GRAND RAPIDS — There's always another meeting, another stop Ben LaCross must make.
Yet, he wouldn’t change a thing: It’s those grassroots meetings that drive meaningful change and progress within the organization. Heck, LaCross was only 23 years old when he attended his first Young Farmer meeting.
“I felt like within Michigan Farm Bureau, I could make a difference — first at a Young Farmer level and now at a bigger level,” said LaCross, who operates LaCross Farms with his wife, Kelsey, their two sons, Keaton and Cameron, daughter Lauren, and his parents, Glenn and Judy. Their 850-acre Leelanau County operation produces tart cherries, sweet cherries and plums.
“Somebody asked me to go to a Young Farmer meeting, so I went to my first Young Farmer meeting and saw the passion the other Farm Bureau members had for agriculture, for policy and for the organization,” LaCross continued.
“I knew that I had found my home.”
In Grand Rapids, a year after being named the 17th president of Michigan Farm Bureau, LaCross can be seen speed-walking through the DeVos Performance Hall in a notched-lapel blue suit, mingling with members, talking to politicians, and interacting with young farmers.
His smile never fades. His 10,000-step-per-day State Annual Meeting workout is now routine.
“It's a humbling experience to be the Farm Bureau president — to represent farmers from across the state of Michigan,” LaCross told Michigan Farm News during the organization’s 106th State Annual Meeting.
He said policy begins with county Farm Bureaus and ends at the national level during the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual meeting. Take recently approved delegate policy calling for AFBF to do a deep dive into tariff impacts on farmers, or MFB wins on labor wage reform and Michigan Agricultural Environmental Assistance Program reauthorization.
“Our farmers should know that Michigan Farm Bureau is working really diligently to take their voices to policy makers in Lansing and in Washington, D.C.,” LaCross said. “This is to ensure that the policies that are being set in our rural towns are going to affect our farmers in a very positive way.”
As his daughter introduced him to the stage on Dec. 3 for his first president’s speech, LaCross had to pause, reflect.
“That was harder than I thought it would be,” he told the crowd of nearly 800 MFB members.
Eighteen minutes later, his speech concluded. Attendees stood, clapped.
LaCross had found his home.
Learn more about LaCross and this year’s State Annual Meeting in the video above.