Word on Wheat: Congress Is Back, And So Are Growers
by Wayne Hurst
NAWG Secretary-Treasurer
National Association of Wheat Growers
www.wheatworld.org
January 09, 2009
In the spring of 2002, while Congress was working out the final details of the 2002 Farm Bill, I was privileged to travel to Washington, D.C., for the first time as a participant in that year's WILOT leadership program class.
Though I had been involved in politics in my relatively small, rural state for many years, this was my first trip to see NAWG's national policy development process and participate in lobbying Congress on behalf of those policies. And, I have to admit I was skeptical of the worth of the time and money expended to lobby in Washington.
Having been involved at the local level, I personally knew most of our state legislators and other elected officials, including our own Congressional delegation. I had seen them respond favorably to input from our state association on various occasions. If we needed to be heard, I thought, we could just contact our federal representatives, and they'd take care of us.
The first day in D.C., Ray Buttars and I had a couple of hours of free time, and we decided to tour an art museum since there aren't many modern art exhibits in Burley or Weston, Idaho. While gazing at abstract works and trying to decide what the artists were thinking - and why they got paid big bucks for their creations - we met a young couple from Oregon. I asked them what brought them to our nation's capital, and they told me they were in town to lobby against "large-scale commercial farming."
Neither Ray nor I told them what we did for a living, but it made me wonder how many other people just like them were doing the same thing – and rethink my opinion about the value of sending real farmers back to lobby for real farmers.
I thought about this story this week while in D.C. for a number of meetings on and off the Hill. Since that first trip to D.C., I have seen in many instances honest, sincere, solid farmers speak on our behalf to Members of Congress and their staff members. I have personally seen policies taken from the farm and county level become state association policy, then national association policy. I've also seen some of those policies adopted by Congress and become part of federal policy and law for the betterment and protection of American farms and families.
I have also seen the value of having a dedicated national wheat organization staff as a constant presence in Washington, speaking with the national voice and collaborating with other farm groups, but able to immediately access state executives and growers back home when the need arises.
If I as an individual farmer contact my Senator or Representative, that does make a difference, but having farmers involved in strong, viable county and state organizations and a strong, viable national organization to get those policies noticed at the federal level can amplify the influence we have on issues that affect our farms.
Though I'm not sure my friends from the art museum would agree, when someone speaks on behalf of the nation's wheat farmers, we all benefit.