No other farm organization goes to such lengths to develop policies that guide the organization legislatively at all levels. Florida Farm Bureau’s (FFB) policy development process involves discussions and debate among farmers and ranchers, and county Farm Bureau leaders, from throughout the state. The whole process culminates each fall at the annual convention.
A crucial part of the process in Florida is the annual gathering of Farm Bureau’s Advisory Committees early each year near the state office in Gainesville. These FFB Advisory Committees are meeting this week and nearly every chair is full as Florida agriculturalists are very concerned about issues in Tallahassee and Washington this year in particular. This year’s theme for these meetings is “Navigating the Tides” and featured speakers include American Farm Bureau President Bob Stallman, Florida Farm Bureau President John Hoblick, Dr Joe Joyce, Exec VP of UF/IFAS, Adam Babington from the Florida Chamber of Commerce, and Bill Jorgenson with SJH & Co, a consulting group dedicated to global agribusiness, food and renewable energy industries. The after lunch session featured USDA-NRCS Florida State Conservationist Carlos Suarez. Stay tuned as we’ll be posting some issue discussions from this meeting in the days ahead.