Ag News
GFB Policy Development Committee meets
Posted on Nov 15, 2017 at 0:00 AM
Georgia Farm Bureau’s Policy Development Committee held the second of its two meetings at the GFB headquarters in Macon Nov. 6 to review the organization’s current position on ag issues and to consider resolutions submitted by county Farm Bureaus in September.
“The policy development process is vital for our organization,” GFB President Gerald Long said. “It’s through these meetings that our volunteer leaders determine the organization’s legislative direction.”
The first round of committee work took place in early October, and GFB's voting delegates will finalize the policy for 2018 during the 2017 GFB Convention in December on Jekyll Island.
In its two meetings, the committee considered 197 policy submissions from 54 counties. The committee weighed whether to forward each submission to the voting delegates meeting.
The committee considered numerous policy submissions pertaining to farmers’ access to water and water stewardship.
The resolutions included multiple submissions concerning liability for livestock producers, local property taxes and disease-handling protocols for livestock producers.The committee discussed recommendations on actions to take to deal with deer and feral hogs in detail. The committee reviewed numerous recommendations addressing the desire to get a cotton commodity program into the 2018 farm bill, as well as dealing with technology fees charged to Georgia cotton growers by seed companies.
Among the policy submissions were a handful aimed at national issues, like rural communications, agricultural product labeling, agricultural credit and federal taxes.
The committee was presented with recommendations on how GFB operates, with the options of deleting them or forwarding them to the GFB Board of Directors for consideration.
The GFB Policy Development Committee consists of 30 county presidents (three from each district), the chairmen of each of the 20 GFB Commodity Advisory Committees and the GFB Board of Directors and Georgia members of the American Farm Bureau Issue Advisory Committees.
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