Farm Bureau Gets a Closer Look in New Report | Civil Eats

Farm Bureau Gets a Closer Look in New Report

The latest report by the Food & Environment Reporting Network takes a look at how the American Farm Bureau Federation leads the charge against efforts to limit industrial-scale food production and has become the single most powerful farm lobby in the nation, accounting for 45 percent of all agriculture-related lobbying dollars over the last decade.

“[The Farm Bureau] opposes the labeling of genetically engineered food, animal welfare reform and environmental regulation. In Washington, its well-funded team of lobbyists and lawyers seeks to dismantle the federal Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act, opposing pesticide restrictions and increased scrutiny of greenhouse gas emissions and pollution from CAFOs,” or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, writes Shearn. He notes that over the past decade, the nation’s 10 largest agribusiness interests gave $35 million to congressional candidates—led by the Farm Bureau, which gave $16 million.

Beyond its status as a non-profit farmers organization, the Farm Bureau is a $14 billion network of for-profit insurance companies and the third-largest insurance group in the United States which also has a financial interest in agribusiness corporations. Shearn explains how Farm Bureau insurance affiliates have bought stock in major food industry players like Cargill, ConAgra, Dow Chemical, DuPont, Tyson and Archer Daniels Midland.

In rural areas, the Farm Bureau grooms compliant political candidates, Shearn reports, mostly Republicans; it wields the power to dictate outcomes of legislative elections and appointments to powerful state agriculture committees. Then it influences which farm-related bills become law.

Shearn follows Rolf Christen, a farmer in Missouri who was once an enthusiastic member of his Farm bureau board, but ended up as the leader of local resistance to CAFOs and his local Farm Bureau. Christen and 60 of his neighbors formed the Citizens Legal Environmental Action Network, or CLEAN, in order to seek meaningful legal redress against the pollution from CAFO operations.

Shearn reports on the ongoing legal battle to hold a Missouri CAFO accountable for a litany of infractions including breaches of manure lagoons, runoff from spreading manure on the land, burst pipes that sent hog waste flowing into streams, lakes and onto neighboring properties, causing miles of polluted streams and killing fish. In 2010, a record $11 million was awarded to 15 plaintiffs. Shearn notes how the Missouri Farm Bureau insurance affiliates paid the legal bills for the polluting CAFOs.

newsmatch 2023 banner - donate to support civil eats

In response to these types of lawsuits, Shearn writes that the Farm Bureau moved the battlefield to the Statehouse floor with a bill which was passed into law limiting citizens’ ability to sue large agribusinesses. In addition, Shearn details how the Farm Bureau is leading the way in a high-priced public relations campaign to paint agriculture in a more favorable light.

The story was produced in collaboration between the Food & Environment Reporting Network and The Nation, and appears online at www.thenation.com. You can read the full report here.

We’ll bring the news to you.

Get the weekly Civil Eats newsletter, delivered to your inbox.

Paula Crossfield is a founder and the Editor-at-large of Civil Eats. She is also a co-founder of the Food & Environment Reporting Network. Her reporting has been featured in The Nation, Gastronomica, Index Magazine, The New York Times and more, and she has been a contributing producer at The Leonard Lopate Show on New York Public Radio. An avid cook and gardener, she currently lives in Oakland. Read more >

Like the story?
Join the conversation.

More from

2023 Farm Bill

Featured

Volunteers from DTE Energy pack prepackaged boxes for delivery to churches and homebound seniors at Focus: HOPE, a local agency located in Detroit, Michigan that operates the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) in a client choice model so that participants can select the foods they want. (Photo credit: Preston Keres, USDA)

The Government Spends Billions on Food. Who Benefits?

In this week’s Field Report: A push to improve federal food purchasing heats up, the first food-focused COP kicks off, dust storms accelerate, and new evidence suggests that fair-trade certifications are failing to protect farmworkers.

Popular

With Season 2, ‘High on the Hog’ Deepens the Story of the Nation’s Black Food Traditions

Stephen Satterfield and Jessica B. Harris watching the sunset at the beach, in a still from Netflix's High on the Hog Season 2. (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

Building a Case for Investment in Regenerative Agriculture on Indigenous Farms

Jess Brewer gathers livestock at Brewer Ranch on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. (Photo courtesy of Intertribal Agriculture Council, www.indianag.org)

Walmart and EDF Forged an Unlikely Partnership. 17 Years Later, What’s Changed?

Aerial view of cargo containers, semi trailers, industrial warehouse, storage building and loading docks, renewable energy plants, Bavaria, Germany

Relocalizing the Food System to Fight a ‘Farm-Free Future’