As we reported previously, American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall was in Indiana this past week touring ag facilities with Indiana Farm Bureau leadership. He learned about carbon sequestration at Cardinal Ethanol in Union City, visited a veal farm for the very first time in North Manchester, and then finished his day meeting with county Farm Bureau presidents at Beck’s Hybrids in Atlanta.
“As leader of this national organization, the largest general farm organization in the country, I just evaluated what was the most important position in our organization. And I determined, through my experience and all my life in Farm Bureau, that the most important position is County Farm Bureau President.”
And that’s why Duvall has dubbed this year as the year of the Farm Bureau County President for the organization.
“Because he’s the one that can activate his membership. Whether it be on a legislative issue, or whether it be on reacting to a storm going through a county and be there for their neighbor, or whether it be just supporting FFA, 4-H, or maybe a booster club. And that makes the brand of Farm Bureau valuable to everyone that lives in our rural communities.”
Duvall heard from several county presidents who stopped harvest to come meet with him to discuss issues important to them like water quantity issues in Tippecanoe County, farmland preservation, and others. One of the most important questions Duvall received was, “What more can we do?”
“What else can we do in our county to make it even more successful? And that’s exactly the question I wanted. I want them to strive to make their county Farm Bureau the most significant organization in the county, because we have a lot of organizations in our county- from Rotary Club to Booster Club to all kinds of clubs in our county- but we want people to look at Farm Bureau as being there for the county, the people that live in that county, and we’re here to serve them in whatever way that we can to help our county and our community grow and thrive in the future.”
Duvall says county Farm Bureau presidents are the ones that made Farm Bureau strong and have helped amplify that one united voice for American farmers. For that, he says thank you.
