Agri-Energy Roundtable (AER) is a nonprofit and non-governmental organization accredited by the United Nations and established in 1980 as a forum for encouraging dialogue on cooperative energy and agricultural development between industrialized and developing nations. AER conducts international conferences, regional seminars and workshops, trade missions and technical assistance for the formation of autonomous indigenous counterpart associations.
Origins
Undertaken as a conference project in mid-1979, the agri-energy concept evolved into an independent forum following a New Orleans meeting held February 7–9, 1980 which attracted business and government leaders from energy-surplus nations. The first conference benefited from the Carter Administration’s Soviet grain embargo - announced weeks earlier - which created unprecedented congestion at the Port of New Orleans. Undersecretary of Agriculture Dale E. Hathaway keynoted the event which attracted major agricultural interest, including the American Farm Bureau Federation, as well as media exposure nationally. Among the corporate sponsors was the chairman of Occidental Petroleum Corporation- Dr. Armand Hammer.
AER was formally incorporated in March 1980 by Nicholas Everett Hollis as a non-profit association. Hollis had conceived organized and conducted the New Orleans conference. and recognized the potential for a forum. Later, AER produced a publication entitled “The Agri-Energy Roundtable 1980- U.S. Agribusiness and the Energy-Rich Nations: Partners for Agricultural Development in the ‘80s”. The document featured themes of trilateral development Hollis had championed while in the State Department as well as a compilation of papers presented at the conference Hollis also used contacts in the Mid-East to advance the AER and helped organize an Egyptian agricultural conference in Alexandria in July.
Building a multilateral forum
Determined to broaden AER's international profile, Hollis mobilized European contacts and began organizing a program in Switzerland with encouragement from US Senator Jennings Randolph and Dr. Armand Hammer. These plans were also advanced in the Arab world following a speech before the General Union of Arab Chambers of Commerce on February 3 in Kuwait.
During AER's Geneva conference April 27–29 at the Intercontinental Hotel Senator Randolph presided over a gathering which included Occidental Petroleum's president A. Robert Abboud, Dr. Satmoko Soedirdjo, Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Warren Lebeck, president of the Chicago Board of Trade, Edgard Pisani, European Commissioner and member of the Brandt Commission, Chief Alhaji Bamalli, a Nigerian agribusiness leader and many others.
In July AER organized a Capitol Hill luncheon for Dr. Hammer and Senator Randolph at which more than a dozen senators participated. Later that year AER conducted meetings for advisory committees in Washington and Geneva- and hosted a one-day conference on agricultural training with the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in December.
Further progress
By spring 1982 AER was gathering recognition in the energy-surplus nations, particularly in the Middle East. The third annual AER held in Geneva May 23–26 produced a breakthrough with Saudi minister for agriculture and water Dr. A. Al-Sheikh and Senator Randolph forging a head table dialogue – and a pledge for continued cooperation on agricultural exchanges. Later that year AER organized a seminar of barter/counter-trade in agriculture and formed a subcommittee on these trade finance issues.
In November, AER produced a worldwide mission linked with four independent conferences in Riyadh, Singapore, Bangkok and Hawaii. The final conference was held at the Maui Intercontinental, with a keynote speech by Robert O. Anderson, chairman of Atlantic Richfield and AER began attracting more corporate sponsors.
In early February 1983 Senator Randolph hosted another Capitol Hill luncheon with featured speaker Robert O. Anderson discussing the overvalued dollar and its negative impact on U.S. trade to an audience in the Senate Russell building which included Paul Volcker, Federal Reserve Board chairman, Jacques d. Rosiere, head of the IMF, a number of senators and business leaders. Later, that spring Randolph and Anderson teamed up at the fourth AER (May 23–26) to spark another program success which included representatives from the People's Republic of China (PRC) The conference was reported in the London Observer newspaper.