By Emmalee Edwards, Craig County Young Farmers
On July 10-12, a group of Farm Bureau Young Farmers from Southwest Virginia took on Washington, D.C. to meet with Congressmen and organizations such as National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, Animal Ag Alliance, and BIO. We spent July 11th on Capitol Hill, meeting with Congressman Garrett and Congressman Griffith.
We divided the group between the two congressmen; those in Congressman Garrett’s district met with him, and those of us in the 9th District met with Congressman Griffith. We had four key issues to bring to Griffith’s attention: electronic logging devices (ELDs), rural broadband access, trade tariffs, and the Farm Bill. Our time with our Congressman was limited as he had been called into an important meeting (top secret, of course), so we had only five minutes to discuss the first issue – the effect of ELDs on livestock transportation. The requirement for livestock haulers to use ELDs would be detrimental to beef cattle operations in the district, where the best option for feeder calves is to ship them via trucks from Virginia to Midwest feedlots. Griffith agreed that livestock haulers should be exempt from using ELDs, and is currently pushing for further reprieve from compliance for those transporting animals.
National grain supplies are stockpiled, which means lower profits for Virginia grain producers.
The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) Regional Animal Health Laboratory in Harrisonburg recently was certified to perform screening testing for the Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) virus in animals. Because of this new capability, the lab, which is part of a network operated by VDACS, will perform a valuable early warning function for the detection of Foreign Animal Diseases, including FMD.
Below are two Action Alerts concerning FDA proposals, which if ever enacted, would have major negative implications on tobacco production here. At the very least, the manner in which tobacco is grown and marketed would change significantly.
With passage last week of the Senate farm bill, the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (S. 3042), congressional lawmakers are expected to soon head to conference to iron out the differences between the House and Senate legislation. The House passed its version of the bill, the Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018 (H.R. 2), on June 21.
I am pleased to announce that Emily Dunne joined our department on June 4th. Emily is a recent graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in political science. During her academic career, she gained some valuable experience through internships with a non-profit group lobbying on behalf of college students as well as the Richmond office of Senator Mark Warner. In addition, she provided administrative support at the Federal Aviation Administration during some of her breaks. She will be serving as the Administrative Assistant supporting the Governmental Relations team and taking on numerous projects such as providing support for the Resolutions process.
On July 9th, Ben Rowe will be joining our department as National Affairs Coordinator/Legislative Specialist. He will be coordinating our efforts at the national level with Virginia’s congressional offices. In fact, his first day he will be heading to the AFBF Public Policy Conference in Washington D.C. and provide support to other Farm Bureau staff bringing a group of young farmers visiting D.C. that week. In addition, he will handle issues surrounding labor, energy, plant-based commodities and providing back-up to me on environmental issues. Ben has a degree in Biology and Environmental Studies from Randolph Macon College. Ben is currently finishing up his duties as Vice President of Association Management with the Alliance Group. In this role, he served several agricultural and forestry clients including Executive Director for the Virginia Grain Producers Association, President of Virginia Forest Products Association and previously as Assistant Director to the Virginia Wine Council.
The following statement regarding Senate passage of the 2018 Farm Bill may be attributed to American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall.
The House passed its version of the farm bill today by a vote of 213-211. American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall released the following statement regarding its passage:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service released its June Crop Production report today based on the Agricultural Yield survey conducted at the beginning of the month. The report includes information on Virginia’s winter wheat forecast.
Plows and Politics 