12 CapitalPress.com
January 12, 2018
American Farm Bureau Federation
Regulation-averse Farm Bureau
policies more realistic under Trump
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. —
Many of the policy recom-
mendations voted upon by
the American Farm Bureau
Federation’s regional del-
egates at the end of annual
conventions once seemed
unrealistic.
After all, how likely was
it that the Obama adminis-
tration would sharply curtail
regulations on labor practic-
es, pesticide usage and bio-
technology?
With a regulation-averse
Trump administration and
Republican-controlled Con-
gress, however, these policy
positions may not be so out-
landish anymore.
For example, during the
Jan. 9 business session held
at the organization’s con-
vention here, the delegates
recommended repealing the
Obama-era “Worker Protec-
tion Standards” that imposed
stricter conditions on pesti-
cides.
They also decided the
U.S. Department of Labor
should provide seven days
notice before performing a
labor audit and that wages
under the H-2A farm guest-
worker program should be
lowered to better reflect local
conditions and reduce the fi-
nancial burden on growers.
Such goals are largely
“aspirational,” but it’s not
unfeasible for such federal
rules to be mitigated, said
Paul Schlegel, AFBF’s dep-
uty director of public policy.
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency has an-
nounced that it may revise
several key provisions of the
Worker Protection Standards
and release them for public
comment by September, he
said.
The Farm Bureau is hope-
ful that EPA will allow states
Courtesy American Farm Bureau Federation
AFBF President Zippy Duvall and Vice President Scott Vander-
Wal preside over the organization’s policy session during this
week’s national convention.
to determine the appropriate
age at which workers apply
pesticides, down from the
Obama-era minimum of 18
years, Schlegel said.
The agency may also
change pesticide spray ex-
clusion zones, which cur-
rently require buffers that
effectively take land out of
production, to make the rules
more workable for farmers,
he said.
It’s particularly important
for EPA to revise the “des-
ignated representative” rule,
which forces farmers to re-
lease two years of pesticide
records to designated repre-
sentatives of farmworkers,
he said.
As it’s currently worded,
the provision could easily
be exploited by anti-pesti-
cide groups to sow fear about
spraying certain chemicals,
Schlegel said.
As for labor regulations,
such as the seven day notice
before DOL audits, farmers
just want to be treated fairly
and not have the agency put
them in a “gotcha” situation,
he said.
Such recommended poli-
cies aren’t intended to allow
growers to skirt the rule of
law, Schlegel said. “I don’t
think growers are looking for
a get out of jail card.”
Some policy recommen-
dations proved more contro-
versial than others during the
Jan. 9 voting session.
A couple delegates ob-
jected to the recommended
withdrawal of federal funds
from “sanctuary” jurisdic-
tions, which refuse to comply
with federal officers’ requests
to hold illegal immigrants ar-
rested for crimes.
Delegates from California
and New York argued this
policy would be similar to the
sanctions imposed on rogue
nations — they won’t much
hurt the responsible politi-
cians but they will adverse-
ly impact farmers and farm
workers.
Despite these arguments,
the delegates voted to ap-
prove the sanctuary jurisdic-
tion policy.
Changing the Farm Bu-
reau’s policy make manda-
tory “country of origin la-
beling,” or COOL, for meat
also drew diverging opinions.
Under current AFBF policy,
the group prefers COOL to be
voluntary.
Some farmers said that
with President Donald Trump
renegotiating the North
American Free Trade Agree-
ment, or NAFTA, there’s the
opportunity to make Canada
and Mexico agree to this pro-
vision.
Opponents of the proposal
said it would violate World
Trade Organization rules and
potentially disrupt exports,
which are critical for beef
producers right now.
A proponent of the COOL
provision declared, “I don’t
mind wearing a Chinese
T-shirt but I don’t want to eat
a Chinese hamburger.”
While the declaration got a
hearty laugh, delegates voted
against the mandatory COOL
policy.
The Farm Bureau’s exist-
ing policy for solar develop-
ment — which calls for pan-
els to be installed on marginal
or underused land — came
under attack from property
rights-minded farmers.
One delegate said he un-
derstood the intention behind
the provision but was uncom-
fortable with dictating what
other growers should do with
their land.
