12 I WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 2 ,2 0 1 7

SoutheastFarmPress.com

Farm Bureau president notes farmer concerns

Zippy Duvall: Labor, infrastructure critical issues for agriculture
BY HEMBREE BRANDON ways, and farmland being gobbled up said, “I was on a roundtable speaking tinue at a high level so we can continue
Farm Press Editorial Staff by urban/commercial development are to President Trump, and we voiced as the world leader in agricultural pro­
hembree. brandon@penton. com foremost on the minds of U.S. farm­ our concerns about these labor issues duction and dependability.”
ers, says Zippy Duvall, president of the and the need for immigration reform. Farmers are “painfully aware,” Duvall
CONCERNS ABOUT A dwindling sup­ American Farm Bureau Federation. A poultry farmer told how ICE (Immi­ says of the encroachment of urban and
ply of farm workers, a deteriorating Of those, he said during a panel dis­ gration and Customs Enforcement) commercial development on agricul­
network of roads, bridges, and water- cussion on “Maintaining Competitive­ had raided his farm during a poul­ tural land, and the challenge of “main­
ness in the Global Marketplace” at the try-catching operation. They were taining our freedom to operate our

Georgia boosts Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation’s

Summer Commodity Conference at Mis­
sissippi State University, “Labor is the
looking for just one violent crimi­
nal, but they took everyone who was
working that night.
farms in this environment.”
The $4 that Mississippi Farm Bureau
Federation members pay as dues to the

water metering No. 1 issue in agriculture today.

WHERE'S THE LABOR?

BY FARM PRESS EDITORIAL STAFF
GEORGIA GOV. NATHAN Deal has
announced a $10.5 million investment
in the Georgia Environmental Protec­
tion Division’s oversight of the state
water metering program.
The funding, made available through
OneGeorgia, will help Georgia’s EPD
facilitate program implementation,
collaboration with agricultural part­
ners and greater communication with
stakeholders, according to a statement
released by the governor’s office.
Last December, EPD assumed over­
sight of the state’s agriculture irriga­
tion metering program, which provides
important data for management of the
state’s water resources and supports the
water conservation efforts of producers.
Though several thousand irrigation sys­
tems have been successfully metered
since 2003, measurement of agricultural
water use in all critical areas of the state
needs to be completed, according to the
governor’s office.
Initially, EPD will prioritize the instal­
lation of flow measuring devices at each
permitted withdrawal site in the Flint
and Suwannee River basins, as recom­
mended by Governor’s Agricultural Per­
mitting Compliance Task Force.
EPD plans to rely upon agriculture
organizations, water organizations,
and/or private professionals to accom­
plish this work. EPD and its partners
will work closely with agriculture pro­
ducers as the new meters are installed
and the program is implemented.
Deal tapped Marjie Dickey, who grew
up on a fifth-generation Georgia peach
farm, to fill the role of Agriculture Water
Project Manager at EPD.
“As I travel America and talk to farm­
ers and ranchers, they want to know
'Who’s going to help me work my cattle,
plant my crops, take care of the crops
and harvest them?’ Yes, we have the
H-2A program for agriculture, and H-2B
program for forestry. But they are cum­
bersome, expensive, and have a whole
array of regulatory restraints that make
it almost impossible for farmers —
especially smaller ones — to benefit
from them.”
Farm Bureau policy, Duvall says,
is that “we support a flexible, reliable
work force from out of the country,
but these programs need less regula­
tion, and need to be configured so small
farmers and year-round farmers can use
them. As it stands now, dairymen can’t
even use H-2A.”
A couple of months previously, he
Prostko
Continued from Page 10
have gotten out of hand, you might
want to consider other alternatives to
revenge spraying. These could include
hand-weeding, cultivation, mowing
(especially in peanuts), applying her­
bicides (paraquat, glyphosate) in a
non-selective applicator (rope-wick,
roller, etc.), or fast-forwarding to your
favorite beach vacation.
Mother Nature frequently deals us
a bad hand. In some cases, tools are
available to deal with it. Unfortunately,
revenge spraying of large weeds is not
a reliable solution to our recent wet
weather weed woes.
As always, good weed hunting.
“President Trump responded that
sort of thing isn’t his intent, that he
doesn’t want to hinder farmers, ranch­
ers, and small businesses. He turned to
Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue
and asked, ‘Don’t you think we can find
some way to solve this problem?’ Mr.
Trump is sensitive to the problem, and
he needs our support, and Congress
needs our support in resolving it.
“These workers, who in many cases
have been on our farms and in our com­
munities for 10, 12, 15 years, paying
taxes and obeying our laws, need to
have some type of adjustment of sta­
tus so they can continue to work on
our farms and provide for their fami­
lies. These people aren’t relying on the
federal government for assistance —
they’re out there working to support
their families and have a better life.”
MUST PUSH FOR CHANGE
It’s important, Duvall says, “for us to
push forward with this critical need
for a change in policy. You need to
make sure you communicate this to
your elected representatives, to Secre­
tary Perdue, and to the administration.
Right now, I know that the secretary
and other administration officials want
to know how the enforcement section of
immigration policy is affecting agricul­
ture, and we need to provide that input.
We need to be continually engaged with
the people developing policy, and make
sure they do it in a way that’s beneficial
to us.”
Upgrading the nation’s transporta­
tion infrastructure is a pressing need for
agriculture, Duvall says. “We’ve just got
to keep the pressure on those who can
make it happen, to make them under­
stand how important it is to our nation
for our bridges, roads, locks and dams,
and research and development to con­
American Farm Bureau Federation “is the
biggest bargain in American politics,” he
says. “That contribution allows you to
have almost 20 full-time, professional lob­
byists on Capitol Hill, working every day
on issues of importance to agriculture.
NEED SOUND SCIENCE
“The anti-agriculture extremists are at
every town hall meeting, they’re writing
letters, making phone calls, making sure
they’re heard. We almost lost atrazine,
which helps us protect our corn crop,
because all the public was seeing and
hearing was, ‘this herbicide is causing
male frogs turn into female frogs.’ The
policy makers hear this kind of thing
constantly, and we have to make sure
we counteract it with sound science.
“Your Mississippi Farm Bureau and
state agriculture officials made a major
push, contacting everybody they knew
to urge them to support keeping atra­
zine. That’s what we’ve got to do for all
our issues: write letters, make phone
calls, send e-mails.
“Our staff and lobbyists can do the
heavy lifting on a day-to-day basis, but
you have to also be engaged, you have
to be there, too, working to defend
agriculture and our way of life. All of
us, whatever farm organizations we
belong to, need to come together and
speak with a united voice, stay actively
engaged, and support the organizations
that give us a collective, strong voice.
“ If there’s a town hall meeting, I
can assure you that the environmen­
talists, the animal rights activists, the
ultra-conservatives and ultra-liber­
als are going to be in the room, and
we need to be right there with them to
make sure we protect the policies that
will allow America’s farmers and ranch­
ers and rural communities to move for­
ward into the future.”
© 2017 Penton Media, Inc. All rights reserved.