Farm Credit Goes to Washington to Advocate for Strong Farm Bill

Farm Credit is known for building meaningful relationships with our customer-owners; however, our continued success is dependent on more than just customer relations. Even many of our customer-owners are unaware that the Farm Credit System was established by Congress more than 100 years ago. For that reason, our relationships with lawmakers remain crucial. We continue to build those relationships with key members through frequent meetings and farm visits in which we share the Farm Credit story at the state and federal level. Our legislative advocacy represents just another channel in which 弗吉尼亚农业信贷' supports agriculture and our rural communities, beyond reliable financing and local expertise. 

在11月, 我们的董事, customer-owners and staff joined more than 800 Farm Credit representatives from across the country in Washington, D.C., to partake in the Farm Credit Fly-in and 市场place Reception, which takes place every other year. Our efforts to share our customer-owners’ stories and the Farm Credit mission with legislators are always important, but especially so during a “Farm Bill year" like this one. As the House and Senate were voting to extend the Farm Bill by one year and continue their work to develop long-term Farm Bill legislation, it was critical to share the needs of our farmers and garner support from Capitol Hill.

The 2023 Farm Credit Fly-in kicked off with opening remarks and updates on the Farm Bill's latest developments from Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow and Ranking Member John Boozman and House Agriculture Committee Chairman G.T. 汤普森. The debrief took place just as Congress was preparing to vote on a one-year extension of the Farm Bill. We heard from each about hot button agricultural issues and the likely scenario of passing a 5-year Farm Bill in 2024.

在两天的时间里, our team members and directors conducted visits on Capitol Hill with our Congressional delegation and their staff, including the offices of Senator Capito (WV), 曼钦参议员(西弗吉尼亚州), 华纳参议员(弗吉尼亚州), 参议员凯恩(弗吉尼亚州), 代表. 克莱恩(弗吉尼亚州)，众议员. Good(弗吉尼亚州)，众议员. 众议员格里菲斯(弗吉尼亚州. 米勒(WV)，众议员. 众议员穆尼(西弗吉尼亚州. 斯潘伯格(弗吉尼亚州)和众议员. Wexton (VA). We also visited members from suburban/urban districts, including 代表. 拜尔(弗吉尼亚州)和众议员. 康诺利(VA). 在每次会议上, we discussed the importance of a strong Farm Bill for agriculture and rural America, highlighted Farm Credit’s contribution to our rural communities and of course, gave our customer-owners the opportunity to share their personal Farm Credit story, 真正实现了我们的使命.

To close out a busy few days of visits with policymakers, we reconvened for the heavily-anticipated Farm Credit 市场place Reception event in which we invited lawmakers to engage with our team and peruse products to take home which were provided by our customer-owners. The event, which took place at the outdoor District Pier on the Wharf, drew a record crowd. 

Our customer-produced offerings ranged from fresh fruits and vegetables, 热苹果酒, 南瓜, 妈妈和更多. We used these products to create teachable moments for our guests from Capitol Hill, in addition to providing “AgBite” resources and recipes developed by our own 知识中心 for the produce we featured! 弗吉尼亚农业信贷 featured the following customer-owners and their products at the reception:

• 和丰农场 (弗吉尼亚州奥古斯塔县)

• 中河南瓜田 (弗吉尼亚州奥古斯塔县)

• 里斯农场新鲜农产品 & 市场 (弗吉尼亚州哈利法克斯县)

• 泉谷农场 & 果园 (汉普郡，西弗吉尼亚州)

We know our collective work to advocate for agriculture and a strong Farm Bill is far from complete, 但是我们留下了D.C. knowing that we successfully advocated for our farmers and rural communities, and garnered continued support for Farm Credit on Capitol Hill. If you’d like to help share our message with elected officials, join our grassroots advocacy team! 只是访问 farmcredit.com/takeaction 注册我们的行动警报系统. You’ll get a message when we need you to contact your elected officials, and will be provided with an easy resource to do so. 加入我们，为农业挺身而出!“今天!

This feature story was published in the December 2023 领袖杂志. Access the full magazine (digital version) 在这里.