The 2012 Commodity Classic closed out its first full day at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville last night. Charles Hall, CEO of the North Carolina Soybean Producers Association says that it appears that all of the 5,000 plus registrants showed up:
“It’s a big, big place in the Gaylord Opryland, it is packed with farmers. I’d say that they all showed up and they brought family and spouses…I’d say everybody’s here.”
Hall explains that as things got rolling on Thursday, the four host associations had their national meetings:
“There was an early morning session with the Hefty brothers, and they’re always very popular at the Commodity Classic, so I know a lot of the farmers got up and listened to the Hefty brothers, that was one of the first things that happened. Jolene Brown spoke, mid morning, we were involved with our soybean association’s annual policy review, so a lot of our farmers were actually working, they were working on the policy resolutions for the year for the American Soybean Association, so we actually spent some of the morning in meetings. The trade show just opened, all the farmers and families will be in there for the afternoon looking at the trade show exhibits.”
On Thursday evening, American Soybean Association held their political action group auction event:
“The American Soybean Association has their annual PAC auction, which is an extremely lively event, and it raises money for the national soy PAC, to contribute to candidates that support soybean farmers. And it has a live auction, an auctioneer that’s from Tennessee, who’s also a soybean farmer is the and also a silent auction, it’s really a nice event, and it raises a lot of money.”
As far as today, Hall says there’ll never be a dull moment:
“The main event session, the general session, where all the farmers from all the associations congregate, and they hear from the respective leaders of their national associations and also from the US Secretary of Agriculture will speak, and then they will have some motivational speakers getting the crowd all excited. So, you have a little fun, a little policy a little perspective on the different industries, and then you break and have a nice lunch in the trade show floor.”
Hall says that North Carolina is well represented at this year’s Classic:
“North Carolina has a very strong delegation here, representing all of the commodities, I’ve seen a lot of them, and they’re certainly here representing farmers and a combination of discovering things about the industry and working on policy and working on challenges and just sharing some fellowship with farmers from other states.”
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