AFBF PRESIDENT STALLMAN DELIVERS STRONG MESSAGE TO MEMBERS, CRITICS

News Date January 12, 2010

This week in Seattle, American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) President Bob Stallman addressed his organization’s 91st annual meeting with a strong call to his members regarding climate change, federal spending, and for the overall defense of American farmers and producers.  During his speech, Stallman argued against the “misguided” climate change legislation in Congress, especially with the potential loss of farmland.  “To throttle back our ability to produce food – at a time when the UN projects billions of more mouths to feed – is a moral failure,” Stallman stated. 

Along with climate change, Stallman also discussed the concept of sustainable agriculture, the runaway federal deficit, and the threats to American agriculture from activists and excessive regulation.  In describing the mindset farmers and producers must take for the future, Stallman quotes General George Patton, “He said that in times of war, “Make your plans to fit the circumstances.”  To those who expect to just roll over America’s farm and ranch families, my only message is this: The circumstances have changed.”

Here are a few key points from Stallman’s prepared remarks:

American Farmers: “Agriculture is a business.  You have chosen this life, this lifestyle, this livelihood based on your devotion to the land, your values, and a unique call to stewardship.  Those are key factors overlooked by critics who question our values and our abiding dedication to agriculture.  Unless you experience it, there is no way to comprehend that we literally live our jobs.  We can’t phone it in.  We don’t punch out.  And there is no comp days.  Just strongly about agriculture, we share the same type of deep passion for our nation.  Through thick and thin, we are all Americans.”

Sustainability: “We hear much about “sustainability,” which in my book is the most overused and ill-defined word in the policy arena today.  The first sustainability for agriculture has to be economic sustainability.”

Climate Change Legislation:  “…the climate change legislation before Congress will sharply cut the number of acres devoted to food production.  At the very time we need to increase our food production, climate change legislation threatens to slash our ability to do so.  The exact level of land that will shift to trees will depend on the price of carbon – a number nobody knows at this point – but USDA suggests we could easily be talking about 59 million acres.  That’s like setting aside every acre of land used for crop and food production in California, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Tennessee…The United States would be less able to provide the world a viable hunger safety net.  Food prices here at home would shoot up.  The result?  Less food security and our climate would not improve, not even by one degree.”

Federal Spending: “…over the last ten years, if the rest of our federal government experienced the same reduction in budget and spending as we have seen in our agricultural programs, we would have a balanced budget!”

Animal Welfare: “…the Ohio Farm Bureau embraced this attitude by taking the fight to the enemies of modern animal agriculture.  Ohio’s Ballot Issue 2 was a big win and one we must duplicate far and wide…Are we going to let animal rights activists destroy our ability to produce the meat the Americans want to eat? I say: No, we are not!”  (Contact: David Hickey)