Having A Voice On The National Stage

Policy for the American Farm Bureau is now set for 2024. Out of the 346 voting delegates that participated, 35 of them were from Tennessee. A few of the voting delegates from Tennessee explain why participating in this means so much to them.

Thomas Capps
Having a voice on the national stage. Hello and Welcome to Tennessee Home and Farm Radio. I'm Thomas Capps.

Eric Mayberry
We're in the work of the Farm Bureau now setting policy for the coming year.

Thomas Capps
American Farm Bureau policy for 2024 is now set. 346 voting delegates discussed and voted to adopt the policy that AFBF will now take to Washington to represent farmers in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. 35 of those voting delegates are from Tennessee. As the largest State Farm Bureau in the nation, Tennessee Farm Bureau President Eric Mayberry says it's important Tennessee participates in this process.

Eric Mayberry
There are always several issues that we need to talk about. We fine tune the National Farm Policy, nothing huge there. But we always want to take the opportunity to look at that policy over and make sure it is up to date and ready to go for the coming year.

Thomas Capps
It's Tracy Hendrix of Decatur county's first time as a voting delegate.

Tracy Hendrix
This is mind blowing to me the the number of people that come together to do this. The things that we're voting on is what the AFBF is going to Washington to to play our case. And this Farm Bureau is the true voice of agriculture. David Richardson

Thomas Capps
David Richardson of Loudoun County has participated multiple times but still is amazed to see the process work. It's extremely

David Richesin

It's extremely special to me I care about Farm Bureau care about agriculture, it's my life's passion in this isn't an avenue at the voting delegate meeting that we have the opportunity to speak up and help set policy for the future for agriculture and for Farm Bureau.

Mike Scudder
It's the meat and potatoes part of the convention. This is where the resolutions get passed, set our policy for our national organization, you know and and it trickles down to the States because we we our policy has to match theirs and sometimes there's heated discussions. But the great thing about farm bureau is even though we disagree sometimes we always walk out as friends and always on the same page.

Thomas Capps
For Tennessee home and Farm Radio, I'm Thomas Capps.