VFBF Legislative Committee Comments on 2015 Critical Issues, Part 1

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Earlier this month, the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation announced its critical legislative issues for 2014. These are the issues Governmental Relations staff believe will be at the forefront during the next year’s General Assembly.  These issues are also discussed at Senatorial District meetings, regional legislative briefings for legislators held across the state during November and December. Here are three of those issues with remarks from members of the Virginia Farm Bureau Legislative Committee, who identified these issues as critical.  If you are a producer member and would like to attend your region’s Senatorial District Meeting, please contact your Field Services Director for dates and locations.
Agriculture Best Management Practices Cost-Share Program & Soil and Water Conservation District Funding

Virginia Farm Bureau urges legislators to:
  • Adequately fund the Agriculture Best Management Practices Cost-Share Program (Ag BMPs) in order for farmers to meet Virginia’s Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP) goals by 2017 and avoid mandatory agriculture best management practices requirements
  • Adequately fund operational support and technical assistance for Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs) so they can administer Agriculture Best Management Practices Cost Share Program; assist farmers in developing Resource Management Plans; and track voluntary conservation practices to help document water quality improvements

“To implement all the BMP’s to meet Virginia’s WIP goals by 2017 would be a huge financial strain.  We could not financially support our day to day operations without support from state funding. Believe me, the farmers I know have a passion to do what’s best for the land, their livestock, etc. but to perform these acts based on what the state dictates is costly.  If they want us to perform by their rules, we need financial support to make it happen.”- Faye Hundley, Essex County

Farmland Preservation

Virginia Farm Bureau urges legislators to:
  • Support maintaining the Land Preservation Tax Credit (LPTC) as it is an incentive for farmers to preserve working farms and forests 
  • Avoid cuts to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) program which leverages local dollars to help maintain working farms and forests to help stabilize resources to keep a strong agriculture and forestry industry for the future

“We picked Farm Land Preservation because keeping land out of development keeps agriculture as Virginia’s largest industry. A good slogan would be “Without farmland there are no farmers and without farmers there is no food”. Preserving farm and forest land helps water quality by keeping runoff to a minimum.  It helps with air pollution 1. By preventing urban sprawl, helping promote concentrated development 2. Trees and crop production remove carbon from the air thereby slowing global warming.”- Leigh Pemberton, Hanover County
VDACS Weights and Measures Program

Virginia Farm Bureau urges legislators to:
  • Maintain the funding such that the integrity of the VDACS weights and measures program is not compromised to ensure that Virginia consumers receive the products they paid for, that businesses are competing fairly, and that state government is providing appropriate oversight to the system

“I think the government should maintain or increase funding for the weights and measures program. I see the importance of this program from two sides.  I sell products directly to consumers and look forward to having my scales checked and calibrated each year by this department. It is always nice to be able to point to the updated sticker on the scale to prove the scales are accurate to skeptical customers.

On the other side of this is me being a consumer and purchasing fertilizer. Weights and measures spot checks loads of blended fertilizer from dealers to make sure the actual analysis of the blend is what the farmer ordered. This is very important to farmers because small blend mistakes can cost big time in money and yield lost in crops.

The weights and measure field people have been saying for the last few years how they are having to cover more area and can’t get around to everyone they need to check. I’ll see stickers on fuel pumps at gas stations that are several years old sometimes.”- Steve Berryman, Surry County

Women in Ag Survey: Gauging the Aspirations and Needs of Women in Agriculture

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The American Farm Bureau Women’s Leadership Program has launched “Women in Ag,” an online survey that aims to gauge the goals, aspirations, achievements and needs of women in American agriculture in a number of different areas.
All women who are farmers, ranchers, farm/ranch employees, employed in agricultural businesses, pursuing ag-related higher education or supportive of agriculture in other ways are invited to participate in the survey at womeninag.fb.org.  Respondents must reside in the United States. Farm Bureau membership is not required to participate.
“This comprehensive survey is the first of its kind to ask women in-depth questions about how they are connected to agriculture and what leadership skills they think are most important today, as well as the top business challenges they’re facing,” said Terry Gilbert, a Kentucky farmer and chair of the American Farm Bureau Women’s Leadership Committee.  “All women involved in agriculture – not just Farm Bureau members – are invited to participate in the survey,” Gilbert emphasized.

Data collected from respondents will be used to gauge trends related to the achievements of women in agriculture, including leadership positions, business successes and election to public office.
The AFB Women’s Leadership Committee is sponsoring the survey and is working with other farm and agriculture organizations to encourage participation. Participants will be eligible for an opportunity to win one of five $100 gift cards after the survey closes. Preliminary findings from the survey will be released in February 2015 at AFBF’s FUSION Conference in Nashville, Tennessee; the full report will be released in late spring.

Survey Finds VOF Easements Largely Protecting Working Farms and Forestland

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Trey Davis
Assistant Director
The Virginia Outdoors Foundation (VOF) recently compiled a survey of 631 landowners who granted conservation easements to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation (VOF) since 2000.  Its findings reveal that landowners are primarily managing those lands for agricultural production and/or forestry, and that they are reinvesting many of the tax credits they receive from the state back into their operations.  I think the results are telling and show that many active farms have been able to prosper under a conservation easements.

http://www.virginiaoutdoorsfoundation.org/2014/11/survey-finds-vof-easements-largely-protecting-working-farms-forestland/

We support voluntary conservation easements as an option for our members in preserving farmland.  The data from this survey is encouraging for individuals who seek to keep their land in production and offers some incentives to expand their business.

