NASHVILLE,
Tenn. (DTN) -- Delegates for the American Farm Bureau Federation on Tuesday
voted to add more detail to their farm bill policies for commodity programs,
dairy and conservation compliance, while also adding language to defend some
popular crop insurance policies and voting to increase dues in the national
organization.
Given
the heightened attention of a visit by President Donald Trump on Monday, the
99th annual convention was widely considered a success by staff and the 7,500
or so AFBF members who attended the convention.
Zippy
Duvall, AFBF's president, also was elected unopposed to a second term. Duvall
said the resolution session gave Farm Bureau some direction to help navigate
various issues in the farm bill debate over the next year as Congress tries to
draft and complete a new bill.
"They
gave us some flexibility and reassurance to help write this farm bill,"
Duvall said. "Of course, they reassured and tweaked some areas in cotton
and title I for ARC (the Agricultural Risk Program) and some thoughts around
the dairy programs."
Delegates
voted to improve ARC county yield data by using Risk Management Agency data as
the primary source to determine a more accurate county yield, as long as RMA
data at the farm level is protected from Freedom of Information Act access.
On crop
insurance, Farm Bureau delegates added language to maintain the opportunity to
use the Harvest Price Option. That's a big target for critics of crop insurance
looking to cut spending in the upcoming farm bill. Delegates also specifically
opposed making public crop insurance indemnity payments made to individual
producers as well.
Farm
Bureau also proposed to include a new dairy revenue protection program in the
farm bill that would work with the Livestock Gross Margin Program. Further,
USDA's Risk Management Agency should expand its programs for dairy with the
inclusion of milk as a defined commodity.
AFBF
wants a dairy commodity safety net program that gives farmers the option to
select either a program that provides protection against a decline in milk
prices or a decline in milk margin. The policy proposes increasing the coverage
from 4 million pounds to 5 million pounds of milk for all dairy producers and
also increasing the catastrophic margin for milk producers as well.
Duvall
acknowledged there will be financial challenges ahead for the farm bill, but he
added that the farm bill should be viewed as a food security act "and
Congress needs to decide what it takes to keep our food supply secure for all
Americans, and then go back and figure out what it will cost. If the baseline
needs to be broadened, then Congress needs to step up and do their job to make
sure our food supply is secure and safe."
Delegates
also passed a resolution to increase dues to the national federation by $1 to
offset a $1.5 million budget deficit facing the organization. The deficit is
partially due to Farm Bureau's membership largely flatlining at about 6 million
members. Duvall also said Farm Bureau had lost participation in some income
generators through member programs that had gone away. "Those programs
contributed heavily to our deficit," Duvall said.
The
board of directors proposed a $1 increase in dues to the national organization,
starting in 2019, which would generate around $6 million in dues. The proposal
to increase the national dues to $5 needed a two-thirds vote to pass and got
85% of the delegate vote, 208 to 50.
While
President Trump and congressional negotiators were working Tuesday on how to
resolve some pressing immigration issues, Farm Bureau delegates voted not to
include a policy to encourage Congress to pass legislation providing legal
status for persons currently covered under the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrival (DACA) policy. The motion failed 109 to 184 despite arguments from a
New York delegate that children shouldn't be penalized for the actions of their
parents.
Duvall
said later that AFBF's main immigration focus is to improve the ability to
bring in temporary foreign agricultural labor for farmers who need such workers.