic FFA members got the chance to speak to Representative Jack Drake about the impact of FFA on their lives. They also got the chance to listen to Drake talk about what he does and see some interesting parts of the capitol building. Unfortunately, Atlantic FFA members did not get the chance to talk to Senator Tom Shipley. Atlantic FFA ended the day with a lunch stop at Legends before heading home. Junior Clayton Saeugling said, “It was an extraordinary opportunity for our FFA chapter to meet with our local representative and see our state’s capitol in action. We also got to connect with other FFA members and friends by advocating for agriculture together.”

Atlantic High School welcomed Logan Bauer, the Southwest State Vice President, Michael Tupper, the Northeast State Vice President, and Zoie Shook, the Southwest District Vice President to a chapter visit on January 23, 2015. While at AHS, the officers lead interactive workshops for the agriculture education classes. These workshops incorporated teamwork, listening skills, patience, and problem solving skills. They challenged the agriculture classes to put their knowledge to use in the classroom and in the field. The officers also talked with the agricultural education instructor, Eric Miller and the Atlantic Officer Team about what the future of Atlantic FFA looks like. Freshmen FFA member Josh Rossell said, “I thought the activities that taught us about leadership and teamwork were fun. It was a good experience overall.”

Haley Carlson
Atlantic FFA Reporter

FFA Leadership Conference

Left to Right
Emily Saeugling, Clint Hansen, Haley Carlson

Three members of the Atlantic FFA to the 212/360 Conference at the FFA Enrichment Center January 10, 2015. Freshmen Emily Saeugling attended the 212 Conference. This was for freshmen and sophomore FFA members. The conference focused on six topics: passions, virtues, decision making, character, setting goals, and action. It was held by the Iowa FFA State Officer Team. Saeugling said, “I really enjoyed it and I would recommend it to others.” Junior Haley Carlson and senior Clint Hansen attended the 360 Conference. This Conference was for junior and senior FFA members to help create a vision for their future and the future of their FFA chapter. During this conference members got to interact with others from around Iowa and learn about what they think needs improvement in chapters and what success stories they have. The 360 Conference was facilitated by Josh Earll and Rachel Kagay. Each conference had a total of six sessions, along with lunch. Advisor, Eric Miller always has an assignment for each FFA event, and it is to make a new friend each day of the event. All three members walked out with many friends and great ideas for the future of the Atlantic FFA.

w/ Host Bob Bebensee and Brian Smith, Conservation Officer for Cass and Adair Counties.

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Members of a House panel have rejected a bill that would have expanded the ability of children to use a crossbow to hunt deer in Iowa. The natural resources subcommittee tabled the bill indefinitely Thursday. Bill sponsor Rep. Matt Windschitl, a Missouri Valley Republican, says he will work with interested parties to reword the bill for a future session.

The bill would have allowed children ages 16 and under with a youth deer hunting license to hunt for deer with a crossbow during other firearm seasons. The minor would have needed an unused tag. A child can currently use a crossbow during the late muzzleloader season if they’re accompanied by a licensed adult.

The Iowa Bowhunters Association, which supports archery through bow and arrow, expressed concern about expanding crossbow use.

An Iowa State University agricultural economist says the ethanol industry is facing a “good news – bad news” scenario with profit margins becoming very slim. Economist Chad Hart says lower corn and gas prices are starting to put the squeeze on ethanol producers.  “When we look at our ethanol plants, yes it’s good to have these lower corn prices, that means lower inputs costs. But as oil and gas prices drop, that means ethanol prices in order to remain competitive, have to drop,”Hart explains. “It’s squeezing those profit margins at those ethanol plants, and my guess is they are likely going to slow down here as we move into these next few months. The longer the oil price stays down, the slower they go.”

He says the current conditions show the need for the Renewable Fuel Standard to be in place to dictate how much ethanol is used.  “It is still a developing bio-fuel that at times will need some support. Now when oil prices were about say 60, 70 80 dollars a barrel, no, the market drove where the ethanol industry goes. Now that oil prices have gone down again, yeah, maybe it does need that support from the renewable fuel standard.” Hart says the problem for ethanol is not demand.

“Demand is actually really good, but the problem is that supplies are just that large,” Hart says. “And the potential for supplies are to continue to grow. As we look at the 2015 crop year coming up as we look out there we are going to see a lot of acreage in play, we’ll see a lot of corn and soybean production in ’15, and that’s likely going to hold prices down as we go through the next year.” The grain marketing specialist says if there is a possibility for hope in the grain markets, it could be overseas

“If we’re looking for that positive surprise, it would have to be exports. So far so good on that, we have seen a little bit of improvement compared to last year,” Hart says. “But, and this is a fairly large but in this case, the idea is as we look out there, with the global economy seemingly softening, as we look at crude oil prices and the value of the dollar continuing to strengthen, that’s holding back where exports can take us as well.” Hart made his comments at a seminar in Le Mars.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A coalition of environmental, animal rights and citizen action groups are suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency alleging failure to address air pollution from large-scale livestock farms. Two federal lawsuits filed in the District of Columbia allege the EPA has not responded to petitions filed in 2009 and 2011 asking the agency to use its Clean Air Act authority to regulate large hog, cattle and poultry farms.

The groups include the Environmental Integrity Project, the Humane Society of the United States, and citizen groups from Wisconsin, Iowa and California. They claim ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and other manure-generated contaminants in states such as Iowa and North Carolina make people sick. The groups want the EPA to set air quality standards for large livestock farms.

An EPA spokesman had no immediate comment.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A federal judge has rejected a lawsuit by two major farm groups that sought to block the release of data on large livestock farms in Minnesota and Iowa. The American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Pork Producers Council filed the lawsuit in in Minneapolis in 2013 after some activist groups requested the Environmental Protection Agency data under the Freedom of Information Act. The data includes physical addresses and other operational details about the farms. The farm groups said releasing the data would violate farmers’ privacy.

But U.S. District Judge Ann Montgomery dismissed the lawsuit Tuesday. She ruled that Farm Bureau and the Pork Producers lacked legal standing. And she pointed out that the data the two groups sought to keep private is easily available from other public sources anyway.

w/ Kate Olson

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