Providing key information on recent developments in rural America, including up-dates on the Farm Bureau, and salient issues converging around water quality, farm sustainability and the protection of biodiversity.

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BUREAU LEADERS SHOULD COME CLEAN

It is rumored that in response to the recent "60 Minutes" expose, Farm Bureau leaders are spending truckloads of money doing public relations damage control. We hear that the Iowa Farm Bureau alone has spent $250,000. What is most revealing is their response.

Instead of addressing the allegations raised in the broadcast about Farm Bureau leaders "stock options", "agribusiness investments", and other "conflicts of interests," farm bureau leaders chose to discredit "60 Minutes." They claim "60 Minutes" may have been "duped" by "extremists environmentalists. " (Ohio Farm Bureau "Special Track")

While applying the definition "extremist" to Defenders or Wildlife, or GREEN is patently false, it is also humorous to believe a reporter of Mike Wallace’s stature could "duped." What seems "extreme" in all this is their refusal to answer the allegations.

Farm Bureau leaders need to come clean. If they truly care about "family agriculture" they need to admit their giant agribusiness financial ties, apologize, correct the problem and begin to support their farmer members.

This, however, does not appear to be in the making.

Instead, it is going to require that some courageous public official(s) stands up to Farm Bureau’s power and calls for an investigation.

Please take a few moments today and contact your elected officials and challenge them to do something to help the environment and family farmers. I have included a sample letter that you might send, either by mail or via the internet. Also, please take a moment and call your state and federal congressional representatives.

Remember, every voice counts.

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SAMPLE LETTER

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Dear Member of Congress

As your constituent, I am urging you to initiate an investigation into the corporate ties, business activities and lobbying objectives of the American Farm Bureau Federation and also its special tax break. As you may have seen in a recent 60 minutes broadcast, Farm Bureau leaders are not only advancing an extreme anti-environmental agenda, they are profiting handsomely from corporate agribusinesses, while American farmers are going broke. Meanwhile, American tax payers are called to foot the bill for massive farm bailouts ($22 billion- 1999) resulting from agribusiness driven farm policy. Furthermore, these activities are financed by a unique tax break which allows the Farm Bureau to avoid paying taxes on much of their income.

Unfortunately, the recent CBS expose only scratched the surface of Farm Bureaus operations. A more comprehensive report by Defenders of Wildlife, entitled Amber Waves of Gain has brought to light further allegations.

Please consider the following points:

The Farm Bureau is not the organization of farmers it claims to be.

A substantial portion - as much as eighty percent by some estimates - of its membership has no interest in agriculture whatsoever. This vast majority of members have no right to vote on the Farm Bureau's agenda or its officials. The Farm Bureau has built a huge insurance and financial empire that has ownership interests in "for-profit" businesses with interests that compete with their farmer members.

The Farm Bureau has taken advantage of its tax-exempt status to advance an anti-family farm and generally extremist political agenda that seems to have little or nothing to do with the purposes for which it was awarded its special non profit status.

The Farm Bureau may have intentionally mis-represented its interests to Congress to receive a special tax privilege passed as part of the 1996 "Small Business Jobs Protection Act" which exempted them from paying the Unrelated Business Income Tax on non-farmer membership dues.

Still, these reports, like the tip of an iceberg, may only reveal a small portion of the questionable activities surrounding the Farm Bureaus immense financial and political empire.

I strongly implore you to demand accountability and transparency from this powerful and elusive organization. Please do the right thing and call for an investigation of the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Sincerely,

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BACKGROUND

The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) -- with its roughly3,000 constituent state and county farm bureaus -- ranks among the richest and most powerful non- governmental organizations in America. The organization was recently listed by Fortune Magazine as the 14th most powerful lobbying forces on Capital Hill.

AFBF claims to have more than 4.9 million members. It has artfully portrayed itself as the voice and champion of our nations family farmers for nearly 80 years. The vast majority of the Farm Bureaus members, however, have no connection to farming or agriculture and are instead simply policyholders of one of numerous insurance companies affiliated with state farm bureaus or are customers of other farm bureau business ventures. (At latest count there we re some 54 farm bureau insurance companies.) Such members have no vote in selecting the Farm Bureau leadership or say in establishing or carrying out Farm Bureau policies.

Because of the Farm Bureaus intricate web of nonprofit and for-profit businesses, it is hard to estimate the organizations total worth. However, it appears to take in more than $200 million annually from membership dues, more than $12 billion in revenue from its cooperatives, and more than $6.5 billion annually in net insurance premiums.

The Farm Bureau has a history of controlling the very congressional committees charged with overseeing issues related to agriculture. The last time a congressional subcommittee chairman tried to investigate them was in 1967 when Representative Joe Resnick (D-NY), acting as chairman of the subcommittee on rural poverty, did so. His inquiry was unceremoniously squashed when the Farm Bureau complained to House leaders. Following this incident Resnick's chief of staff Samuel "Sandy" Berger, the current Chief of the National Security Council wrote, "the Farm Bureau is far more than simply an organization of farmers, as it so often claims. The nation's biggest farm organization has been quietly but systematically amassing one of the largest business networks in America, while turning its back on the deepening crisis of the farmers whom it supposedly represents."

In 1996, Congress slipped into law a provision exempting the Farm Bureau from paying taxes on virtually any kind of membership dues. Since the Farm Bureau collects membership dues from millions of people who are not involved in agriculture, this translates into tens of millions of tax-free dollars from these unrelated business activities. By our estimate, the Farm Bureau avoids paying nearly $61million annually in taxes on unrelated business income. In addition to the anti-farmer agenda portrayed in the 60 Minutes expose, AFBF spends a great deal of money and time opposing environmental laws such as the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air and Safe Drinking Water Acts, wetlands laws and pesticide regulations. It regularly opposes government regulation to reduce air and water pollution and pesticide use and to protect wildlife, habitat, rural amenities and food quality. It is critical of efforts to counter global warming and has advocated abolition of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It has launched lawsuits to halt reintroduction of endangered gray wolves. It is allied politically with, and provides funding for, right-wing interests and the so-called wise-use movement, which works for the supremacy of private property ownership and against the protection and conservation of public lands. In addition, the Farm Bureau takes other extremist positions, including eliminating the U.S.

Department of Education; slackening child labor laws; and repealing the voting rights act of 1965.

Plenty of farmers and ranchers see common ground with environmentalists. Some are Farm Bureau members who cannot make their voices heard. Others have dropped their membership and are working for change in other ways. Yet the Farm Bureau has pursued a deliberate strategy of fostering enmity between farmers and environmentalists, two groups that could benefit from working together. To view or download a copy of Defenders report, Amber Waves of Gain How the Farm Bureau is Reaping Profits at the Expense of Americas Farmers, Taxpayers and the Environment logon to Defenders web site. Finally, you might want to inquire whether your insurance company is owned by the Farm Bureau, because if so, you are probably a member whose dues are used in ways you don’t approve.