The U.S. Grains Council today expressed thanks to the National Corn Growers Association, the National Sorghum Producers, the National Barley Growers Association, and other allied organizations for their successful support of the Market Access Program (MAP) during Senate debate on the pending Farm Bill.

The 2012 Farm Bill (S. 3240) is currently under consideration in the Senate and is drawing heated debate.  Among the many amendments was one that called for slashing MAP funding by 20 percent ($40 million annually). The amendment would also have imposed arbitrary limitations on which international marketing activities could utilize the remaining funds. Thanks to effective advocacy by a wide range of groups supportive of U.S. export promotion efforts, the amendment was defeated today by a vote of 30 ayes to 69 nays.

"MAP funding in conjunction with other smaller funding programs has been an important contributor to the success of U.S. coarse grain and DDGS exports worldwide. U.S. agriculture trade is one of the few U.S. trade areas that maintains a surplus. Without MAP funding, U.S. grains exports will face a much tougher uphill battle," said Dr. Wendell Shauman, USGC chairman.

Trade enhances global prosperity, expands U.S. exports, and promotes jobs and economic growth at home.  Many U.S. companies, trade associations, and federal, state, and local governments work to increase opportunities for U.S. exporters.  Some of these efforts promote the sale of particular products or brands. Others are broader in scope and promote entire industry sectors or a "made in the USA" brand.

MAP is a longstanding program through which the Foreign Agricultural Service has partnered with "co-operator" organizations to work jointly on projects of mutual interest.  The U.S. Grains Council has utilized MAP funding for a variety of programs that expand and defend export markets for U.S. corn, sorghum, barley, distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), and other value added products.  The Council's current programs encompass more than 50 countries.

• Capacity building programs assist foreign dairy, cattle, swine, and poultry producers in modernizing their operations, expanding local demand for their products, and thus increasing demand for U.S. sourced feed grains and DDGS.
• Trade servicing programs assist foreign importers in navigating the complexities of international financial, regulatory, and trading systems.
• The Council also works aggressively on trade policy questions including international acceptance of new production technologies, implementation of trade agreements to reduce tariff and other barriers to U.S. exports, and fair enforcement of existing trade agreements to discourage unfair foreign subsidies and create a more level playing field.

Global corn production continues to rise as technology drives yield increases and new competitors such as Brazil, Argentina, and the Ukraine ramp up production for export.  Global grains markets are intensely competitive.  MAP is an important tool in assisting U.S. producers and agribusinesses in developing and defending export markets.

Agriculture is an often-underappreciated hero of the U.S. international trade balance, one of the few sectors in which the U.S. consistently earns a major trade surplus.  As the global middle class continues to grow, as world food demand increases rapidly, and as international export competition intensifies, the importance of agricultural export promotion will continue to grow.  The U.S. Grains Council is committed to defending and increasing U.S. market share, and the Council is appreciative of the help of allied organizations in preserving essential market development tools like MAP.

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The U.S. Grains Council is a private, non-profit partnership of farmers and agribusinesses committed to building and expanding international markets for U.S. barley, corn, grain sorghum and their products. The Council is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has 9 international offices that oversee programs in more than 50 countries. Financial support from our private industry members, including state checkoffs, agribusinesses, state entities and others, triggers federal matching funds from the USDA resulting in a combined program value of more than $28.3 million.

The U.S. Grains Council does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation or marital/family status. Persons with disabilities, who require alternative means for communication of program information, should contact the U.S. Grains Council

The Classics at Brucemore: The Night of the Iguana

Let a live mariachi band transport you to Puerto Barrio, Mexico, the setting of American playwright Tennessee Williams's drama, The Night of the Iguana. This year's Classics at Brucemore performances are July 12-14 and 19-21 at 8:00 p.m. in the natural amphitheater near the pond on the Brucemore estate. Gates open at 7:00 p.m.

Tennessee Williams, considered one of the greatest American playwrights, is most known for two Pulitzer Prize dramas, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955).  Debuting on Broadway in 1961 and winning the New York Drama Critics Award, The Night of the Iguana is the last of Williams's major successes. Set at a Mexican hotel in the early 1940s, the drama presents several character portraits in an exploration of what it means to be human.

"We chose this show for the Classics because it has all the great hallmarks of a Classics show," said Artistic Director Jason Alberty, "a gorgeous outdoor setting, compelling characters, a classic literary pedigree, and themes that reach out to all of us."

Sponsored by Rockwell Collins and the Corridor Business Journal, The Night of the Iguana features a cast of the area's finest actors. Ten return to the Classics stage, including Heather Akers, Richie Akers, Megan Turner Ginsberg, Scott Humeston, Jim Kropa, Nathan Nelson, Marty Norton, Katy Slaven, Hannah Spina, and Len Struttmann. Making their Classics debut are Andrew Clancey, Olivia Frisch, Kivan Kirk, and Skyler Mathias.

Audiences for the Classics at Brucemore are encouraged to bring lawn chairs, blankets, picnics, and beverages to enjoy pre-show revelry from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m.  A trio from Mariachi de Colores, an Iowa based ensemble founded in 2010, will enhance the experience and set the tone for the show with traditional music. The full ensemble numbers 11 musicians from Mexico, Panama, and the United States. For more information about the band, please contact the director of Mariachi de Colores, Ed East, at (319) 504-2122.

Advance tickets are $18 for adults and $15 for Brucemore members and students. All tickets at the gate are $20.  Tickets may be purchased at the Brucemore Store or by calling (319) 362-7375. Parking is available on the grounds. For additional information, please visit the Brucemore website, www.brucemore.org.

