Oregon Farmer Encourages Ag Community to Vote
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. The upcoming election is an important time for U.S. agriculture and its many stakeholders to cast their votes.
John Iverson is a past Young Farmer & Rancher Chair and Oregon farmer who says it’s more important than ever to make your voice heard …
IVERSON … “Seems like agriculture is always under attack, and so, it's very important to get people in office that understand agriculture and support agricultural here, domestically. And with the farm bill coming up, it's really important that we helped shape that farm bill to make it work for farmers.”
He says young people shouldn’t be afraid to get involved in the political process because it’s a lot like farming, planting seeds and hoping they’ll bear fruit, and the political process is no different …
IVERSON … “The seeds you plant today will bear fruit in the future. And I’d say for young people, it's very important because our timeline of how long we're going to be in this industry and trying to support ourselves with our farms is a long time, and so we want to make sure that the policies we set today will positively impact us down the road. If we have negative things going on right now, it just makes it more difficult down the road, so little changes right now can make big differences for us in the future. And so, I think it's vitally important for young farmers to be engaged, know how the political process works, and know their representatives.”
Iverson says good resources to brush up on your issues and candidates is, of course, your voter’s pamphlet, and your state farm bureaus.
The American Farm Bureau website is also a great resource.
