Stallman, continued
our fight for rational regulations that allow farmers to
continue feeding America,” Stallman said.
“The progress we’ve made speaks to our grassroots
strength, our strategic focus and our credibility as the
nation’s Voice of Agriculture.”
On the regulatory front, securing farmers’ and
ranchers’ privacy is a growing concern, as are attempts
to challenge farmers’ ability to use modern technology
to increase crop yields and food quality.
“Instead of focusing
on how to feed more
and more people with
existing land and water,
and instead of allowing
us to use food staples
to address nutritional
deficiencies in lessdeveloped countries,
some are intent on
standing in the way,”
Stallman said of state
legislation and ballot
initiatives that would
require labels for foods
made with biotech
ingredients or even ban
the use of biotechnology
outright.
Stallman highlighted West Virginia poultry
grower Lois Alt’s court battle against EPA’s
unlawful water regulations as a testament to the
powerful results that can be achieved when people
work for the good of the whole.
“Whether it’s a regulatory, legal or legislative issue,
just think how much Farm Bureau could achieve
if everyone was like Lois Alt – taking a long-term
Lois and Tony Alt receive a standing ovation from attendees at the 2014 AFBF Annual
Convention
With the Environmental Protection Agency late last
year putting the wheels in motion to propose extending
federal regulatory authority to nearly every body of
water in the country – and ultimately regulating socalled “waters” that aren’t even wet most of the time –
farmers and ranchers are bracing for a fight.
Farm Bureau has also been working through
the courts to stop EPA’s attempts to broaden its
regulatory reach.
Disappointed with a loss in its case against the
EPA’s Chesapeake Bay pollution limit rules, AFBF,
along with Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, has appealed
the ruling.
view and taking a stand for America’s farmers and
ranchers,” he said.
One challenge that Farm Bureau has turned into an
opportunity is the aging demographic in agriculture.
Farm Bureau’s rural development initiatives – like
the organization’s partnership with the Department
of Agriculture on Start to Farm and its support for
the recently launched Farmer Veteran Coalition – put
beginning farmers and ranchers on the path to success.
Stallman encouraged Farm Bureau members to take
part in the Farmer Veteran Coalition’s effort to help
create opportunities on farms for those returning from
the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“Once again, we are saddled-up for the long ride in
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