NY Farm Bureau Helps Set National Agenda at American Farm Bureau Convention
NYFB members from Monroe County place second in American Farm Bureau’s Ag Innovation Challenge; NYFB wins prestigious Pinnacle Award
San Antonio, TX — New York Farm Bureau President David Fisher and Vice President Kim Skellie joined delegates from all 50 states and Puerto Rico today for the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) Annual Meeting of Voting Delegates, the culmination of AFBF’s 106th Annual Convention & Trade Show held Jan. 24-29. More than a dozen NYFB members and staff attended the convention, which brought nearly 5,000 people together from across the nation and from every part of American agriculture.
With a theme of “Step Up, Drive Forward,” the convention showcased a wide range of educational programming, networking events and thoughtful public policy discussion. Delegates voted on a broad slate of public policy positions for the organization, some of which were the direct result of NYFB’s grassroots efforts across New York and in Washington, D.C.
Policy positions submitted by New York Farm Bureau that were adopted at the AFBF conference include:
- Supporting the adjustment of Risk Management Agency (RMA) crop insurance to allow for estimated partial settlement of claims from apple crop loss.
- Supporting using either product dollar volume, acreage, or filing a Schedule F form to define what constitutes a farm. This will help farmers who yield a significant amount of crops in controlled environment agriculture systems, but with very little acreage, to be eligible for USDA grants.
- Supporting the requirement that unions provide a signed and dated copy of dues authorization cards to employees at the time of signature for the employees’ records.
- Supporting the amendment to the Federal Alcohol Administration Act to broaden the interpretation of labeling laws to allow farm wineries and cideries to use the word “cider” on their labels in different contexts, such as co-fermentation with other fruit juices, or infusion with flavor-enhancing crops such as hops, when fermented apple cider is no less than 60% of the fluid content.
In other developments, Monroe County Farm Bureau member Labby, based in Rochester, was the national runner-up in the Farm Bureau Ag Innovation Challenge. This highly competitive business start-up competition, now in its 11th year, provides opportunities for Farm Bureau members to showcase business innovations developed for agriculture.
As the runner-up, Labby will receive $25,000 to grow the business. Labby uses AI-enabled optical sensing for raw milk testing on the farm, incorporating light scattering, absorption and fluorescence to determine milk composition and quality information, including milk fat, protein and somatic cell count (SCC). With test results available in under 10 seconds, this process enables early mastitis detection and prevention, drastically reducing dairy farmers’ losses.
“Being recognized by the American Farm Bureau’s Ag Innovation Challenge is such an honor for Labby. This spotlight not only validates the immediate market need for our real-time milk testing solutions, but also potentially connects us with the extensive Farm Bureau community,” said Labby CEO and Cofounder Julia Somerdin. “Their support and collaboration are instrumental in helping raise awareness of our technology and accelerating its adoption on farms nationwide.”
NYFB was honored with the Pinnacle Award, the highest honor a state Farm Bureau can be awarded for program and membership achievement. NYFB also received Awards of Excellence for outstanding programming in all four possible categories: Advocacy, Coalitions & Partnerships, Engagement & Outreach and Leadership & Business Development.
Finally, NYFB President David Fisher, who serves on the American Farm Bureau Board of Directors, was appointed to another term on the national board’s Executive Committee.
“This is a proud week of accomplishment for New York Farm Bureau. We showed that NYFB is a strong voice in forming major policy positions that will help our farms succeed. Our grassroots efforts, which would not be possible without our members, proved highly effective in meeting our policy goals. We echo the theme of this convention by stepping up and driving forward to support our family farms and the important work they do every day to feed us and contribute to our economy,” Fisher said.
For more information on national policy development and convention events, please visit www.fb.org.
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New York Farm Bureau is the State’s largest agricultural lobbying/trade organization. Its members and the public know the organization as “The Voice of New York Agriculture.” New York Farm Bureau is dedicated to solving the economic and public policy issues challenging the agricultural community.
