WEST DES MOINES, IOWA - Aug. 24, 2012 - Media are invited to attend the 2012 Iowa Farm Bureau Federation (IFBF) Summer Policy Conference Aug. 30-31 at the Farm Bureau office in West Des Moines, Iowa. The conference kicks off at 10:00 a.m. on Aug. 30.
Leaders of all 100 county Farm Bureaus have gathered the opinions of their members on issues impacting agriculture and rural Iowa over the past several months. The Summer Policy Conference aggregates those ideas to form statewide policy for Iowa's largest grassroots farm organization.
"For 94 years, Iowa Farm Bureau members have set a strong course by inviting every member to weigh in on policies important to them and this is the culmination of those efforts," says IFBF President Craig Hill. "We have always been driven from the grassroots and while our policies do change over time, our commitment to listening to members doesn't," says Hill.
A few of the issues expected to generate the most discussion at this year's conference include : crop insurance, road funding, FSA office closures and the RFS target, which has come under pressure in the wake of drought-driven high corn prices. "Individual commodity groups have their own policies on the RFS target, but as a general farm organization, we have both crop and livestock farmers and a unique grassroots policy development process, which should bring lively discussion of RFS policy positions for 2013," says Hill, also a livestock and crop farmer from Milo.
Lunch will be provided for attending media both days. Please RSVP to Laurie Johns (515-225-5414, ljohns@ifbf.org) or Heather Lilienthal (515-225-5409, hlilienthal@ifbf.org) for lunch by Aug. 28.
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About Iowa Farm Bureau
The Iowa Farm Bureau Federation is a grassroots, statewide organization dedicated to helping farm families prosper and improve their quality of life. More than 153,000 families in Iowa are Farm Bureau members, working together to achieve economic growth, educational improvement, and environmental quality in their communities. For more information about Farm Bureau and agriculture, visit the online newsroom at www.iowafarmbureau.com.
