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Interview with North American Millers' Association President Betsy Faga: Looking at the Past, Present, and Future as Association Moves Toward 10-Year Anniversary (Part One of Two)

Milling Journal Editor Josh Flint interviewed North American Millers' Association (NAMA) President Betsy Faga in July. In this first part of a two-part interview, she dicusses the history of NAMA and where the Washington, DC-based association is headed in the future.

NAMA's History

In 2008, the North American Millers' Association (NAMA) will celebrate it?s ten-year anniversary.

The association was formed when the Millers? National Federation, the American Corn Millers? Federation, and Protein Grain Products International all joined together in 1998.

One year later, the American Oat Association was added.

There were some definite challenges in bringing all of these associations together.

Staying true to a deliberative and collaborative process was key in bringing it all together.

The biggest challenges came in setting up the organizational and administrative structure?assuring the small organizations didn?t lose their identity, ensuring issues of the various groups would be equally addressed, creating a common dues structure, determining the structure of the meetings, making sure the leadership represented each group, etc.

By having equal representation for each organization on the various committees considering the merger, most of these concerns were addressed.

The divisions and trade committee assured corn, oat, soft wheat, and specialty grain millers would each have a place to discuss issues specific to their milling operations.

The executive committee was designed to provide representation to millers of the various grains and to the largest members.

I give a huge amount of credit to the membership, who recognized not all questions could be answered immediately and that a leap of faith was necessary to accomplish the objectives.

Merger advantages. The advantages members anticipated in the beginning are being realized.

The political base of the grain milling industry has been broadened, and this larger, more diverse industry has provided stronger support in Washington.

There is a larger pool of talent to call on to help in association activities.

Companies belonging to several of the former associations have been able to use their time more effectively by reducing the number of meetings they attend and devoting time to one committee rather than several.

Members also have an opportunity to interact and network with a larger and more varied number of peers. Within the association office, duplication of some staff functions was eliminated, creating greater and more efficient service to members and adding professional ?horsepower.?

New From NAMA

To provide additional opportunities for an exchange of information between NAMA staff and board members, we are implementing quarterly conference calls.

We?ll discuss current activities and industry issues during these calls.

StarLink corn result. We soon hope to see resolution of a long-standing issue?the elimination of the need for testing for Cry9C protein found in StarLink corn.

A recent scientific assessment finds the U.S. corn supply essentially free of StarLink corn.

We are hopeful the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will incorporate that data in a white paper that will allow millers to discontinue testing every load of incoming corn for Cry9C, which they have done since 2001.

Bioavailability study. We are also anticipating the completion of a research project at Purdue University (West Lafeyette, IN) that is examining the impact of milling processes on the bioavailability of the carotenoid content in milled-corn products.

We expect the research to provide corn dry millers with information about the healthful benefits of corn-based food products.

The Impact of Biofuels

NAMA members recognize that the subject of biofuels impacts all the milling sectors, not just corn.

Because of the enormity and complexity of the topic, NAMA is currently in a monitoring mode.

Working with our Biofuels Committee, our objective is to cull through the huge amount of information available and to keep the membership informed about relevant articles, studies, meetings, and events related to ethanol and biodiesel.

For more information, call NAMA at 202-484-2200.