1. History

The Farm Bureau movement started in 1911 when John Barron, a farmer who graduated from Cornell University, worked as an extension agent in Broome County, New York. He served as a Farm Bureau representative for farmers with the Chamber of Commerce of Binghamton, New York. The effort was financed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Lackawanna Railroad. The Broome County Farm Bureau was soon separated from the Chamber of Commerce. Other farm bureaus later formed in counties across the U.S., as listed with dates at "List of Farm Bureaus".

In 1914, with the passage of the Smith–Lever Act of 1914, the U.S. Congress agreed to share with the states the cost of programs for providing "county agents", who supplied information to farmers on improved methods of animal husbandry and crop production developed by agricultural colleges and experiment stations, which has evolved into the modern-day Cooperative Extension Service.

In 1915, farmers meeting in Saline County, Missouri, formed the first statewide Farm Bureau.

The initial local and state farm bureaus (1910s-1940s) had a social and educational function furthering the extension service efforts, and they also pursued the functions of pooled negotiating power for purchasing of supplies like seed and equipment (comparable in that respect to farm co-ops, but with potential for larger/wider unification) and pooled capability to provide fire insurance and vehicle insurance for their farms, via both negotiating power (in group purchasing of insurance) and self-insuring capability (in forming new insurance companies of their own); they were comparable in that respect to mutual insurance companies (and indeed founded various such companies). In all of these functions, local and state farm bureaus thus became the closest thing to either a farmers' union or a trade association for farmers that existed in the United States outside of small co-ops. More precisely, they formed a network of such unions or associations with a national parent organization, somewhat analogous in that respect to a federation of trade unions such as the AFL–CIO; but with individual family farms being self-employed, the parallel with trade associations is more relevant.

They have since developed a lobbying presence as well.

In 1919, a group of farmers from 30 states gathered in Chicago . They founded the American Farm Bureau Federation with the goal of "speaking for themselves through their own national organization".^[1] Its initial organization papers said:

The purpose of Farm Bureau is to make the business of farming more profitable, and the community a better place to live. Farm Bureau should provide an organization in which members may secure the benefits of unified efforts in a way that could never be accomplished through individual effort.

In 2003, the Farm Bureau moved its headquarters from Park Ridge, Illinois, to Washington, D.C.

2. Lobbying

A 2012 exposé published by The Nation detailed the political operations of the Farm Bureau, including its extensive lobbying for industrial agricultural corporations:^[2]

In rural areas, the Farm Bureau grooms compliant political candidates, mostly Republicans; it wields the power to dictate outcomes of legislative elections and appointments to powerful state agriculture committees. Then it influences which farm-related bills become law. Along the way, it has become a close second to Monsanto in lobby expenditures for agriculture-related issues, spending nearly $6 million in 2011—all in the name of "farmers."

According to the article, the Farm Bureau retains 22 registered lobbyists. In 2012, it was the top contributor to federal candidates, parties, and outside groups with payments of over $1 million, with 62% to Republicans. Over the past decade, the Farm Bureau spent $16 million, which was 45% of the total amount spent by the ten largest agribusiness interests in the U.S.^[2]

The Farm Bureau supported the Fighting Hunger Incentive Act of 2014 (H.R. 4719; 113th Congress), a bill that would amend the Internal Revenue Code to permanently extend and expand certain expired provisions that provided an enhanced tax deduction for businesses that donated their food inventory to charitable organizations.^[3] Farm Bureau argued that without the tax write-off, "it is cheaper in most cases for these types of businesses to throw their food away than it is to donate the food".^[4]

2.1. Climate Change

The Farm Bureau has long opposed regulation or taxation of greenhouse gases and climate policy that it says would decrease the competitiveness of American agriculture, especially while farmers and businesses of other nations remain unburdened by emission limitations. The Farm Bureau's opposition to climate change-related regulation began with cap-and-trade regulation measures, which the Farm Bureau argued would increase fuel and fertilizer prices for farmers. At that time, the Farm Bureau's official position was that "there is no generally agreed upon scientific assessment of the exact impact or extent of carbon emissions from human activities, their impact on past decades of warming or how they will affect future climate changes". In 2003, Farm Bureau economists joined the Heartland and Hudson Institutes in publishing a paper that "called state or federal regulation of greenhouse gases 'unnecessary, enormously expensive, and particularly injurious to the agricultural community.'"^[5]

The climate change session at the Farm Bureau's 2010 national meeting was entitled "Global Warming: A Red Hot Lie?" and featured climate change denier Christopher C. Horner,^[6] a lawyer for the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute, a largely industry-backed group that strongly opposes limits on greenhouse gases.^[7] At the meeting, delegates unanimously approved a resolution that "strongly supports any legislative action that would suspend EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act".^[8] Right before the meeting, the Union of Concerned Scientists sent the group a letter pointing out that its climate change position runs counter to that of every major scientific organization and urged it to support action on climate change. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said that farmers have more to gain from cap and trade than they stand to lose.^[8]

By 2019, the Farm Bureau had ceased to publicly deny climate change, but remains opposed to non-market-based solutions. It continues to argue that carbon and emission restrictions will raise the costs of energy and fertilizer and hamper the competitiveness of American farmers. It opposes taxes on carbon uses or emissions, any law or regulation requiring the reporting of any GHG emissions by an agricultural entity, any regulation of GHG by the EPA, and any attempt to regulate methane emissions from livestock.^[9]

3. Insurance

In addition to its political lobbying activities, the Farm Bureau is "a multi-billion dollar network of for-profit insurance companies" and the third-largest insurance group in the United States.^[2] The Farm Bureau collected $300 million in crop insurance premiums in 2011. Incidentally, the Farm Bureau was heavily involved in lobbying for the 2012 farm bill,^[2] which included $9 billion in federal subsidies for crop insurance.^[10]

An organization independent of the Farm Bureau called FBL Financial Group based in West Des Moines, Iowa, sells insurance under the brand name Farm Bureau Financial Services. It also uses the Farm Bureau logo.^[11]

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company began as an insurance company for members of the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation. It continues to serve as an insurance provider to Farm Bureaus in nine states.^[12] Other insurance companies tied to Farm Bureaus include Farm Family Insurance, which serves as an insurance provider to Farm Bureaus in five states, and Country Financial, which serves clients in seventeen states.

The Farm Bureau and its state affiliates also own American Agricultural Insurance Company, a reinsurer, and American Farm Bureau Insurance Services, a crop insurer.

4. List of Farm Bureaus