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Membership Meeting of NFU Concluded

North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson defeated Pennsylvania Farmers Union President Larry Breech to succeed Tom Buis as National Farmers Union President on Tuesday as the annual membership meeting in Washington, D.C closed.

In his acceptance speech Johnson called NFU the leading voice that will be heard on Capitol Hill with the Administration and members of Congress when it comes to agriculture policy. During the meeting delegates laid out a course of action to push their agenda in several areas.

National Farmers Union members want the Obama Administration and Congress to pursue fair trade policies that acknowledge the changes in the agriculture landscape in the past ten years. NFU members also want USDA to implement the programs in the 2008 Farm bill as Congress intended.

Delegates are urging Congress to pass the Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment Act to resolve problems in existing agreements and establish fair parameters for any future trade agreements.

As for the farm bill, NFU delegates outlined several specific requests, including the expeditious issuance of program rules and regulations for the Supplemental Agricultural Disaster Assistance and Average Crop Revenue Election programs, increasing the Milk Income Loss Contract program payment percentage, timely implementation of conservation programs, oversight of stakeholders as they voluntarily implement stricter COOL rules and promotion of renewable energy programs, among many others.

NFU delegates also voiced their support of U.S. dairy farmers, asking Congress and the Administration to take all appropriate actions to sustain family dairy farmers through the current period of economic uncertainty. They also called on policy makers to consider the unique challenges facing rural America when debating policy solutions to the nation's health care system.