From December 3-4, 2024, over 400 county delegates and Michigan Farm Bureau staff gathered in Grand Rapids for the 105th State Annual Meeting. This meeting was the culmination of the past year’s work at the county level, doing grassroots policy development.
Throughout the year, county Farm Bureaus meet at the committee level to explore the agriculture-related legislative policies they are passionate about. Their discussions may include aspects to add to current policy recommendations, remove aspects, add emphasis, or suggest something new. The Policy Development Committees then share those policy recommendations with members, either at a special meeting or at the County Annual Meeting. Members discuss and vote on them. The winning policies move on to the state Policy Committee, and then to the State Annual Meeting SAM).
This year, Kent County Farm Bureau got to have 11 voting delegates on the SAM floor. Because not all our delegates are able to be there for every session, we always recruit more than the 11 we need. We are grateful for each person who took time away from their operations: Renee McCauley (delegate chair), Carlton Blough, Kristi Caine, James DeYoung, Kolene Gibson, Ricky Gibson, Andy Hagenow, Bryan Heffron, Bruce Klamer (County President and Chair of Policy Development Committee), Ava Koebel, Laurie Pant, Allan Robinette, Ned Stoller, Nicole Zaagman. In addition, former KCFB President Kylee Zdunic-Rasch served on the State Policy Development Committee, which meant that she got to watch the proceedings from the stage.
Their commitment not only included finding parking for the meetings in downtown Grand Rapids (never an easy task), but also sifting through hundreds of pages of policy recommendations. This year, the delegates were also tasked with approving changes to the Michigan Farm Bureau Bylaws, including a provision that the bylaws will be reviewed every 10 years by a committee appointed by the County Presidents.
It is always interesting to watch the delegate floor, seeing which recommendations the delegates want to discuss, and which they vote through without comment. Kent County got a few recommendations passed, including one advocating for expanding the kinds of schools that can have FFA chapters. Our recommendation to add Farm Stays to the definition of Agritourism got some discussion. Once we clarified that farm stays referred to short-term overnight rentals of farm buildings it passed with a unanimous vote.
Other topics that inspired discussion included labor visas, AI learning, autonomous agriculture vehicles, and carbon credit trading policies. The delegates this year were efficient: every voting session ended early! All the approved policies will be compiled into a book and the legislative and lobbying teams will use them as they advocate for agriculture on local, state, and national levels.
The other exciting event at this year’s State Annual Meeting was the election of a new President. It was quite a procedure: the delegates each declared their candidacy to the full meeting, the Board of Directors caucused privately and then presented their recommendation to the full meeting, then there was discussion on the floor before voting on the delegates’ nomination, then the Board caucused again. After all steps were completed, Ben LaCross emerged as the 17th President of Michigan Farm Bureau--the first specialty crop grower to lead MFB. He is a second-generation fruit farmer in Leelanau County who served on the MFB Board of Directors for 13 years, as well as taking on leadership positions at county, state, and national levels. He vowed that MFB will continue to focus on solving member problems, growing ag leaders, and to be steadfast in improving Michigan agriculture. He made it plain: “We will do what you tell us to do.”
We look forward to seeing the results of this grassroots policy development process over the next year, and look forward to the 2025 State Annual Meeting in December. If you are a Kent County Farm Bureau member, and this process sounds interesting to you, please let our County Administrative Manager, Natalie Hart ([email protected], 616.784.1092), know and she'll put you in touch with the Policy Development Committee.