Farm Bureau membership makes difference on issues like climate change, immigration, says AFBF president during state visit
Contact: Mike Wenkel, (800) 292-2680, ext. 3232
LANSING, Feb. 5, 2010 - Farm Bureau is on the front lines of some of the most heated political debates in America, including climate change legislation, the estate tax and immigration reform, and key to the organization's arsenal are Farm Bureau members whose voices are even more vital this election year.
That's according to American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) President Bob Stallman, a rice and cattle farmer from Columbus, Texas, who met with nearly 500 individuals along his 504-mile trek across southern Michigan on Feb. 2 to visit seven county Farm Bureaus for MFB's Membership Day, kicking off the MFB 2010 membership campaign.
"You hear a lot about money being the currency of politics. That's not really true. The currency of politics is the votes. It's the people who are willing to get out and vote... and that's where the (membership) numbers really count, and that's what has given Farm Bureau our strength as an organization," said Stallman during a stop in Coopersville to meet with current and prospective Ottawa County Farm Bureau members.
"We have about 2 million farmers and ranchers in this country and have political clout far in excess of what that 2 million is as a percentage of the 300-plus million people who live in this country because farmers tend to be more active," Stallman said. "Membership for an organization is key...and your involvement in terms of activity is key to us having influence. It's as simple as that."
Stallman's whistle-stop appearances in Ottawa, Berrien, Van Buren, Kalamazoo, Calhoun, Jackson and Wayne counties provided natural backdrops to share how Farm Bureau, with the guidance and resources of its membership, is working to make a difference on issues that threaten agriculture's way of life, including climate change legislation being considered in Congress.
Climate change legislation
"The short version of this is it's bad for U.S. agriculture," said Stallman of the legislation, which would impose mandatory cap-and-trade regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A bill has already passed in the U.S. House and the Senate is considering its own version.
The House bill calls for converting about 60 million acres of farmland used for food production to trees. "And it would put about a $200 billion a year equivalent indirect tax on American consumers because of higher energy costs" and raise farmers' operating expenses, said Stallman. The proposed Senate bill has even worse outcomes for agriculture.
"At the end of the day, even if you think the science on climate change is correct, (the legislation) wouldn't do anything to affect the climate because China and India and other developing countries are saying they're not going to put a stranglehold on their economy to have their carbon emissions capped or cap their energy use; they're going to go ahead whether we do or not. And so that would put us at a very competitive disadvantage," said Stallman.
In an effort to defeat the legislation, AFBF has launched a national campaign called "Don't CAP Our Future" and is asking members to sign the bill of baseball caps - a familiar accessory of the farmer "uniform" - and distribute the signed caps to their Congressional leaders "to make the case that we do not want to pass mandatory cap-and-trade legislation; we oppose it and oppose it for very good reasons relative to its negative effect on agriculture."
Estate tax
Another AFBF campaign is focused on permanent repeal of the federal estate tax or "death tax." The tax has been temporarily repealed this year but is scheduled to return with vengeance in 2011 when the exemption will drop from the 2009 level of $3.5 million to $1 million, affecting many more people, and the top tax rate will rise from the 2009 level of 45 percent to 55 percent.
The estate tax has been a longtime burden which has threatened the ability of families to transition farms from one generation to the next. The problem is the value of a farm operation that is big enough to support a multi-generational family often exceeds the estate tax exemption. An estimated 80 percent of farm assets are land based, so when estate taxes exceed cash and other liquid assets on hand, surviving family members can be forced to sell land, buildings or equipment needed to keep the farm operational.
"It's an immoral tax and unfair tax," said Stallman, recounting his firsthand experience dealing with the death of his father two years ago and mother a couple weeks ago.
Immigration reform
In spite of double-digit unemployment across the nation, farmers remain challenged to find individuals willing to perform on-farm labor and seasonal jobs, hence the industry's continued reliance on guest workers. Efforts to pass immigration reform, including an agricultural guest worker program, have stalled in Congress and Stallman acknowledges that reaching a resolution this year doesn't look promising.
Still, AFBF is "going to work to see if we can have an adequate guest worker program that meets the needs of U.S. agriculture, that's there for the long term, and also deals with the problem of those who are here but who aren't legally documented but have been here for a long time," he said. "It's a complicated issue, but at the end of the day the solution has to involve us having an adequate guest worker program for the long term."
Elections
No matter the issue, Stallman advised members to feel empowered in evaluating political candidates this election season.
"In deciding who you're going to support for public office get specific answers," he said. "Don't let them do the warm, fuzzy 'I love agriculture.' Get them to tell you what they're going to do and the specific policies they're going to support...Be sure they are providing the right answers to the questions you need to ask on behalf of yourself and on behalf of modern agriculture before you give your support."
Membership Day
In addition to the seven county Farm Bureaus Stallman visited, another 10 also held membership kickoff events that same day. Combined, the 17 events involved approximately 800 individuals, and 40 new Farm Bureau members were signed that day. The remainder of Michigan's 67 county Farm Bureaus will hold kickoff activities in coming weeks.
A two-part video of Stallman's appearance at the Ottawa County Farm Bureau membership kickoff is available to view on MFB's YouTube channel, http://www.youtube.com/MichiganFarmBureau.
-30-
Editor's Note: A downloadable photo of American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) President Bob Stallman is available at http://www.michfb.com/files/2010/01-21_President_Stallman.jpg. His complete biography is online in the newsroom section of the AFBF Web site, http://www.fb.org. Larger versions of the photos shown here are available at http://www.michfb.com/files/2010/Hank_ChoateRoni_Bob_Stallman.jpg and http://www.michfb.com/files/2010/Stallman_speaking_1.jpg
