With Farm Bureau friends, you don’t need enemies
By KEN MIDKIFF
Published Friday, October 19, 2007 (http://www.showmenews.com/2007/Oct/20071019Comm002.asp)

Are you in favor of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge?

Are you opposed to most government regulations but supportive of more government money?

Are you supportive of corporate agribusinesses (large corporations that own the animals in concentrated animal feeding operations)?

Are you in favor of nuclear energy and nuclear fusion?

Are you in favor of doing away with the federal office of education?

Do you believe that someone in a Washington, D.C., agency of the U.S. government should be establishing laws and regulations for our state and that the state should not be allowed to go beyond those?

Are you opposed to minimum-wage laws applying to teenagers?

If you answered "yes" to all of the above questions, then you are probably a Missouri Farm Bureau Federation member. Didn’t know that? No surprise there.
It seems that everyone who has a Farm Bureau Insurance policy - whether for homeowners, vehicles, land or animals - is also a member of the Farm Bureau Federation. Indeed, a portion of each payment made on the Farm Bureau Insurance policy goes to the federation, which lobbies for all the above in Jefferson City and in Washington, D.C.

To avoid any whining and complaining about "misinterpretation" of any of the positions, I printed out the entire Missouri Farm Bureau Federation’s 2007 Policies, and the questions above were derived directly from those policies. There is much more in the 97 pages in the document. For more information on this somewhat retrograde organization, see www.mofb.org and follow the links to "policy." It is all there.

According to spokespeople for the Missouri Farm Bureau, these policies stem from local county organizations. However, given that these same policies are issued by state Farm Bureaus everywhere - even from Texas - it is more likely that the policies come from the top down, not from the bottom up.

One of the things that will quickly be noticed is that many of the policies have nothing to do with agriculture, even though the Farm Bureau claims to be "the voice of the farmer." That’s because a minority of its members are farmers. Although it was impossible to obtain information on the number of members and their livelihoods, somehow the Defenders of Wildlife - oh, yeah, I forgot: The Farm Bureau is opposed to the Endangered Species Act - obtained data on the membership in Houston. Although there were more than 4,000 policyholders in that city, it is highly unlikely any of them tilled the soil.

To add insult to injury, the Missouri Farm Bureau has ready access to Gov. Matt Blunt. In a speech to the Missouri Farm Bureau convention, Blunt said in his speech that hardly any decision was made without consulting the Farm Bureau. He said that the Farm Bureau position was ascertained by inquiring, "What does the Farm Bureau think about that?"

Worse, Fred Ferrell, the recently deposed director of the Missouri Department of Agriculture, got that position because Charlie Kruse, president of the Missouri Farm Bureau, recommended Ferrell. When Fred acted as a "Southern gentleman" or a "dirty old man" - take your choice - Charlie said Fred’s actions and his demise were "unfortunate."

The targets of Ferrell’s unwanted attentions termed the actions as a bit more than merely unfortunate, choosing instead to use the words "sexual harassment."
What is truly unfortunate is the Farm Bureau’s policies of sticking up for large corporations at the expense of its own members.

Just one more thing: Nationally, the number of people self-identifying as "farmer" has dwindled to 0.07 percent from 50 percent in the last 100 years - during the reign of the Farm Bureau. With friends such as these, farmers don’t need enemies.Ken Midkiff is Osage Group conservation chairman and author of "The Meat You Eat" and "Not a Drop to Drink." You can reach him via e-mail at editor@tribmail.com.