Florida Farm Bureau members visit Capitol for Field to the Hill

More than 80 Florida Farm Bureau members traveled to Washington, D.C. this month to visit with Florida’s congressional delegation concerning issues important to Florida agriculture, allowing the Florida delegation to make informed voting decisions related to those issues.

The annual trip, known as “Field to the Hill,” gives Farm Bureau members the unique opportunity to visit their members of Congress and to express their concerns about national issues first-hand.

“The investment that our members have made in time and effort on this trip will pay dividends for Florida agriculture,” said John L. Hoblick, president of the Florida Farm Bureau Federation.

“I am pleased that our members brought important agricultural issues to Florida’s congressional delegation and to the appropriate agencies.”

Issues the farm group discussed with congressional members included immigration reform, food safety, the Estate Tax, the Clean Water Act and climate change.

“Building relationships with our Congressional delegation and staff is vital to the grassroots mission of Farm Bureau,” said Adam Basford, national affairs coordinator for Florida Farm Bureau. “It means a lot to our organization and to members of Congress that our members take time from their work at home to carry their messages to DC.”

FFBF members met with their U.S. Representatives, as well as both U.S. Senators and the Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack.

“We had an ambitious agenda,” Hoblick said. “And we were successful in having Florida agriculture’s concerns heard at the highest levels of our Federal government.”

The Florida Farm Bureau Federation is the state’s largest general-interest agricultural association with about 140,000 member-families statewide. Headquartered in Gainesville, the Federation is an independent, nonprofit agricultural organization. More information about Florida Farm Bureau is available on the organization’s Web site, http://FloridaFarmBureau.org