By Glenn Brunkow, Pottawatomie County farmer and rancher
Not too long ago I had the privilege of representing Kansas Farm Bureau at the American Farm Bureau Federation Convention in San Antonio. For any of you who have never attended an annual meeting, it would be my hope that someday you might get that opportunity. If you do you should jump on it as fast as you can.
This year’s meeting was very good, and I have many takeaways from it. However, the one I keep going back to is the same one I have each year. I am always amazed at just how vast and different agriculture is across the country, and it’s all represented by the members of the American Farm Bureau Federation.
I talked to a potato grower from Idaho, a rancher from Wyoming and a peanut farmer from Georgia all in one day. I also met a cherry grower from Michigan, crop farmer from Wisconsin and a dairy farmer from Maryland. That is about as diverse as it gets, and it is a good representation of all the various kinds of agriculture at the American Farm Bureau Federation table.
At the annual meeting we discussed issues brought forward from state Farm Bureaus about dairy, honeybees, wheat, beef and just about every other commodity you can think of. We discussed conservation, water, trade, the farm bill and transportation, just to name a few topics. That is just a sampling of what makes the American Farm Bureau Federation the best general farm organization.
We had several fascinating discussions on those topics and the ideas and thoughts presented by the members were from many different angles. To be sure, not everyone agreed on what the policy should be, but at the end of that Tuesday afternoon we had hammered out policy positions that met the approval of a majority of the membership.
Did everyone agree? No, but we did come to a consensus.
The best part about the discussions we had was that each one of the proposals had worked its way up from an individual member or county Farm Bureau. It had gone through each state’s unique policy development process, the resolutions committee at the American Farm Bureau Federation and finally it was presented on the floor of the annual business meeting.
That rigorous journey is what makes the American Farm Bureau such a great organization. We find a way to represent everyone in agriculture no matter what the produce, how they produce it or where they live. Every kind of agriculture is welcome at the table.
It is amazing and comforting to know just how much we all have in common. Our dreams, challenges and hopes are all fundamentally the same. We are all proud producers of the food and fiber this nation and world need. We want to preserve our air, land and water for the next generation. Most of all we love what we do, and that is what you will find in the meeting rooms, hallways and dinner tables.
“Insight” is a weekly column published by Kansas Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization whose mission is to strengthen agriculture and the lives of Kansans through advocacy, education and service.
