Grassroots Members Participate in Annual Policy Development
September 2024 FloridAgriculture eNewsletter
Florida Farm Bureau’s grassroots policy development is in full swing as members from across the state gathered during August to participate in the organization’s commodity and issue based advisory committee fall meetings. These committees meet twice annually to review current Farm Bureau policy and to surface emerging issues that may need heightened focus in the organization’s advocacy efforts.
County Farm Bureaus nominate members to serve on advisory committees and the final selections are made by Florida Farm Bureau Federation President Jeb Smith. In addition to advisory committees, county Farm Bureaus can also submit resolutions for policy directly, as well as the Florida Farm Bureau Federation Board of Directors. Regardless of their method of generation, these new resolutions are reviewed by the oversight committee and then forwarded to the voting delegates to be ratified at the state Annual Meeting.
Member-ratified policy is the backbone of our organization. Without strong policy, we lack clear direction. The grassroots nature of this process is vital to ensure that our policy is truly representative of a broad cross section of our membership. As the state’s largest general agriculture organization, it can be challenging to ensure that policy does not pit subsets of our membership against each other. For this reason, our policy decisions are not made in haste; the process takes a full year to complete.
For more information on Farm Bureau’s policy development process, please contact the Agricultural Policy Department at 352.374.1543.
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