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American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall Rallies Pennsylvania by Philip Gruber Lancaster Farming, November 26, 2021

U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, the Republican who has championed dam removal, says salmon and steelhead
populations have failed to recover after $17 billion has been spent over decades on other strategies.

HERSHEY, Pa. -- With humor and heart, Zippy Duvall told Pennsylvania farmers Tuesday night that they have an important role in the politics and fabric of the nation.

"I don't know about you personally, but I'm going to plant seeds of hope. I think that the best days of American agriculture and this organization are in front of us," said Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Duvall spoke at Pennsylvania Farm Bureau's annual meeting.

Though Duvall is a Georgia farmer, his mother was from Westover, Pennsylvania, where her father worked in a tannery.

"I have a special place in my heart for Pennsylvania," Duvall said.

In visiting 23 states since June, Duvall said he has seen the optimism and generosity of American farmers. Farm Bureau members have given over $5 million to food banks and donated 100 million pounds of food.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Farm Bureau promoted the slogan "Still Farming" to reassure people who were alarmed by the bare shelves at grocery stores. The social media hashtag was seen by 110 million people in 90 countries.

"We told your story, guaranteeing the general public of America that the farmer always goes to work," Duvall said.

During the pandemic, Farm Bureau has also pushed for solutions to ag labor shortages, sought increased staffing at Farm Service Agency offices, and opposed vaccine mandates.

Duvall also highlighted Farm Bureau's partnership with National Farmers Union to address rural mental health challenges. Duvall said he identifies with those struggles, having gone through serious depression after his wife, Bonnie, died in 2020.

"All you got to do is lend me your ear. You ain't got to have an answer for them. They want somebody to share," Duvall said. "It's just as important as anything else we do every day."

Duvall said Farm Bureaus are making progress on regional issues across the country.

In Idaho, a congressman was looking to tear out the lock-and-dam system on the Snake River to help with salmon migration.

But Duvall said the fish lifts transport 98% of the fish -- "I call them handicap ramps for salmon," he joked -- and removing the locks and dams would force the region's export-bound grain shipments off barges and onto 100,000 trucks.

"I saw that community saying, 'Hey, wait a minute. Where's the common sense in this?'" Duvall said.

U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, the Republican who has championed dam removal, says salmon and steelhead populations have failed to recover after $17 billion has been spent over decades on other strategies.

Along the Mexican border, Duvall said farmers are so concerned about encounters with people who have surreptitiously crossed the border that they take their children, and a gun, everywhere with them.

"Farmers and ranchers up and down that border feel like their federal government has turned its back on them," he said.

Those concerns led Farm Bureau leaders from all 50 states to send a letter to the president. That communication has sparked discussions with the administration, Duvall said.

Farm Bureau lobbying has also tempered the debate in Congress on climate change and tax policy, as well as the Biden administration's plans to rewrite water regulations and increase protected lands.

Farm Bureau is also pressing for action against Mexico and Canada, which Duvall said are violating their new trade agreement with the United States.

Duvall said the nation's polarization has made it increasingly difficult for Farm Bureau to forge common ground with lawmakers.

"In the place in Washington that we always find bipartisanship, in the Ag Committee, it's not there anymore," Duvall said. "It's as partisan as the rest of them, and it's a really sad thing to see."

Farm Bureau's staff and lobbyists still do a lot to advance a unified voice for farmers, but Duvall said the organization's strength ultimately comes from the county Farm Bureaus that propose policy positions and put a face on the issues.

"When you email your congressman or senator, when you go to a town hall meeting, when you invite their staff out to your farm, when you do tours -- when you do all those things, it harvests the crop that we planted with your policy book," Duvall said.

Ernest Mattiuz agreed that farmers' grassroots political activity is deeply important.

At the annual meeting, Mattiuz concluded an eight-year tenure representing Armstrong, Clarion, Elk, Forest, Jefferson and Venango counties on the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau board of directors.

In farewell remarks, Mattiuz explained his philosophy for how Farm Bureau should work.

"If they came from the agricultural soils of the southeast or the rugged mountains of the northwest and north-central Pennsylvania, everyone involved in agriculture had an equal voice in how this organization was run and the policies that it followed," he said.