La. Farm Bureau Legislative Update: Be Prepared to Answer the Call
By Joe Mapes
Louisiana Farm Bureau Legislative Specialist
As the new year fast-approaches, your Farm Bureau legislative team is preparing for whatever might come ag’s way next year. Yes, we have a pro-business legislature and pro-business Governor that both support agribusiness, but that doesn’t mean Farm Bureau won’t have a fight on our hands over an issue yet to be seen; possibly an issue trickling down from the national level for each state to decide for itself.
Regardless, the concept of “always be prepared” is at play here, but what if we circle our agribusiness wagons to prepare for a fight next year, and no big, nasty issue rears its ugly head? What will we have lost? The answer is nothing, but we will have gained stronger relationships with our Farm Bureau family that we will call upon later for help with their legislators. That’s the power and the strength of the Farm Bureau Federation, i.e., people like you. Being united as an organization also helps to keep Farm Bureau’s influence strong so we can help with big issues like insurance reform. On such issues that affect our Farm Bureau family, many players are always in the room, but the voice of agriculture that is Farm Bureau is always heard loud, clear, and with great respect. Farm Bureau has been a trusted source of information since its inception.
So, come January 1st, get ready to roll up your sleeves because this is a team effort, and you are part of the team. When you’re called upon to participate in the legislative process, please answer the call. We’re only asking for one reason, and that’s because we need your help to educate the legislators about farming and agriculture. We need your participation to continue to be the strong organization that Farm Bureau has been for decades. We need you to win!
Speaking of participation, Farm Bureau is hosting legislative appreciation dinners in regions around the state beginning in January leading up to the legislative session that begins in March. The legislative team will travel the state and sit with the legislators back home to enjoy a dinner with the legislators and their families, We won’t talk business, only friendships and mutual relationships. That way, when the legislators get to the Capitol in Baton Rouge, our Farm Bureau legislative team will be a set of familiar faces in a sea of strangers for the legislators. This is one way that we develop trusted relationships with legislators, and these relationships are critical to our success at the Capitol.
A Louisiana politician once tried to convince the world that politics is not about who you know, but it’s about what you know. That politician was wrong, wrong, wrong! Politics is all about “who” we know being at the table so that Farm Bureau and agriculture are not on the menu!