01/14/08 Farm Bureau 89th Annual Meeting

The American Farm Bureau's 89th Annual Meeting is underway in New Orleans and delegates have plenty of issues to talk about during the session. Farm Bureau President Bob Stallman says the 47 hundred people who attend the convention will determine the agricultural policy for 2008. STALLMAN "IT'S ALWAYS DIFFICULT TO PREDICT WHAT OUR DELEGATES WILL ZERO IN ON IN TERMS OF POLICY, BUT A FEW THINGS COME TO MIND. WE STILL HAVE GREAT CONCERNS ABOUT IMMIGRATION AND THE LACK OF A GUESTWORKER PROGRAM. WE STILL HAVE A FARM BILL THAT, WHILE GREAT PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE, IS STILL NOT SIGNED INTO LAW AND PRODUCERS ARE PLANTING CROPS FOR 2008 AND THEY NEED TO KNOW WHAT THE RULES ARE GOING TO BE. Stallman says food safety will be one of the issues that will attract attention at the meeting especially after the problems with some Chinese imports. Another topic that's front and center is climate change. STALLMAN "Some proposals on the table now will have an impacts on agriculture, some positive and some negative and we have to work to be sure agriculture can play a role when we get into carbon reduction but at the same time that the extra cost associated with these regulations don't make it too burdensome for producers here in this country." Former Secretary of State Colin Powell will be the keynote speaker at the Farm Bureau convention which runs through Wednesday. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott