Washington, D.C.-based Defenders of Wildlife wants to
expose the American Farm Bureau Federation. In its 98-page report,
Amber Waves of Gain: How the Farm Bureau is reaping
profits at the expense of America’s family farmers, taxpayers and
the environment, Defenders accuses the Farm Bureau of
bowing to conglomerates, carrying an anti-wildlife agenda and
aligning itself with the extreme right. “The Farm Bureau is
perceived as the voice of farmers, when it is actually the voice of
agribusiness,” says Bob Ferris of Defenders of Wildlife. “It’s an
organization that is seriously broken in terms of setting its
priorities.” Ferris explains that only 1.9 million of the Bureau’s
5 million members are farmers – the rest are policyholders of one
of many Farm Bureau insurance companies or customers of other
for-profit ventures. “It’s going to take the sheer weight of outcry
to move (an investigation) forward,” says Ferris, whose
organization, along with 210 other groups, has called for a
congressional investigation of the Bureau.
The
98-page report is $12 from Wolf Coordinator, Defenders of Wildlife,
1101 14th St. NW, Suite 1400, Washington, DC 20005, or it can be
downloaded from
www.defenders.org.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Farm Bureau not for farmers.
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