NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Not surprisingly, the unwritten farm bill is taking up much of the legislative focus of representative crop groups such as the American Soybean Assoc. (ASA) this year – and preserving crop insurance is at the top of that list.

“We know the importance of budgetary accountability,” Steve Wellman, ASA president, said a couple of weeks ago during the annual Commodity Classic in Nashville. “And we stand ready to do our fair share” to accept some cuts to reduce the national deficit.

But, he said, any cuts should be borne proportionately across the board for all sectors of agriculture. Crop insurance is the core of the farmer’s safety net, Wellman said, and the ASA opposes any further cuts to that particular program in this farm bill. He said ASA wants to preserve a system based on planting flexibility to respond to market needs, not fixed-price insurance.

“The last three farm bills have allowed planting flexibility, and soybean acres have grown by 15 million acres since 1995,” he said.

Later, also at the Classic, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack briefly addressed this. He said there are varying cuts proposed for farm, nutrition and conservation programs at the federal level, but the problem right now is there’s no agreed-upon amount in Congress for total cuts. Once legislators decide how much needs to be trimmed, then the work of deciding how to allocate that cut can begin.

Along with the head of the ASA, the National Corn Growers Assoc., National Sorghum Producers and National Assoc. of Wheat Growers chiefs sat down late one afternoon in a closed meeting at the Classic to hammer out joint legislative priorities.

All agreed on the importance of preserving crop insurance and issued a joint statement: “We also stand ready to work with House and Senate ag committee leaders to create farm programs that provide risk-management tools to growers when they are facing a loss beyond their control.”

Vilsack agreed crop insurance needs to remain a “stable and secure” program. Perhaps this means farmers pay a little more on premiums while the federal government pays a little less. He said his agency is trying to help by making tough decisions on cuts, such as consolidating offices nationwide and regionalizing state data collection efforts.

Another chime of agreement from the four previously mentioned farm groups came from the desire for a new farm bill before year’s end, rather than simply an extension of the current multiyear legislation – which is what happened in the transition from the previous farm bill into the current one a few years ago.

For this, Vilsack didn’t have a guarantee, except that there will be some action even if it means an extension. There is speculation because it’s an election year for many in Congress as well as the president, legislators might not wish to vote on a farm bill in 2012; Vilsack opined that “kicking the can down the road” to next year isn’t going to make the process any easier.

ASA also supports increases in funding for ag research to improve food safety and production, sustainable bioenergy and food security. Wellman said it supports preserving education initiatives to advance biodiesel and biobased products, maintaining funding for conservation programs that work (and lowering the cap on acres contracted under conservation programs) and continuing funding for the USDA’s Foreign Market Development Program and Market Access Program.

The federal biodiesel tax credit that expired at the end of 2011 is something else the ASA is pursuing to reinstate, along with retroactive payments to blenders from Jan. 1 to reinstatement.

ASA Chair Alan Kemper, an Indiana farmer, said task force groups are forming to create a written, sustainability protocol for U.S. soybean growers; these include the ASA, United Soybean Board and U.S. Soybean Export Council, he said.

He said in 2009, the European Commission of the European Union (EU) announced a Directive on Renewable Energy, which states by next year, each of its countries should have a plan for making certain 20 percent of its energy is derived from renewable resources by 2020. Kemper said it’s the ASA’s position the EU used “outdated and incorrect” greenhouse gas emissions data in setting its standards, which would lock out purchase of U.S.- and Brazil-produced soy biofuel.

The ASA has been working with the U.S. Trade Representative’s office and the USDA to enter into a bilateral agreement with the EU, based on ASA’s assertion that U.S. farmers do meet sustainability criteria. He said the EU is deciding whether to approve it; in the meanwhile, the task force will create a “sustainability protocol” in time for the soy groups’ summer board meetings.

Basically, Kemper said this is to give U.S. soy farmers the ability to prove their methods are sustainable, worldwide. He said the soy groups hope to gain an advantage on competitors such as Brazil, which according to him, only has one large-scale farmer using “sustainable” growing methods; there are two in Argentina. Kemper said this is based on a visit he made to both countries in February.

ASA First Vice President Danny Murphy recalled in 2007 Congress committed $2.2 billion for new construction of locks and dams along U.S. waterways but these were never actually funded. ASA will continue working on bringing this to fruition, the Mississippi farmer said, pointing at rivers as key shipping arteries.

Larger draft access is also needed in oft-used rivers such as the Mississippi, he said, in order to ship more commodities. This is the ability for heavier, larger barges to traverse a river without hitting bottom; shallower draft means fewer goods can be loaded onto a vessel.

Other transportation priorities for the ASA are seeing a continuation of the annual exemption during harvest time of Hours of Service rules for truck drivers, and trying to get Congress to approve a measure allowing increased truck weights with an additional axle, to haul more commodities.