Stay Informed

The culmination of the 2017 Farm Bureau national policy process occurred at the American Farm Bureau convention on Jan. 9. The AFBF delegate session took place during the annual meeting, held in Nashville, Tennessee, and several INFB policy recommendations were adopted into the AFBF policy book.

Nearly 350 state delegates voted on more than 180 policy recommendations during the session. Indiana, represented by 14 delegates, introduced 12 recommendations and six of them were approved by the delegate body. The accepted recommendations made changes to the immigration, national dairy program, national farm policy, livestock and poultry health, and inspection and grading of meat, poultry and seafood products sections of AFBF policy.

“I’m very proud of the work our members put into the policy process this year,” said Randy Kron, INFB president. “It’s amazing to see the thoughtful work that goes into creating policy at the county level and then watching the results of that work brought before the state delegates at the national policy meeting.”

Listed below are the recommendations proposed by Indiana that were accepted during the AFBF annual meeting:

Immigration

We support greater transparency in the process of establishing the average wage rate for agricultural workers.

National Dairy Program

We oppose any food labeled as “milk” that does not come from the mammary glands of a mammal.

National Farm Policy

We support the use of a longer deadline period for Conservation Compliance First Time Farmer exceptions.

Livestock and Poultry Health

We support the development of a core animal disease surveillance, control and eradication program to prevent the introduction of foreign or emerging animal diseases and poultry diseases and pests into this country and to control and eradicate those that exist. (The INFB policy recommendation was to add the word “surveillance” to this existing policy.)

We support that any producer checkoff or assessment to fund a national livestock disease surveillance or eradication program be subject to producer oversight and/or contain a mandatory sunset provision.

Inspection and Grading of Meat, Poultry and Seafood Products

We oppose the expansion of exemptions from the federal meat inspection standards.

More about the AFBF delegate session is available on AFBF’s website in the newsroom section.