Hartman’s work on behalf of corn farmers spans decades

WATERLOO, Ill. — From testifying to Congress to working on his fifth-generation farm in southern Illinois, Kenneth Hartman Jr. has dedicated the last three decades to advocating for corn growers.

Hartman wraps up his term later this year as the National Corn Growers Association chairman after serving as president the previous year. He is also past president of the Illinois Corn Growers Association and past Illinois Corn Marketing Board chair.

His theme during his term as NCGA president was “Building Bridges” — a theme that he’s carried with him throughout his years in leadership roles.

Hartman operates a grain farm in Monroe County along with his wife, Anita, mother, Joann, and daughter, Amanda. Together, they have also raised specialty crops such as tofu soybeans and white corn, while acting as early adopters of precision farming technologies.

He has two daughters working off the farm: Alexis, a financial analyst with Waste Management, and Ashley, a marketing development program representative for John Deere.

The “agvocate” was recently featured on IL Corn TV, hosted by Lindsay Croke, the communications and marketing director for IL Corn, where he reflected on his commitment to corn farmers throughout the Prairie State and nation.

Hartman’s work on behalf of farmers began in the 1990s.

“I’ve been around for a long time, probably longer than some people wish. I started out many years ago getting involved in the Illinois Corn Marketing Board. I got involved with the National Corn Growers Association, then the U.S. Grains Council and U.S. Meat Export Federation,” he said.

Hartman eventually moved up to ICMB vice chair and then chair. He was one year removed from his ICMB duties when he got a call from then-ICGA President Steve Ruh.

There was an opening on the ICGA board and Ruh asked him if he’d like to serve.

“I got involved with ICGA. At the time, my father had some health problem and I said I didn’t know if I could do much with leadership back then,” Hartman said.

“I was on the (ICGA) board a couple years and then started getting involved with NCGA. I became vice president and the president of the ICGA. I got involved in some action teams, was vice chairman of the Public Policy Action Team, moved on to be chairman of the Market Access Action Team.

“A couple people said that I needed to run for the NCGA board. I decided to run for the national board. Things worked out and I got on the national board. Since then, I got involved in a lot of committees and I enjoyed the people that I’ve met with IL Corn and then on the national level.”

During his time at NCGA, he has served as a member of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Ag Advisory Committee and serves as the liaison to the Agriculture Markets Advisory Council and the Renewable Fuels Association.

Previously, he chaired the NCGA Finance Committee, served as the board liaison to the Ethanol, Member and Consumer Engagement, Corn Productivity and Quality, and Stewardship action teams and served on its Governance team. He was co-chair of the 2023 Commodity Classic Committee.

He has served as the association’s representative on the Waterways Council Inc. and the National Agricultural Genotyping Center Board of Directors and as the alternate delegate representing NCGA to 25x’25 initiative.

Accomplishments

Hartman was asked to reflect on some what he believes are some of his biggest accomplishments while working on behalf of the state and national corn organizations.

“I just look at long term. Obviously, it’s not me — it’s the organization, it’s the people that are leading. When you look back at IL Corn and National Corn Growers, where would we be without them?” he said.

“When you look at the Renewable Fuel Standard, I believe the ethanol industry would not have been created if it wouldn’t have been for the work from Illinois and all the other state Corn Growers associations and the National Corn Growers Association.

“Some of the other things that I look back on when I was involved was a lot of the farm bill activities. That was back to what they called the Average Crop Revenue Election program. Then we went to the Agricultural Risk Coverage program. A lot of that all came from IL Corn, National Corn Growers and those from other states that worked together. A lot of it came from Gary Schnitkey and the University of Illinois.

“The Corn Growers has accomplished so much over the years that people don’t realize how much they have gotten done for farmers. We would not have the markets we have. We would not have the tools in the toolbox and the risk management protection when it comes to crop insurance. That’s all been developed with the help of our national and state Corn Grower affiliates.”

Motivation

With his decades of commitment advocating for farmers, Croke asked Hartman what motivates him.

“I saw the way the Illinois Corn Growers and National Corn Growers work. It’s a grassroots organization. You get involved, and you see that there’s people that say you can’t make a difference, you can’t accomplish things, but we do make a difference. We do accomplish things,” he said.

“I’ve enjoyed the people I work with. It’s a lot of great people that get involved and work together. This past year as National Corn Growers president, one of the things that we got involved with, which started with some of my predecessors, was the situation with biotechnology in Mexico.”

Mexico’s administration at the time had put measures into place that included an immediate ban on the use of genetically engineered corn in dough and tortillas and an instruction to Mexican government agencies to gradually eliminate the use of GE corn for other food uses and in animal feed.

“They were trying to keep out our grain. So, between the state organizations and the National Corn Growers, we started a Section 301 case. We’re the ones that started it. We got involved and all of a sudden the Biden administration said, ‘Oh, my gosh, Corn Growers are doing this, we need to get involved in this.’ So, they moved on and started working on it and set up a panel,” Hartman said.

“It went through the process and the panels from the United States and Mexico all ruled in our favor and Mexico’s new president realized that she needs to buy food grade and white corn from us. So, because of that, we got that accomplished. Mexico is our No. 1 customer of corn.

“Some of the other things we keep working on are trade agreements and talking to the Trump administration about that.

Partial Farm Bill

The “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed by Congress included a partial farm bill with Title I provisions.

“We’ve got some support for crop insurance. We got the doubling of Marketing Assistance Program and Foreign Marketing Development program funding that we’ve been working on for a long time. That’s huge for exports when it comes to working with our folks like the U.S. Grains & BioProducts Council, U.S. Meat Export Federation, or the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council. That was a big win,” Hartman said.

“Then, one of the things we all worked on in that ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ was tax reform. Some things were made permanent. We’ve got $15 million dollars when it comes to inheritance tax, which is huge right now, considering what our land values have went up.

“There’s a lot of things that I feel that IL Corn and National Corn have gotten done over the years like what we accomplished this year as some of the things that really made a difference.”

Young Farmers

Hartman also had a message for young farmers about becoming involved in IL Corn.

“One of the things we talk about with young folks is what we’re doing now is going to benefit us somewhat, but it’s more of a benefit for the next generation’s of farmers,” he said.

“I would challenge the young folks to get involved because they’re going to be doing it for them, but also for their next generation. When you look at all the things that we’ve accomplished and that we’re working on now, it’s for the next generation.”

Renewable Fuel

Hartman hopes to see in the near future federal legislation that approves year-round E15.

“We’ve been so close. Last December, we were in the text of a bill and then it got thrown out with some of the other issues. But, at the same time, E15 is a step towards higher blends of ethanol work on higher octane,” he said.

“The next step down the road is sustainable aviation fuel. This is all about growing markets, because obviously we keep producing more corn, so we need to have markets for that corn. That’s part of why young people need to get involved is to keep working on that for the future.

“Another issue where the Corn Growers work made a difference were the changes in the ‘Make America Healthy Again’ proposal that came out last July.

“They started out talking about eliminating atrazine and glyphosate, and that the Environmental Protection Agency wasn’t doing enough. As a grassroots organization, we got out, we had everybody on phones and on emails talking about how important that is as a tool for us and I feel like we won that one.

“By the time we got done, the second MAHA report came out, they were talking about soil health, precision agriculture. We made a difference, and that’s all things that are for the younger farmers for the future of agriculture, especially when it comes to our corn industry.”