Stallman reassures Farm Bureau on ‘relevance’
January 13, 2013 | 05:21 PM
President Bob Stallman addresses the annual Farm Bureau meeting in Nashville on Sunday. (American Farm Bureau Federation)
JERRY HAGSTROM
NASHVILLE — In his annual address to members, American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman today seemed to criticize Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s December statement that rural America is becoming “irrevelant” because farmers are too focused on a “preservation” agenda rather than forward-looking growth.
But Stallman later told reporters that Vilsack had come to his office to discuss the speech before he gave it, and said that he considered his remarks an “add on” to what Vilsack said.
Stallman said that he did not view his remarks about relevance “as criticism of Vilsack.” He said the secretary was rightly telling agriculture leaders and farmers that they need to “get united” because rural America doesn’t have the voting power it once had.
“Farm Bureau members, I begin with these words to you on why your farms, your ranches and your rural communities matter. In spite of reports you might have read, you are relevant. When you’re keeping people fed, I would say you’re pretty darn relevant,” Stallman told the more than 6,000 attendees at the first general session of the Farm Bureau’s annual meeting.
The line appeared designed as a crowd-pleaser, and Stallman was rewarded with a round of applause. A Reuters survey at last year’s Farm Bureau meeting showed that 75 percent of Farm Bureau members intended to vote for a Republican presidential candidate.
Vilsack is scheduled to speak at the convention on Monday. Since his speech about relevance at a Farm Journal conference, the secretary has clarified his remarks, saying that rural America is relevant in terms of food production but is becoming politically irrelevant due to population losses and the lack of focus on making sure that rural America is a place where young people can get jobs and want to live.
Stallman also said rural America is relevant for another reason that Vilsack has continually cited: that rural residents account for just 17 percent of the U.S. population but that between 20 and 40 percent of the military is made up of rural Americans.
Stallman also told Farm Bureau members that another part of their relevance is that rural voter turnout surpasses the national average. That is true, but Vilsack may also have a point since the majority of American voters chose to re-elect President Barack Obama, while exit polls showed that 59 percent of rural Americans voted for Republican candidate Mitt Romney.
In his December speech, Vilsack criticized rural leaders for focusing continually on regulatory decisions that the Obama administration had already decided not to impose.
But Stallman called the Obama administration’s decision not to change farm child labor rules a “significant” regulatory victory. Stallman did add, “We appreciate the efforts of Secretary Tom Vilsack and several members of Congress to ensure that the administration listened to farmers and ranchers. . . . But that doesn’t mean we can rest easy and assume that the parental exemptions in the child labor rules will always be protected.”
He emphasized that Farm Bureau is grateful to Vilsack for his role in convincing the administration to drop the Labor Department’s proposed farm child labor rule.
