By Lindsay Tournoux
Summer is here, and with that comes policy development! Yes, summer is when county farm bureaus prepare for the upcoming annual meeting in late summer. Farm bureau has a grassroots structure, which means the organization’s policies and activities are led from individual member action that is carried up through the federation: county farm bureau to Ohio Farm Bureau to American Farm Bureau.
Farm Bureau’s policy development process
This process happens year-round with an emphasis on collecting feedback in the spring and early summer. County Farm Bureau policy development committees host local resource meetings with elected officials and county leaders to discuss community issues. Members are also sent a survey to submit their concerns directly to the committee. The policy development committee meets several times throughout the summer to prepare policy recommendations for the county farm bureau annual meeting.
One of the topics raised at several community meetings this year has been property tax reform. Our policy development committees are carefully reviewing current policy and considering implications of such reforms to funding for townships, schools and local services. We invite members to attend their county Farm Bureau’s annual meeting later this summer to participate in policy discussion on this and other important topics.
Once policies are approved at the county farm bureau’s annual meeting, state and national policies are proposed for consideration by the more than 350-member delegate body at the Ohio Farm Bureau Annual Meeting in December. National policies that are approved at the state annual meeting are then advocated for at the American Farm Bureau Annual Convention in January.
Advocacy in action
Approval of policy is a very important first step to the advocacy process. County farm bureau leadership and OFBF’s Public Policy staff engage elected officials and legislators, when necessary, for policies that require legislative action. Both OFBF and AFBF are often asked to take positions on proposed legislation. Before any position is considered, the first step is to review the policy books that the delegate body put together and approved. Existing policy will dictate what position, if any, the organization will take.
Ohio Farm Bureau also has an action alert system that allows members to advocate directly to their legislators. A notable example of such action took place in June. After a version of the Ohio Senate‘s budget was released that removed a multitude of state sales tax exemptions across the board, including the exemption for field tile and grain bins, Ohio farmers worked quickly to make their voices heard. Within 24 hours, OFBF members generated more than 1,000 emails to their senators through our action alert system, a number that ultimately increased to more than 1,700 emails, asking for the exemption to be reinstated. Through those emails, and additional touch points via phone and text, the field tile and grain bin sales tax exemption were both reinstated to the Senate’s final version of the budget.
Conclusion
Member engagement throughout every stage of the advocacy process is critical to ensure that there is well-thought-out policy to address the variety of issues that agriculturalists are facing across Ohio. One of the biggest benefits of farm bureau membership is having a say in issues that are impacting Ohio’s producers across the state.
If you are not a member and would like to have the opportunity to participate in our advocacy process, join us online at ofbf.org or call our office. If you are already a member and would like to get more involved with advocacy, give our Wooster Farm Bureau office a call at 330-263-7456.
(Lindsay Tournoux is the Organization Director serving Ashland, Medina, Summit and Wayne County Farm Bureaus.)
