Американская федерация бюро фермеров: крупнейшая сельскохозяйственная лоббистская организация США

Lobbying group in the United States
the lobbying group

The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), more informally called the American Farm Bureau (AFB) or simply the Farm Bureau, is a United States based 501(c)(5) tax exempt agricultural organization and lobbying group. Headquartered in Washington, D. C., the Farm Bureau has affiliates in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Each affiliate is a (state or county) Farm Bureau, and the parent organization is also often called simply the Farm Bureau. Founded in 1919, the AFBF represents the 2 million farms in the United States, and is among the agriculture industry's largest lobby groups. In 2022, the AFBF spent $2,120,000 on lobbying, including for policies benefitting the for profit activities of state farm bureaus, such as federal subsidies for the crop insurance sold by affiliate companies. AFBF itself does not sell insurance, but all but a handful of its non profit state affiliates have affiliated for profit insurance companies. Most of AFBF's revenue comes from dues paid by its nearly 5.9 million members, most of whom are not farmers but insurance customers who pay the dues as a condition of their policies.

The Farm Bureau movement started in 1911 when John Barron, a farmer who graduated from Cornell University, worked as an extension agent in Broome County, New York. He served as a Farm Bureau representative for farmers with the Chamber of Commerce of Binghamton, New York. The effort was financed by the U. S. Department of Agriculture and the Lackawanna Railroad. The Broome County Farm Bureau was soon separated from the Chamber of Commerce. Other farm bureaus later formed in counties across the U. S., as listed with dates at "List of Farm Bureaus". In 1914, with the passage of the Smith–Lever Act of 1914, Congress agreed to share with the states the cost of programs for providing "county agents", who supplied information to farmers on improved methods of animal husbandry and crop production developed by agricultural colleges and experiment stations, which has evolved into the modern day Cooperative Extension Service. In 1915, farmers meeting in Saline County, Missouri, formed the first statewide Farm Bureau.

In 1919, a group of farmers from 30 states gathered in Chicago. They founded the American Farm Bureau Federation with the goal of "speaking for themselves through their own national organization". But they also sought to forestall populist organization of small farmers. "The inception of this national farm bureau association is taking place at a most opportune time," Harvey J. Sconce, president of the Illinois Agricultural Association, said at the meeting. "The United States is at present experiencing the greatest period of industrial unrest in its entire history. It is now just one year since the signing of the armistice. During this interval more than 3,000 strikes have been inaugurated in this country. Is it any wonder that production has dwindled and cost of living has so greatly increased? It is our duty in creating this organization to avoid any policy that will align organized farmers with the radicals of other organizations. The policy should be thoroughly American in every respect – a constructive organization instead of a destructive organization." Wrote Brian Campbell, now a professor at Berry College: "Farm Bureau began as a counter move to various farm organizations that represented small farmers." where it pushed for changes in New Deal programs to favor large farms with many employees over family farms. Along with the U. S. Department of Agriculture, the Farm Bureau and other "advocates of a mechanized, highly commercialized agriculture helped initiate an abrupt two decade shift to machines and wage labor." In a study of the organization's New Deal period during the 1930s, Christian McFayden Cambell concluded that it was " largely controlled from the top. Its leadership is self perpetuating, and its policy, although nursed through an elaborate procedural labyrinth, is rarely permitted to wander very far afield. 'The Farm Bureau's cherished belief that its policy was made at the grass roots and adopted by democratic process turned out to be partly illusion,' concluded Christiana McFayden Cambell in her study of the organization's New Deal period. There appears to be no reason to change that assessment today," Samuel R. Berger wrote in Dollar Harvest (2nd ed., 1978).

By the 21st century, the AFBF, through its state and local affiliates, was entwined financially with large agribusiness corporations. "In recent years, its insurance affiliates have bought stock in companies like Cargill, ConAgra, Dow Chemical, DuPont, Tyson and Archer Daniels Midland, all major food industry players. The Southern Farm Bureau Annuity Insurance Co. [co owned by 10 state Farm Bureaus] once owned more than 18,000 shares of Premium Standard stock," The Nation wrote in 2012. earning a salary of $832,216 in his final year. Duval took over in January 2017, earning a salary of $648,111 in his first year. AFBF, which called the demands a "predatory shakedown", was one of several groups that provided legal assistance to the farmers and haulers. Under these, AFBF also agrees not to lobby on right to repair legislation, and to “encourage state level Farm Bureaus to recognize the commitments made in the MOU and refrain from promoting “right to repair” legislation at the state or federal level”.

A 2012 investigation by The Nation detailed the large scale federal and state political operations of the Farm Bureau, and alleged the Bureau recruited political candidates (mostly Republicans) to affect legislative elections and appointments to state committees. As of 2012, the organization retains 22 registered lobbyists. The Farm Bureau argued that without the tax write off, "it is cheaper in most cases for these types of businesses to throw their food away than it is to donate the food". The Farm Bureau has lobbied for increases in federal subsidies for crop insurance, which "is a small, but significant piece of Farm Bureau insurance companies’ portfolio. In 2011, they collected over $300 million in crop insurance premiums", The Nation wrote in 2012. In 2003, Farm Bureau economists joined the Heartland and Hudson Institutes in publishing a paper that "called state or federal regulation of greenhouse gases 'unnecessary, enormously expensive, and particularly injurious to the agricultural community. The climate change session at the Farm Bureau's national meeting that year was entitled "Global Warming: A Red Hot Lie?" It featured Christopher C. Horner, a climate change denier and lawyer for the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute, a largely industry backed group that strongly opposes limits on greenhouse gases. At the meeting, delegates unanimously approved a resolution that "strongly supports any legislative action that would suspend EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act". Right before the meeting, the Union of Concerned Scientists sent the group a letter pointing out that its climate change position runs counter to that of every major scientific organization and urged it to support action on climate change. U. S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said that farmers have more to gain from cap and trade than they stand to lose.

In 2020, the Farm Bureau became one of four co founders of the Food and Agriculture Climate Alliance (FACA), a coalition of groups advocating for voluntary, incentive based and market oriented programs in the food and agriculture sector to respond to climate change. The coalition's website says its 80 plus member organizations represent "farmers, ranchers, forest owners, agribusinesses, manufacturers, the food and innovation sector, state governments, sportsmen, and environmental advocates", who cooperate to "develop and promote shared climate policy priorities across the entire agriculture, food and forestry value chains. While The New Republic reported in 2022 that the organization "wants guarantees that farmers will get paid for soil sequestration without anything else in agricultural business as usual changing", FACA has called for “a comprehensive effort involving financial and technical assistance, research investments, proactive response to innovation, public private partnerships, and a commitment to equitable opportunities for all producers” to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In 2022, FACA and AFBF supported the Senate's passing of the Growing Climate Solutions Act. In February 2023, FACA released policy recommendations for the 2023 farm bill, calling for voluntary bipartisan climate solutions. The recommendations included incentives for farmers to plant cover crops and use precision agriculture equipment that more efficiently uses fertilizers and pesticides; a USDA grant program to improve soil health; a study to look for barriers to climate smart practices in the crop insurance program; and changes to income limits so that all farmers can participate in “landscape level projects” to advance conservation and climate goals.

In 2022, the Farm Bureau joined the National Pork Producers Council in petitioning the Supreme Court of the United States to overturn California's Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals Act in National Pork Producers Council v. Ross.

In 2023, AFBF was one of several organizations to legally challenge the new Waters of the United States rule.