After an extraordinarily successful Annual Meeting and much debate on Arizona Farm Bureau policy, the Board of Directors met to set their 2024 Policy Priorities. Remaining focused on those issues that are paramount to Arizona agriculture while setting short-term priorities for the next year, the Arizona Farm Bureau is well prepared to lead the conversations to develop and implement sound policy that bolsters the agriculture industry. 

Arizona Farm Bureau (AZFB) has identified Water, Taxes, Transportation, Trade, Labor, Farm Policy and Land Use, and Environmental Regulations as our flagship issues for 2024. These issues are those that we have historically identified as broad high-level policy areas in which Farm Bureau is well positioned to lead. AZFB will ensure our members' interests are represented at both the state and federal levels. 

Our short-term policy priorities adopted by the board and those that staff will focus our efforts on include:

  • Protecting Agriculture Access to Water and Power
    1. Post-2026 consultation on the Colorado River.
    2. Rural Groundwater management.
  • Farm Bill 
    1. Passage of the next Farm Bill.
  • Arizona Department of Agriculture
    1. Bovine Trichomoniasis. 
    2. Meat processing -establishing a cooperative interstate shipping agreement.
    3. Agricultural Seed Standards -   Addressing concerns with seed standards and seed sold in Arizona.
  • State and Federal Lands
    1. Working with the State Land Office and Governor to protect agriculture leases on state land.
    2. Recreational Damage.
  • Ag Labor
    1. Work towards visa and H2A reform.
  • Ballot initiative
    1. Lead the way in promoting grassroots engagement to pass a ballot initiative. changing the way measures qualify for the ballot ensuring rural voices are heard. 

 

Arizona Farm Bureau leadership and staff will work hard on these policy priorities in 2024 leaning on our grassroots to help shape the future of Arizona agriculture. For a complete outline of our 2024 policy priorities go to www.azfb.org. 

This articles originally appeared in the January 2024 issue of Arizona Agriculture.