Farm Bureau members from across the state served as delegates to the South Dakota Farm Bureau (SDFB) annual meeting, representing their county Farm Bureau organizations from where the grassroots policies were surfaced. The meeting, held Nov. 20-21 in Pierre, was SDFB’s 98th annual.

“Farm Bureau continues to have strong participation in our grassroots policy process,” said Wanda Blair, rancher from Vale, S.D., and SDFB Vice President. “Our farm and ranch members brought a wide variety of resolutions up from the counties, and at the state annual meeting we had healthy debate and thoughtful discussion on these important issues.”

Resolutions brought forward by Farm Bureau members covered property owners’ rights, flooded private land, permitting for animal feeding operations, support for agricultural research, transportation and infrastructure, property taxes, adequate school funding, and more.

Farm Bureau members expressed concern about the constant flow of rules and regulations coming out of Washington, D.C., enacted without Congressional approval. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was cited specifically, and the SDFB delegates passed a resolution stating that no new agency rules can be enacted without Congressional approval and the President’s signature.

This resolution, along with one asking for rules to establish domestic low-level presence standards for biotechnology in grain shipments to prevent issues on certain exports, will go on to the national level for consideration by delegates to the American Farm Bureau Federation annual meeting.

To encourage the development of animal agriculture at the local level, SDFB members passed a resolution that “supports initiating a review and potential remedy of the current county CAFO siting process, allowing individual counties to opt out in accordance with proposed state law.”

The SDFB Policy Book is updated annually through grassroots participation by farm and ranch members at the county level. For more details on South Dakota Farm Bureau’s policies and positions, visit our “Policy & Advocacy” menu heading.

South Dakota Farm Bureau is the largest agriculture association in the state, representing more than 16,000 farm, ranch and rural families. SDFB will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2017.