The Classics at Brucemore began as collaboration between Torchlight Theatrics and Brucemore in 1996, thus launching outdoor theatre in Eastern Iowa. The Classics celebrates a rich history of quality live theatre, from Greek tragedy to Shakespearean comedy and twentieth  century American drama. Much more than a play performed outdoors, the Classics fully utilizes the site as the natural amphitheater provides a lush backdrop and the outdoor environment is incorporated into the action ? actors emerge from the woods, get dunked in the pond, and help themselves to the audience's picnics.

Experience Brucemore, an unparalleled blend of tradition and culture, located at 2160 Linden Drive SE, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. At the heart of the historic 26-acre estate stands a nineteenth-century mansion filled with the stories of three Cedar Rapids families.  Concerts, theater, programs, and tours enliven the site and celebrate the heritage of a community.  For more information, call (319) 362-7375 or visit www.brucemore.org. 

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The Junior Board of Rock Island Supports Children's Program

Rock Island, IL - The Junior Board of Rock Island has awarded a $1,000 grant to lend financial support to Christian Care's Children's Advocacy Program. "We are thankful that the Junior Board of Rock Island has made it possible for Christian Care to provide therapeutic services for children," said Dr. Elaine Winter, the organization's executive director. "Children who come to our domestic violent shelter with their mothers need our help if they are to grow up to be happy and healthy with prospects for a bright future ahead. We are very grateful that the Junior Board of Rock Island shares our vision to help the 50 or more children who will reside at Christian Care this year."

Christian Care is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization operating two facilities?a domestic violence shelter for women and children and a rescue mission for homeless men. It serves homeless individuals, victims of domestic violence, veterans, men and women coming out of prison, and those with mental illnesses.

For all those who need a meal, Christian Care's Community Meal Site is located at its Rescue Mission, 2209 3rd Avenue, Rock Island. It is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner on weekdays Monday through Friday, and for breakfast and dinner on Saturday and Sunday. Breakfast is served at 6:30 a.m., lunch at 12:15 p.m., and dinner at 6:30 p.m. If you know of someone in need, call the Christian Care Crisis Hotline any hour of the day at (309) 788-2273 or visit online at christiancareqc.org.

As World War II ignited in Europe, the woman who would eventually bring Eli Nussbaum into the world was already a young mother with a husband and a little boy.

The family lived in Poland, part of the largest population of Jews in Europe before the war. As the Nazis invaded her country in 1939, Bella-Rachel Liebermench placed her toddler son in the protection of a monastery.

Eventually, she and her husband would be transported to a concentration camp, where he would die and she would survive torture and deprivation. She would never again find her first little boy.

That story is at the heart of a new novel, The Promise (www.elinussbaum.com), by Nussbaum, now one of the United States' premiere pediatric pulmonologists.

"In writing a novel, I was able to truly immortalize my family's stories because a novel is something that will be read by many more people than just my family," Nussbaum says. "Having a record of a family, like a family tree or what a  genealogist might prepare, is important, but few strangers will want to curl up on a sofa with that and read."

Nussbaum says adult children need to think creatively about how they preserve and pass along their parents' stories. Documenting names, dates and milestones is fine, but the audience for that is limited. Recounting the events that shaped your parents' lives, and their reactions to them, not only preserves their legacies, Nussbaum says, it can provide illustrative and cautionary tales for the world at large.

He suggests:

• Make a StoryCorps recording: StoryCorps is a non-profit organization that has collected and archived more than 40,000 interviews since 2003. Anyone can share their story; it will be archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress and participants receive a CD of their recording. Go to www.storycorps.org, find the location nearest you and make a reservation. Bring a friend or loved one - someone who will either appreciate your story or whose story you want to share - and think about the story you want to tell. Staff at the recording sight will help you; the process takes about 40 minutes.

• Create a digital slide show with soundtrack: Photos set to music are an entertaining and often emotional way to share a story. Don't try to tell a whole life's story in one slideshow - that's more like watching someone's old home movies. Instead, choose an interesting time, event or story to share. As you compile photos, music and narration, remember, you don't want to create a photo album, you want to tell a story. So you should have a beginning, middle and end. Your finished product should be no more than two to three minutes long. Caption the photos with names, dates and places. There are numerous public sites online to share your show.

Nussbaum notes that he wrote his novel after his parents' deaths; he knew the stories, so he didn't have to rely on his parents to re-tell them. Those whose parents are still living should involve them in the process, if possible. With StoryCorps, for example, parents can share their stories in their own words.

"The older generations are beginning to pass away," he notes. "For example, in Israel, where I am also a citizen, a study of Holocaust survivors found that by 2015, 66 percent of the survivors in that country will be over 80 years old, and their numbers will have shrunk from 240,000 to 144,000.

"It's important to preserve their legacy now. If your parents are already gone, you need to do it before you can't remember their stories."

About Eliezer Nussbaum, M.D.

Eliezer Nussbaum, M.D., was born in Katowice, Poland; his father lost his first wife and four children in the Holocaust and his mother lost her first husband and son. He is a professor of Clinical Pediatrics Step VII at the University of California and Chief of Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine and Medical Director of Pediatric Pulmonary and Cystic Fibrosis Center at Memorial Miller Children's Hospital of Long Beach. He has authored two novels, three non-fiction books and more than 150 scientific publications, and was named among the top U.S. doctors by US News and World Report in 2011-12.