Celebrating 15 years of U.S. Grains Council (USGC) experience, Monsanto Company’s Jim Tobin was honored this week during the Council’s 55th Annual Board of Delegates Meeting in Montreal, Canada.

During his tenure, Tobin has found the Council to be a unique organization that does especially important work during difficult times.

“When commodity prices are high and all the product is being sold, it’s easy to think that will always continue,� he said. “When production goes up and prices go down, it’s a reminder that we deal with a fluid market, and we have to do all we can to develop trade.

“In this period we’re going through right now, I think the Council is going to shine, bringing new buyers to the table, taking some of the extra volume out of the market and helping our customers around the world feel good about buying U.S. coarse grains and co-products.�

Tobin, now an at-large director for the Council, talked with enthusiasm about working on the USGC biotechnology Advisory Team (A-Team).

“It became clear that export approvals would be critical for farmers to get the full value out of biotechnology,� Tobin said. “The Council made a real difference in speaking about biotechnology to foreign buyers and governments.

“I see the Council as being an honest broker for biotech information – when a foreign country wants to know more about biotechnology, they find the Council to be a good source.�

Even more rewarding, according to Tobin, was his time on the Value-Added A-Team.

“That evolved into helping to find markets for DDGS [distiller’s dried grains with solubles],� Tobin said. “Today that has evolved to where there’s an ethanol team that has added even more horsepower to the effort.�

Summing up his experience, Tobin said he sees the Council as a unique organization that brings together diverse groups at the same table for a common purpose.

“We have the grower groups that are major contributors both in leadership and financially, we have agribusiness, academics and people with government responsibilities who get involved,� Tobin said.

“The Council allows for broad discussions at the same time you can get involved in very specific analysis and hands-on projects. That’s really unique in our industry.