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Whose Side is the Farm Bureau On? | Food and Environment Reporting Network

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The American Farm Bureau, with its six million “member families” and carefully cultivated grassroots image, talks a good game. In the pitched battle over US farm policy—with agribusiness giants on one side, and small family farmers, organic and local food advocates, and environmentalists on the other—the Farm Bureau positions itself as the voice of the farmer. “If you know agriculture in this country, it is dominated by family farms, and those are the people who come to our meetings, those are the people who set our policies,” claims Mark Maslyn, executive director of the American Farm Bureau Federation’s public policy department, a team of 22 registered federal lobbyists that spend more than $2 million annually on a variety of agriculture issues. But Rolf Christen, a cattle farmer in Missouri who was at one time an enthusiastic member of his local farm bureau’s board, tells a different story. Christen realized that the Bureau’s “family farmer” talk was cheap when he sought its help ba

The American Farm Bureau, with its six million “member families” and carefully cultivated grassroots image, talks a good game. In the pitched battle over US farm policy—with agribusiness giants on one side, and small family farmers, organic and local food advocates, and environmentalists on the other—the Farm Bureau positions itself as the voice of the farmer. More on this story Read more of our reporting on farms & labor. “If you know agriculture in this country, it is dominated by family farms, and those are the people who come to our meetings, those are the people who set our policies,” cla

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