JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Voting delegates representing Farm Bureau members from Madison County were among delegates attending Missouri Farm Bureau's 94th annual meeting December 7-9 at the Lake of the Ozarks.  More than 1,200 family farmers and ranchers from throughout the state attended this year's meeting.

Madison County Farm Bureau members who participated in the Missouri Farm Bureau annual meeting include: James Priday,  Jean Priday,  Rose Powell,  Dennis Bradford, and Kay Bradford.   

Voting delegates approved policy positions on an array of state and national issues affecting agriculture and rural Missouri.

"Missouri Farm Bureau spends almost six months every year determining our organization's position on issues. The process begins in June when the State Resolutions Committee hears from a cross-section of state and national officials, representatives of other agriculture organizations and students involved in Farm Bureau's six collegiate chapters.  The committee develops a policy questionnaire which is sent to every Farm Bureau member and later develops tentative resolutions based upon the results.  The process culminates with the action of more than 400 voting delegates at the annual meeting," said Charles Kruse, president of Missouri Farm Bureau.

Some of the major policies adopted at this year's annual meeting include:

¢    Opposition to the regulation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under the Federal Clean Air Act that would increase fuel, fertilizer and energy costs for agriculture and could impose a de facto tax on livestock from $20 to $175 per head, and opposition to the legislature or governor implementing a mandatory cap on GHG emissions in Missouri;

¢    Opposition to the Missouri Department of Conservation increasing permit fees or requiring new permits (since the department already receives significant revenues from the 1/8 cent sales tax), increasing the resident landowner acreage threshold for large game permit privileges from five to 80 contiguous acres, creating a landowner registry for the purpose of allocating landowner hunting permits and linking permit fee pricing to an index such as the Consumer Price Index;

¢    Reaffirmed support for campaign contribution limits and increasing transparency and opposing individuals or special interest groups using political committees to make sizeable indirect contributions to candidates, thereby avoiding public disclosure;

¢    Support for allowing farmers to exit early from the Conservation Reserve Program without penalty if they leave the land in grass and forages for livestock production or produce biomass as feedstock for renewable energy;

¢    Support for increased funding to the Missouri Department of Agriculture for the surveillance and control of livestock diseases;

¢    Reinforced support for a voluntary animal identification program and the ability of producers to opt-out of the federal National Animal Identification System;

¢    Support for allowing farmers to complete and self-certify a spill control plan for their on-farm fuel storage rather than hire a certified engineer;

¢    Opposition to early voting but support for no-excuse absentee voting;

¢    Support for certified teachers and staff, including vocational agriculture education instructors, enrolled in the Public School Retirement System remaining exempt from Social Security tax;

Selected delegates from Missouri will present Missouri policy of national and international interest to voting delegates during the American Farm Bureau Federation's annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas, Jan. 11-13.