SALT LAKE CITY (DTN) -- If an immigration-labor deal develops in Congress, the American Farm Bureau Federation might be willing to accept caps on the number of visas for a year-round agricultural worker program.
Delegates at the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) convention in Salt Lake City on Tuesday voted for changes in the group's policy book used to lobby Congress for legislation.
For years, AFBF has opposed any caps on immigration agricultural labor visas or stayed "neutral" on any such legislation, which is often viewed by members of Congress as Farm Bureau's opposition. A bill in the last Congress, for instance, started with a 40,000 year-round cap on agricultural visas that AFBF considered too low to practically work.
Delegates argued the no-caps stance has left the Farm Bureau out of negotiations on potential immigration deals.
In its policy book, AFBF backs an "uncapped agricultural worker visa program that is open to all segments of agriculture." But after debate, delegates added, "We may accept visa caps for a year-round program" as long as those caps do not restrict farmers and ranchers from using a visa program and getting their labor needs met.
Bryan Searle, president of the Idaho Farm Bureau, said "it's going to take a number" to get bipartisan support for any bill creating a year-round guest worker program for agriculture.
"So, we need to open our minds just a little bit," Searle said.
As of now, livestock producers such as dairies or other farms such as horticulture nurseries have no access to a guest-worker program. The H-2A program that farmers increasingly use only allows seasonal workers.
Shawn Harding, president of the North Carolina Farm Bureau, said his farmers are at a point that just "get us something" for a year-round program is important.
"We will not get anywhere if we don't talk about visa caps, and it is time for us to get something done," Harding said.
Dan Wright, president of the Arkansas Farm Bureau, was among those who cautioned that farmers could face a tight cap policy by yielding on their stance. "On our livestock side, I would love to have full, year-round H-2A workers. I don't see how having a cap helps this."
Zippy Duvall, a Georgia farmer and president of AFBF, said he takes any kind of language about visa caps to the AFBF board of directors to vote on. "We are very split on what we are willing to accept and what we won't accept," Duvall said, but added that improving agriculture's labor challenges remains his top priority.
"No one in this room wants to solve this problem more than I do -- no one," Duvall said.
On other labor issues, AFBF backed any legislation that would implement an H-2A wage freeze at 2023 levels or eliminate the "Adverse Effect Wage Rate," or other policies that would cap annual wage hikes.
AFBF also added a policy that supports giving asylum seekers identification cards to allow them to work and be taxed.
ACRE ACT LOSS
A priority for the American Bankers Association is a bill dubbed the ACRE Act that would exempt interest income from taxation for farm real-estate loans or rural home loans. A move on the floor to add that language to AFBF policy failed on a 59% to 41% vote following a debate among delegates over community banks versus Farm Credit.
"This would help keep banks in your rural communities," said one delegate, though the motion failed.
CROP INSURANCE/DISASTER AID
USDA's Risk Management Agency and private insurers should develop products to more comprehensively cover quality losses, including discounts producers receive at the point of sale, AFBF delegates agreed. RMA should develop discount factors for quality adjustments that reflect regional and seasonal discounts.
AFBF also supports the creation of a permanently funded disaster loss program or insurance type of program for milk producers that will provide assistance when natural disasters or other weather events hamper the ability for dairy farmers to get milk to market.
A separate policy change also backs increasing the Dairy Margin Coverage protection cap from 5 million pounds of milk to 7.5 million pounds.
On a couple of policies tied to how USDA is implementing the Emergency Relief Program (ERP), AFBF opposes disaster programs reducing payment for farmers that are not in a discriminatory class of farmer owners. AFBF also opposes the use of tax documents to determine disaster program eligibility -- such as the schedule F used under ERP.
Additional crops also should be eligible for double cropping insurance coverage.
Among some policies on artificial intelligence (AI), crop insurance should integrate AI-related risks into crop insurance and livestock insurance policies to cover losses from AI failures or errors.
CLIMATE/GREEN ENERGY
Farm Bureau delegates went against a key emissions goal of the Biden administration by opposing "the unrealistic green energy goal of reaching a 100% clean electricity grid by 2035 and net-zero emission status by 2050, due to adverse impacts on agricultural land and the economy."
AFBF also opposes any restrictions on fossil fuels as a source of energy in agriculture, residential and commercial industries.
Farm Bureau delegates agreed to oppose subsidies for electric vehicle charging stations. They also opposed classifying solar and wind energy as agricultural commodities or farming, but support efforts to prioritize the siting of solar projects on marginal or underused lands.
On trade, AFBF delegates support the U.S. Trade Representative's Office and USDA to ensure "U.S. food and agriculture businesses are not subject to other nations' domestic climate policy goals."
The group supports the production of more E85 and flex-fuel vehicles, as well as allowing ethanol and fertilizer plants to convert carbon dioxide into green methanol products.
OTHER POLICY CHANGES
Among other changes to AFBF's policy book, delegates agreed to:
-- Support the inclusion of all fluid milk options, including whole milk and flavored milk in all federal school lunch meals.
-- Support increasing the weight limits for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to more accurately reflect using drones in agriculture. AFBF also opposes UAS chemical and agricultural product applicators having to meet the same requirements as manned aerial applications.
-- On the Beef Checkoff, AFBF opposes legislation that would prevent a checkoff organization from participating in promotional or educational outreach with other organizations even if they lobby. That includes AFBF formally opposing the Opportunities for Fairness in Farming Act.
-- Farm Bureau also added policies opposing the federal government from scheduling the veterinary tranquilizer xylazine as a controlled substance by the DEA. Farm Bureau also wants xylazine used in veterinary medicine to remain exempt from any efforts to criminalize position of the drug. Over the past year, DEA and the Centers for Disease Control have each issued warnings that xylazine is being increasingly blended with fentanyl. The DEA reported as much as 23% of fentanyl tested has xylazine blended in with it.
-- Support developing federal electric and hybrid vehicle road-use charge.
-- Increase gross vehicle weight limits for raw agriculture and forestry commodities by allowing additional axles per federal bridge law.
-- Support increased funding for USDA's county Farm Service Agency offices, including increasing the pay scale for those staff and higher compensation for county committee members.
-- Eliminate any liability of agricultural producers and retailers or applications for contamination caused by PFAS or forever chemicals on agricultural commodities or land.
-- Support legislation to include potash and phosphate on the U.S. Geological Survey's list of critical minerals.
-- AFBF also added language that vehicle manufacturers should continue to include AM radio in new vehicles.
For more on AFBF's 2024 convention, see "American Farm Bureau Federation Focused on Farm Bill, Ag Labor Challenges" here: https://www.dtnpf.com/…
Also see "Tackling Mental Health Among Farmers" here: https://www.dtnpf.com/…
Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com
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