Another farmer countered
that the policy doesn’t bar
solar development, but sim-
ply suggests it not occur on
high-value farmland.
Solar projects can also be
used as a strategy by the U.S.
Bureau of Land Management
to cancel grazing leases on its
property by declaring the land
underused and then approv-
ing solar facilities, the grower
said.
Ultimately, the delegates
opted to keep the policy rec-
ommending solar develop-
ment on marginal land.
Two votes were entirely
uncontroversial: After prais-
ing AFBF President Zippy
Duvall and Vice President
Scott VanderWal, the dele-
gates unanimously re-elected
the two officers for two more
years.
‘I am proud to stand with you’
TRUMP from Page 1
assets to $11 million, was also
included in the bill despite
being “a tough one to get,” he
said.
Farmers gave Trump a
standing ovation upon men-
tion of the estate tax change,
which led him to comment
that they must love their fam-
ilies.
“It’s not going to help you
much,” he said. “It’s going to
help them a lot.”
Trump briefly touched
on the North American Free
Trade Agreement, saying
that he’s working hard to get
a better deal. NAFTA was
a common target during his
presidential campaign but is
generally popular in agricul-
ture.
He took a feistier approach
to immigration, another sensi-
tive subject due to labor short-
ages in agriculture, by reiter-
ating tough stances from his
presidential campaign.
“We are going to end chain
migration, we are going to
end the (visa) lottery system
and we are going to build the
wall,” Trump said.
Looking forward to the
upcoming farm bill negotia-
tions, Trump said he would
push Congress to enact new
legislation before the previ-
ous version expires in 2018.
Trump said he’d insist the
bill should include crop insur-
ance, “unless you don’t want
me to,” he said.
Hearing the audience ap-
plaud, he remarked, “I guess
you like it.”
If the response was less
Farm Bureau grateful to
Trump but anxious on trade
Nation’s largest
farm group meets
in Nashville, Tenn.
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Oregonian runner-up in Farm Bureau YF&R discussion meet
Capital Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. —
Jenny Freeborn of Oregon
was the runner-up in the
Young Farmers & Ranchers
Discussion Meet Jan. 8 at
the American Farm Bureau
Federation’s 2018 Annual
Convention & IDEAg Trade
Show.
“We are so proud of Jen-
ny. She worked very hard for
this and did an outstanding
job representing Oregon,”
said Anne Marie Moss, Ore-
gon Farm Bureau communi-
cations director.
Freeborn, who is from
Rickreall, Ore., was elected
chair of the Oregon Farm
Bureau Young Farmers &
Ranchers Committee in De-
cember. Her father, Dean
Freeborn, is a member of
the Oregon Farm Bureau
board of directors, according
to Moss. Her sister, Kathy
Hadley, has served as YF&R
chair as well.
“Making the Final Four of
this competition was literally
a dream come true for me. It’s
Oregon Farm Bureau
Jenny Freeborn, representing
Oregon, participates in the
Young Farmers & Ranchers
Discussion Meet at the Amer-
ican Farm Bureau Federation
convention in Nashville, Tenn.
She was the runner-up.
something I’ve wanted to do
since I was 15 years old and
participated in an FFA prac-
tice discussion meet,” Free-
born said in an Oregon Farm
Bureau statement. “In 2009,
I was in the audience watch-
ing the Final Four round in
Seattle, and I said to myself,
‘I’m going to be on that stage
someday.’ And yet at the same
time, I never thought it would
actually happen. When my
name was announced for the
Final Four, that was both the
most shocking and proudest
moment of my life.”
As runner-up, Freeborn
will receive a Case IH Far-
mall 50A tractor courtesy of
Case IH.
The discussion meet sim-
ulates a committee meeting
in which active discussion
and participation are expect-
ed. Participants are evaluated
on their ability to exchange
ideas and information on a
predetermined topic, accord-
ing to a Farm Bureau press
release.
In Freeborn’s four rounds
of competition, the topics of
discussion were:
• Round 1 topic: With a
growing demand for U.S.
farm products abroad, how
can agriculture overcome
public skepticism of foreign
trade to negotiate new trade
agreements and open new
world markets?
