01/17/06 American Farm Bureau sets policy

01/17/06 American Farm Bureau sets policy

Farm and Ranch January 17, 2006 Delegates to last week's American Farm Bureau Federation's annual meeting in Nashville formulated policy for 2006 and one of their decisions was to call for a one-year extension of the 2002 farm bill if the Doha Round of world trade talks doesn't result in a new deal. That resolution was approved by an almost 9-1 margin and American Farm Bureau president Bob Stallman says that provides pretty clear direction. Stallman: "They said we want to maintain the course on the 2002 Farm Bill until we have a clear agreement under the WTO that tells us what the future is going to look like for international trade. And I think that is important from a couple of aspects. One, it sends a strong message to those other countries that we are serious about negotiating but we are also serious about doing what we have been doing if they are not going to come to the table." By a three to one margin Farm Bureau delegates defeated a proposal to support a hard cap of 250-thousand dollars per year on farm program payments. Delegates approved by voice vote a resolution calling for a federal ag disaster aid package to address 2005 crop year losses and to offset sharply higher energy costs. Farm Bureau's support of a voluntary country-of-origin labeling program was reaffirmed by convention delegates. Bob Stallman was re-elected to a fourth two-year term as president and Steve Appel, president of the Washington Farm Bureau, was re-elected to another two-year term as vice president of the American Farm Bureau Federation. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
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