Time to Wrestle the Microphone Away From Elitists?
Posted: January 11, 2010
Will 2010 be the year that farmer’s angst and frustration regarding regulations, misinformation and outright attacks reaches a peak? Based on the no holds barred speech offered up by American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) President Bob Stallman, at the group’s annual meeting in Seattle, WA last night, it’s a good bet.
In the speech, picked up by the New York Times, Stallman told the large and diverse AFBF membership “farmers and ranchers must unite to respond to “misguided, activist-driven regulation.”
“A line must be drawn between our polite and respectful engagement with consumers and how we must aggressively respond to extremists who want to drag agriculture back to the day of 40 acres and a mule,” Stallman said. “The time has come to face our opponents with a new attitude. The days of their elitist power grabs are over.”
Stallman’s strongest comments were reserved for legislation focusing on climate change and cap and trade which explains the NT Times placement of the story in its Energy and Environment section. The article written by Allison Winter (a regular in the Times and Climate Wire) does a nice job of capturing a growing sentiment in agriculture that normally reticent farmers must take the public stage and tell their positive story or face the consequences.
“Our adversaries are skillful at taking advantage of our politeness. Publicly, they call for friendly dialogue while privately their tactics are far from that,” Stallman said. “To those who expect to just roll over America’s farm and ranch families, my only message is this: The circumstances have changed.”