• Round 2 topic: How can
Farm Bureau help members
with increasing legal and
regulatory obstacles so they
can focus on farming and
ranching?
• Sweet 16 round topic:
How can farmers and ranch-
ers maintain their buying
power with the continued
trend of input supplier and
provider consolidations?
• Final Four round topic:
Farmers are a shrinking per-
centage of the population.
How can Farm Bureau help
first-generation farmers and
ranchers get started in agri-
culture?
Martha Smith of Colora-
do won the discussion meet.
Jared Knock of South Da-
kota placed third, and fourth
place went to Matt Jakubik of
Michigan.
The discussion meet
was held along with the
Young Farmers & Ranch-
ers Achievement Award and
Excellence in Agriculture
competitions, the winners of
which were also announced
Monday.
Farm Bureau members take up immigration reform, farm bill
Agriculture
suffers from labor
shortage, depends
on crop insurance
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Apart from international
trade, the ongoing agricultural
labor shortage and upcoming
farm bill were dominant top-
ics at the American Farm Bu-
reau’s annual convention.
President Donald Trump
campaigned as an immigra-
tion hardliner, but the nation’s
largest farm organization is
hopeful that a deal can be
struck to alleviate agricul-
ture’s labor crunch.
It’s necessary to enforce
the law, but not in a way that
would stop many farmers
from doing business, said Zip-
py Duvall, the Farm Bureau’s
president.
Dairy pro-
ducers,
for
example, can
lose a signif-
icant portion
of their work-
Rep.
force when
Jerry Moran U.S. Immi-
gration and
Customs Enforcement offi-
cers come looking for a single
criminal employee, he said.
Congress should pass a bill
that would allow U.S. farm-
ers to legally access workers
from other countries where
they’re abundant, Duvall said.
When asked if Trump
stands to lose a large propor-
tion of his strongest support-
ers by signing such a bill,
Duvall said the president is a
businessman who understands
the industry’s need for labor.
The introduction of a bill
by Rep. Robert Goodlatte,
R-Va., which would create a
new farm guestworker pro-
gram, shows there’s a desire in
Congress to address the prob-
lem, Duvall said.
Even so, it’s probably go-
ing to be difficult to separate
the farm labor shortage issue
from the broader controversy
about immigration, he said.
“We’d like to deal with
agricultural labor first,” said
Duvall. “But I don’t think the
country is going to let us do
that without immigration re-
form.”
As for the farm bill, the
Farm Bureau expects to advo-
cate to the Trump administra-
tion about the importance of
crop insurance, without which
many farmers would be unable
to secure operating loans, he
said,
“Of course, Congress is go-
ing to write that bill,” Duvall
said.
Farm bills are passed peri-
odically by Congress to update
programs that assist farmers
and provide food assistance to
the needy.
When promoting the need
for the farm bill, growers
should avoid explaining it as a
“safety net,” he said.
When described that way,
people in other industries won-
der why they aren’t entitled to
a similar protections, he said.
“We have to stop calling it
a safety net and start calling it
what it is: a food security bill,”
Duvall said.
Legislation aimed at pro-
viding aid to cotton and dairy
producers who suffered from
natural disasters last year will
likely serve as a prelude to the
overall farm bill, said Sen. Jer-
ry Moran, R-Kan.
“It will be a sense we’ve
at least gotten those two is-
sues out of the way,” he said.
The current farm bill
will expire in 2018, but that
doesn’t necessarily set a
deadline for the legislation,
which has routinely been de-
layed in the past, Moran said.
enthusiastic, he joked, “forget
it.”
Growers can also look for-
ward to road and infrastruc-
ture projects being completed
“under budget and on sched-
ule,” Trump said, urging them
to follow these developments
on his Twitter account.
“It’s the only way to get
around the media,” he said.
“Fake media.”
At the conclusion of his
speech, Trump told the crowd
they could anticipate a new
era of patriotism and pride
under his tenure.
“I am proud to stand with
you, and I will be standing
with you for many years to
come,” he said.
The event was punctu-
ated by Trump signing two
presidential orders aimed at
improving rural broadband
service. USDA Secretary
Sonny Perdue also presented
the president with the findings
from his Interagency Task
Force on Agriculture and Ru-
ral Prosperity.
