I got word this morning that Ohio is joining the National Corn Growers Association and nine other state corn organizations in launching the Corn Growers Coalition, an alliance dedicated to educating policy-makers in Washington about how innovative farmers are growing more corn every year with fewer resources while protecting the environment.

Citing last year’s well-documented food versus fuel debate as the impetus for the new group, the coalition today launches a Web site, an advertising campaign and a statistical abstract on America’s biggest crop.

“Washington needs to know that corn farmers are using some of the most advanced technologies on the planet to do more with less — to grow more corn using fewer resources every year,” said Mark Lambert, director of the coalition. “American corn farmers, the majority of them small business people, are among the most productive in the world.”

The coalition will meet with reporters, think tanks and members of Congress to talk about what’s ahead: how U.S. farmers, using the latest technologies, will continue to grow enough corn in an environmentally friendly way to meet all our needs; the prospects for making the farm bill more responsive to the market; and the future of renewable fuels, a vital issue for our economy and national security and a key issue for the new administration.

This is an interesting play on the behalf of OCGA, NCGA, and their partners. As my friend and fellow agriblogger Chuck Zimmerman pointed out, this has been the week for moves in the grain/biofuels organization biz following last week’s announcement about the Global Renewable Fuels Alliance and Tom Buis moving from NFU to Growth Energy. Growth Energy, by the way, also signed General Wesley Clark as a major player on their team.