Governor Appoints New Deputy Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry

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Governor Terry McAuliffe has announced Samuel Thurston Towell as Deputy Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry.
Samuel Thurston Towell joins the Administration from McGuireWoods LLP, where his clients included timber, agricultural, and environmental concerns. 
During the administration of Governor Mark R. Warner, he served variously as the Special Assistant to the Secretary of Finance, the Governor’s Fellow to the Chief of Staff, and a Legal Fellow to the Counselor.  His other government service includes clerkships with the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the Supreme Court of Virginia. 

Towell is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering with a Minor in Economics, and the University of Virginia School of Law.

County Farm Bureau Leaders Help Develop Statewide Policy

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County Farm Bureau leaders from across the state convened today at the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation’s annual Resolutions Committee meeting in Richmond.

The meeting is one of Farm Bureau’s most important yearly functions.

Policies developed during the resolutions meeting will be considered for official VFBF policy during the organization’s annual convention Dec. 2-4 in Hot Springs.

Many of the resolutions approved at the meeting will be lobbied for during the 2015 Virginia General Assembly, as well as in Congress.

From Business Insider: Jimmy Kimmel Asks Anti-GMO People What GMOs Are — And Hilariously, They Have No Idea

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Too funny and sad not to share!
https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/EzEr23XJwFY&source=uds

From Business Insider:

People love to hate on GMOs, those ingredients that can be found everywhere from the cereal aisle to the produce section. But do people know what they are opposing? In many cases, a recent Jimmy Kimmel segment suggests, not at all. 

A GMO is a genetically modified organism — in most cases a plant whose DNA has been altered to achieve some desired result, like resistance to pests or higher nutrient content. About 80% of the packaged foods currently sold on grocery store shelves contain genetically modified ingredients. In 2012, 93% of all the soybeans and 88% of all the corn planted had been genetically engineered. 

In spite of broad scientific consensus that GMOs are safe, their increasing prevalence has sowed fear and distrust among consumers. Some 90% of Americans want foods with GMO ingredients to carry a special label; Maine, Vermont, and Connecticut passed the legislation earlier this year. Twenty other states have introduced close to 60 bills on the subject, and ballot initiatives are currently active in Colorado and Oregon. 

Jimmy Kimmel took to the streets outside a local farmer’s market to find out why so many people want to avoid GMOs. Most are enthusiastic about their GMO-avoiding habits. But they also admit they have no idea what they are.
For the record: Most scientists have concluded that GMOs pose no danger. A recent study in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology found that “GM plants are nutritionally equivalent to their non-GM counterparts and can be safely used in food and feed.” 

Scientists have experimented with efforts to use GM crops to help alleviate world hunger (since they often require less water and other resources to thrive and can be boosted with key nutrients), but their efforts have stalled as a result of controversy over concerns about safety. As astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson recently pointed out in a YouTube video, we’ve been genetically modifying food for “tens of thousands of years.” GMO technology might scare people, Tyson suggests, because they “don’t fully understand it.” 

Pretty spot on, NDGT. 

Some people have nonhealth reasons for avoiding GMOs, but the people in the Kimmel video all claim some kind of vague health concern, without even knowing what they are eating — or avoiding. 

Our favorite response from the Kimmel video: “If you are eating whole foods [pause], you want to know what you’re eating. You know what I mean? [pause] You want to eat what you’re seeing. But when the whole food is contaminated, that’s kind of making it a moot point.” 

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/jimmy-kimmel-what-is-a-gmo-2014-10#ixzz3HT9ShlgE

“I Don’t Really Have a Commercial Truck, Just a ‘Farm’ Truck …”

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Andrew Smith
Sr. Assistant Director
Governmental Relations
A comment I hear most often when talking to farmers about their vehicles is “I don’t really have a commercial truck, it’s just a ‘farm’ truck”. With the majority of farmers only operating their trucks to haul their own products, the term “commercial” does confuse some.

For many vehicle regulations, especially those of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) such as Commercial Driver’s License (CDL), UCR and the USDOT Number, a farm truck is considered “commercial” generally based on its size. If it is over 10,000 pounds GVWR or a combination vehicle (truck & trailer) with a GCWR over 10,000 pounds, it’s commercial. A “farm” license plate does not determine the commercial or non-commercial status. Farmers that operate only in their home state, intrastate commerce, are exempt from most FMCSA regulations, however, once crossing the state line it does bring the need for added attention to what requirements they must follow.

For many years farmers have enjoyed an exemption from the CDL requirement when operating their trucks within 150 miles of their farm operating solely for intrastate purposes. In 2012 Congress passed the “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act” (MAP-21) which provides a number of exemptions to farmers doing business in and near their home state.

To learn about the MAP-21 Exemptions and requirements farmers should review check out two new handouts posted on the Governmental Relations Resource library here.