[CVF] Farm Bureau Stuff

Tue May 2 08:30:34 PDT 2000

For anyone who deals with the Farm Bureau, the enclosed information could be
important.  I called the number for the "Amber Waves of Gain" and received
it promptly.  It is important reading.

--------- Original Message --------
Subject: GROUPS OFFICIALLY CALL FOR INVESTIGATION OF FARM BUREAU
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2000 13:07:25 -0500
From: "Mike Callicrate" <mike at nobull.net> (by way of Debbie  Ortman
<debbie at organicconsumers.org>)
Reply-To: mike at nobull.net

On Tuesday April 11th, seven news conferences were held
nationally by an alliance of over 180 groups calling for an
investigation into the leadership of the American Farm Bureau
Federation.

That News Release follows below.

Also, last Sunday, 30 million Americans saw a CBS "60 minutes"
expose on the American Farm Bureau leadership.  All members of
this list are encouraged to send a letter to CBS "60 Minutes" and
let them know how you appreciated the show.  Please do this
today!!

Mail to:
60 Minutes
524 W. 57th Street
New York, NY 10019

To order a transcript call: 1 800 777 TEXT
To order a video tape call: 1 800 848 3256

Thanks,

Scotty Johnson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                  CONTACT: 202.682.9400
April 11, 2000                                         Ken Goldman x237

New Defenders Report Details Farm Bureau Conglomerate:
180+ GROUPS CALL FOR
CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION
OF FARM BUREAU LEADERSHIP

Washington, DC

At a press conference here today, Defenders of Wildlife, the
National Family Farm Coalition, Friends of the Earth, GREEN and
an alliance of more than 180 other groups called for a
congressional investigation of the American Farm Bureau
Federation, saying that the organization does more to hurt than to
help family farmers.  A new Defenders report, Amber
Waves of Gain, highlights many areas of Farm Bureau operations
and gives numerous examples of how the Farm Bureau is an
organization that may have financial interests in mind rather than
the interests of family farmers.  The groups also staged press
conferences in seven other cities across the country.

"We started taking a close look at the Farm Bureau when it
threatened the Yellowstone wolf reintroduction program," said
Rodger Schlickeisen, Defenders of Wildlife president.  "We found
out that the Farm Bureau not only fights every imaginable
conservation measure, but it often advocates policies
that are detrimental to family farmers.  It pushes an extremist right-
wing agenda that has nothing to do with farming and it benefits
unfairly from its nonprofit tax status.  Farm Bureau membership is
mostly people who have little to do with agriculture."

Amber Waves of Gain demonstrates that the Farm Bureau
is an intricate web of interconnecting business interests, including
insurance companies,agribusiness giants and banks, linked with
the national federation, the 50 state bureaus and more than 2,800
county bureaus.

During todays press conference, Schlickeisen said the Farm
Bureau should be investigated for unfair business practices and for
deceptive representation to its own membership.  The Farm Bureau
avoids paying nearly $61million annually in taxes on unrelated
business income, he said.  In 1996, Congress slipped into law a
gift for the Farm Bureau, said Schlickeisen.  It exempted the
bureau from paying taxes on virtually any kind of  membership
dues.  Since the Farm Bureau collects membership dues from
millions of people who arent involved in agriculture, this translates
into tens of millions of tax-free dollars from these unrelated
business activities.

Although the bureau claims to be the voice of agriculture, many of
its activities support factory farm operations that are putting family
farmers out of business.

"Dean Kleckner, the former president of Farm Bureau, gave us a
formula to survive," said Chris Petersen, a county Farm Bureau
board member from Iowa.  "He told us to adopt new technologies,
put our families to work in town and raise more crops and livestock.
We've done all this and were still losing thousands of family
farmers each year while Farm Bureau and agribusiness giants
team up to make billions of dollars."

Bill Christison, president of the National Family Farm Coalition,
said the Farm Bureau is rampant with conflicts of interest and
misrepresentation in developing its farm policy. " In addition to
unwavering support for Freedom to Farm and unfair trade policy,
Farm Bureau thinks crop insurance is the fix for our failed
farm policy," said Christison.  "The truth is that crop insurance is
currently not working for the family farmer, the taxpayer or the
environment.  But it does yield excessive profit for Farm Bureau
insurance companies."

Frank Kloucek, a South Dakota state senator, said the Farm
Bureau facilitates market concentration through its alliances and
corporate partnerships, and this is crushing family farmers.
"Family farmers and ranchers have been robbed by the corporate
raiders long enough," said Kloucek.  "Farm Bureau must be held
accountable for its misrepresentation of independent agriculture
producers."

These are just a few of the reasons all of the groups represented
today believe Farm Bureau needs to be closely examined, said
Schlickeisen.  Additionally, Farm Bureau pushes agendas to
control markets and pushes corporate-friendly legislation, both of
which eliminates family farmers ability to compete.  All the while,
Farm Bureau leadership is profiting from the suffering of rural
America.

Brent Blackwelder, president of Friends of the Earth declared,
"Over the past thirty years the Farm Bureau has consistently
opposed sound environmental positions to protect the health of our
land, air and water.  The Farm Bureau has been overtly hostile
towards a safe and healthy environment for the American people.
The Farm Bureau is not protecting the family farm, the Farm
Bureau is presiding over the destruction of the family farm and the
destruction of the American environment."

The first county farm bureau was founded in 1911 by the Chamber
of Commerce in Binghamton, New York.  Today, the Farm Bureau
has grown into one of the most powerful lobbying forces in
Washington, recently listed by Fortune Magazine as the 14th most
powerful.  Because of the Farm Bureaus intricate web of nonprofit
and for-profit businesses, it is hard to estimate the organizations
total worth.  However, it takes in more than $200 million annually
from membership dues, more than $12 billion in revenue from its
cooperatives and more than $6.5 billion annually in net insurance
premiums.

Defenders of Wildlife is a national, nonprofit conservation
organization with more than 400,000 members and supporters.
Defenders advocates preservation of native endangered species
and their habitat.

To obtain a copy of Amber Waves of Gain or a list of the 180-plus
groups joining in todays call for action, please contact Ken
Goldman at 202.682.9400 x237.  The report is also available in
PDF format at <www.defenders.org.>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Scotty Johnson
Rural Community Outreach Coordinator
GREEN
GrassRoots Environmental Effectiveness Netwrok
520 623 9653

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