By Zippy Duvall
President, American Farm Bureau
Country roads are an important part of the route to public office. There’s no such thing as “fly-over country” in an election year–and some lawmakers have learned this the hard way. Farmers and ranchers are fully engaged in the political process. They know their businesses and families have too much at stake to take a back seat during any election.
While rural areas have gotten smaller over recent decades, lawmakers can’t ignore that America’s farmland and the people who live there are at the heart of what built this country, and what nourishes it still today. Our nation is run by people who show up and make their voices heard. Our friends in Kansas recently reminded us of this in the primary race for their first district. Many of the district’s farmers and ranchers felt that Congressman Huelskamp had forgotten his neighbors and the people who sent him to Washington, especially when it came to his lack of support for the farm bill that provides a safety net for farmers when prices plummet and ensures we can continue to feed ourselves. The Kansas Farm Bureau took a firm stance by calling out Huelskamp and endorsing his primary opponent Roger Marshall, to ensure agriculture in the first district would once again have a voice on Capitol Hill. Voters then stood up on primary day and called for a different approach to politics. Maintaining a healthy agriculture and strong food security requires a willingness to reach across party lines to find solutions that work. Huelskamp’s rural constituents are sending him home after his term ends this year. That’s what happens when a lawmaker becomes more beholden to groups in Washington than their own constituents.
From the Field is an occasional column written by Mark Campbell, Farm Bureau Field Services Director for the Central District. He writes about Farm Bureau member benefits and County Farm Bureau activities.
In honor of the retirement of Virginia Farm Bureau’s Senior Agriculture Market Analyst Jonah Bowles, we are posting his collection of jokes that have started each Commodity Comments newsletter since its start in 2000.
On Friday, President Barack Obama signed national biotech disclosure into law, which now requires USDA to draft rules within two years to establish labeling and disclosure standards that could include using scan codes on packaged foods as well. The law also preempts states from establishing separate standards, such as the Vermont genetically engineered labeling law that went into effect in July, but is now superseded by the new act.
“I farm because I feel called to. I love the challenge, it’s where my heart is, and I love working with my family. Farming gives my life purpose. When I fulfill that purpose I feel like I am my truest self and, most of the time, my best version of me. I think that to do anything other than farm would feel like a dishonest life. I am fortunate that my purpose is also my passion. Farm life is hard, oh so hard, but it also has many blessings such as working with family, eating homemade snacks at Grandma’s, and watching my niece grow up.”
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“If you ever want to be close to the good Lord above, you’ve got to be a farmer cause that’s gonna teach you faith like nothing else can. You sit out here in th
In an effort to better promote the Farm Bureau 
The new Performance Livestock and Feed Co. production facility in Henry County will create jobs and help area grain producers as well.
Plows and Politics 