American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall touted many of his organization’s successes in a speech at its annual convention but pressed members for more action on a long list of the group’s priorities.
The speech offers a preview of the issues the nation’s largest farm organization plans to highlight throughout 2024 including the farm bill, the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act, implementation of California’s Proposition 12, climate regulations and more. Duvall, in his fourth term as Farm Bureau’s leader, said chief among those issues is reauthorizing the farm bill.
“I know we need to get through the budget process, but we also need to tell Congress it’s urgent to pass a new, modernized farm bill,” Duvall said in his speech.
He said about 2,300 AFBF members traveled to Capitol Hill in 2023 to lobby for a new farm bill. The organization is running a postcard drive at this week’s convention in Salt Lake City to press for farm bill action yet this year. “We need to get even louder,” he said.
After his remarks, Duvall told reporters a failure to address commodity program supports would be “devastating” to producers.
“If they don't do that and you look at what our farmers have faced over the last four years since the last farm bill was passed … the pandemic, the increased cost of production, the targets within title one have to be modernized if it's going to be a true safety net,” he said. The farm bill, he added, “needs to have more farm in it. And we need to make sure that … farm programs help a farmer survive critical times that he faces to get to the next year to plan another crop.”
Duvall also cheered the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision to strike down the “significant nexus” test to determine what constitutes a Water of the United States and thus fall under the purview of the Clean Water Act. But he also said Environmental Protection Agency's new WOTUS definition, while “technically” complying with the high court’s ruling, “still doesn’t provide the clarity we’ve been calling for.
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“You can bet we’ll keep working to protect you from the threat of penalties for simply farming your land,” he said.
Farm Bureau, a founding member of the Food and Agriculture Climate Alliance, was also called to the White House for climate-related discussions twice in 2023, something Duvall hailed as monumental progress.
“Now, leaders and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are inviting farmers to the table to help create these solutions,” Duvall said.
“It’s all about treating farmers as partners,” he added. “We've come a long way in a few years, but that is the power of leadership.”
The organization also sent 6,000 messages from its grassroots network to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is considering language that would expand climate reporting requirements of publicly traded companies. Duvall said in conversations with SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, “he has assured me that he heard our message loud and clear. And, he didn’t just tell me, he has publicly stated that he agrees with us that farmers shouldn’t get tangled up in it.”
But the organization was unable to achieve one of its top recent priorities when the Supreme Court ruled against overturning California’s Proposition 12 animal housing law, which sets production parameters for pork, eggs and veal sold in the state no matter where it is produced. Duvall said Farm Bureau is “not giving up” on the issue as producers around the country “must navigate state laws that ignore science and veterinary guidance.”
Duvall also touched on the lingering issue of Federal Milk Marketing Order reform. He said AFBF economists and members were “making a compelling case about reforms needed to help dairy farmers succeed.”
Finally, Duvall — a vocal advocate for rural mental health — announced new Farm Bureau partnerships to offer peer-to-peer networks to address mental health challenges and offer additional counseling free of charge through a partnership with the Farm Family Wellness Alliance. AFBF is also part of a new public service announcement campaign with the Ad Council that includes a producer’s personal mental health story.
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