Building for Success at GALC
“I know who you are.” Those are some of the most gratifying words an Illinois Farm Bureau member can hear while shaking hands with a legislator or a government official. They signal that we have the kind of relationships — and IFB has the kind of influence — with decision makers that we don’t need to introduce ourselves.
Those IFB principles were on full-display February 20, when about 400 IFB members and farmer leaders gathered in Springfield for the 2024 Governmental Affairs Leadership Conference (GALC), themed “Building for Success.”
Every year I look forward to GALC because it not only sets the foundation for the next cycle of the IFB grassroots policy development process, but it also provides members an opportunity to meet with their respective lawmakers and share their personal stories of issues impacting their farms.
I appreciated the chance to speak with state and federal legislators who attended this year’s GALC legislative reception and was pleased to see many county Farm Bureau groups leading spirited discussions with the officials who represent their communities and their businesses in the statehouse.
Photos from the reception can be found in this FarmWeek gallery.
Members engaging with legislators from both sides of the aisle is an important longstanding tradition of Farm Bureau, one that I've been proud to participate in for years through IFB’s Leaders to Washington Program and IFB’s Adopt-A-Legislator Program.
These initiatives and the relationships strengthened through them are part of the way IFB maintains its credibility in Springfield and in D.C., and they remain crucial to moving the needle on state and federal ag issues.
But advancing our legislative priorities forward goes beyond just knowing and studying the major challenges — taking on big issues means we must also think big and craft creative policy solutions.
GALC serves as a kind of incubator for these solutions, providing members with a foundation to engage the IFB policy development process at the county level and further develop their ideas ahead of the work of the Resolutions Committee this summer.
IFB’s policy positions adopted through this process ultimately underpin our 2024 local, state and federal legislative priorities.
On the state front, IFB is advocating to address in the Illinois estate tax the discrepancy between escalating farm estate valuations and annual farm income by calling for passage of the bipartisan Family Farm Preservation Act. I’m proud of the legislative work we're doing around the Illinois estate tax, and I’m confident the bipartisan nature of this important bill gives it legs to move through Springfield this year.
One bill IFB is working to prevent from advancing through the General Assembly is House Bill 1634, a paragraph-long bill that would force the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to adopt and maintain in Illinois motor vehicle emissions standards and regulations overseen by the California Air Resources Board. Read this FarmWeek article for more details on our efforts to defeat this bill.
The IFB environmental policy team also continues to monitor the status of the dicamba label, following a series of legal and regulatory moves in February that impacted the herbicide’s over-the-top (OTT) use on dicamba-tolerant soybeans and cotton.
A federal court on Feb. 6 vacated the 2020 registrations of three OTT dicamba products previously approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). AFBF and other ag groups called on EPA to provide guidance to farmers following the ruling, and on Feb. 14 EPA issued an existing stocks order for dicamba products previously registered for OTT use on tolerant beans and cotton.
That order authorizes limited sales and distribution of dicamba products already in the possession of growers or in trade channels and outside the control of ag chemical companies. The products covered in the order must have been packaged, labeled and released for shipment before Feb. 6.
In Illinois, the end date for sale and distribution of existing stocks of the three dicamba products is May 13, while the end date for use of existing stocks is June 12, or the soybean V4 growth stage, whichever is first.
Looking to another environmental issue, IFB staff also continues to track implementation of EPA’s Endangered Species Act (ESA) Workplan and development of EPA’s draft herbicide strategy. The latter was granted a three-month extension, while updates to the ESA Workplan were announced recently.
IFB in comments submitted to EPA this fall said strategies proposed in the workplan and herbicide strategy would be disastrous for farmers, rural communities and the food supply chain. Our team continues to review the agency’s changes, and we will update members with action items related to EPA’s ESA Workplan and herbicide strategy.