The report recommends
improving “e-connectivity”
to increase rural productivity
with high-speed internet ac-
cess, enhancing rural quality
of life with modern utilities,
transportation and housing, as
well as providing training and
other services to develop the
rural workforce.
“Harnessing technological
innovation” in agriculture,
manufacturing and other in-
dustries is also recommended
in the report, as is overall eco-
nomic development through
tourism, energy, logging and
technology.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. —
Make no mistake about it:
The folks at the American
Farm Bureau Federation are
grateful to President Donald
Trump.
For agriculture, the atmo-
sphere in the nation’s capital
has much improved in the
year that Trump has been in
office, said Zippy Duvall,
the organization’s president,
during the Jan. 7 opening ses-
sion of its annual convention
in Nashville, Tenn.
“There’s no question we
have a seat at the table in this
Trump administration,” he
said.
Duvall went on to recount
the blessings that Trump has
bestowed on agriculture.
Foremost is the pending
rescission of the Obama ad-
ministration’s “waters of the
U.S.” rule, or WOTUS, which
the Farm Bureau feared
would expand federal Clean
Water Act jurisdiction.
“Our land is our heritage
and nothing gets us more riled
up than when someone comes
onto our land and tells us how
to do a job we’ve been doing
for generations,” Duvall said.
The installation of Scott
Pruitt to head the Environ-
mental Protection Agency
has restored a sense of com-
mon sense stewardship to that
agency, he said.
Likewise, the reduction in
size of certain national mon-
uments by Interior Secretary
Ryan Zinke has reassured
ranchers who depend on those
public lands for grazing, Du-
vall said.
Under the direction of
USDA Secretary Sonny Per-
due, the Interagency Task
Force on Agriculture and Ru-
ral Prosperity will scale back a
federal bureaucracy that stands
in the way of a thriving farming
industry, he said.
“He knows how to farm in
the face of bad weather, bad
markets and bad regulations,”
Duvall said.
Beneath this jubilation,
though, was an undercurrent
of anxiety about where the ad-
ministration may be heading
on international trade — par-
ticularly regarding the North
American Free Trade Agree-
ment, or NAFTA, which low-
ered trade barriers between the
U.S., Canada and Mexico.
Before the opening ses-
sion was held, for example,
large buttons proclaiming, “I
Support NAFTA,” “I Support
Trade,” and “Farmer For Free
Trade,” were placed on every
seat in the ballroom.
Trump has already proven
he’s willing to act boldly on
trade by withdrawing from
the Trans-Pacific Partnership,
a 12-nation trade deal forged
during the Obama administra-
tion.
During his presidential
campaign, Trump disparaged
NAFTA for sending U.S. jobs
overseas. Upon becoming
president, he was persuaded
not to dissolve the agreement
in favor of revising it.
Duvall said the president
had promised him and oth-
er agriculture leaders that
NAFTA will be renegotiated
to be even more beneficial for
American farmers, who export
heavily to Canada and Mexi-
co.
“I take the president at his
word,” he said.
During a later press confer-
ence, though, Duvall acknowl-
edged the farm industry is
“nervous” about the possibil-
ity of the NAFTA talks going
awry.
“Nobody really knows
what is going on behind closed
doors,” he said.
It’s also troubling the U.S. is
focused on renegotiating an old
trade deal like NAFTA, which
was enacted more than 20 years
ago, while other countries are
actively pursuing new agree-
ments, he said. “We’re very
concerned about that.”
Duvall said he planned to
ask Trump to reassure the in-
dustry about international trade
during the president’s Jan. 8 ad-
dress to the Farm Bureau.
The organization also came
upon another idea to nudge
Trump toward seeing the trade
issue its way.
In a cavernous hall packed
with Farm Bureau members,
Duvall and other several em-
ployees instructed the growers
to engage with the president us-
ing his preferred mode of com-
munication: Twitter.
Ultimately, more than
2,300 members connected
their smartphones to a Farm
Bureau website and sent out
a tweet that alerted the pres-
ident to a message: “Donald
Trump delivered from Day
1. Keep working on issues
BENEFITING farmers &
ranchers: Trade, RegReform,
Farm Bill #AFBF18.”