AFBF Executive Vice President, Joby Young, is Eager to be a Voice for the Agriculture Community

Listen to Ron Hays talking with AFBF’s Joby Young about his plans to continue to fight for agriculture and stand with producers.

Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is visiting with the Executive Vice President of the American Farm Bureau Federation, Joby Young, talking about what led him to take on his position with AFBF.

“It is great to be here in Oklahoma and great to be with the Farm Bureau members here gathered for their annual meeting,” Young said. “I am four months into American Farm Bureau Federation, and it has been a great experience.”

While there are always issues in ag policy in the agriculture sector, Young acknowledged that there are many important issues going on currently, such as WOTUS (Waters of the United States), the 2023 Farm Bill, and Proposition 12.

“We look forward to engaging with a new group of congressmen that are coming into congress, but not just the new members- there are a lot of members across the country that might have been elected in 2018 and 2020 that have never been a part of a farm bill process before, and so we look forward to those conversations and talking about what the future holds for agriculture.”

Young said AFBF has been engaged in the Proposition 12 issue, because while it is a danger to the pork industry, there are also potential ramifications for all of agriculture. Young said that along with the National Pork Producers, AFBF was a principal plaintiff in the Proposition 12 case, so he had the opportunity to listen to oral arguments firsthand.

“The reason for American Farm Bureau’s involvement is the potential wide-ranging ramifications of that issue,” Young said. “It is not really confined just to one industry. That could have effects across a lot of ag industries and then also industries that are outside of ag. When you talk about these interstate commerce issues and whether one state can set rules that govern production methods in other states- that is why we were involved.”

AFBF, Young said, has been working to decide what positions they will be advocating for in the 2023 farm bill.

“We have gone through a process the last few months with the farm bill working group that articulates our priorities, and that involves state members all across the country that are involved in that working group,” Young said. “They take our current policy and create those priorities that we released a few weeks ago.”

The overarching priorities, Young said, are things such as maintaining a unified Farm Bill, having the nutrition title and the farm program titles put together, maintaining the funding levels for the current farm bill programs, and maintaining risk management products.

“We are in a time with a lot of uncertainty and a lot of inflation right now in farm country,” Young said. “Supply chain snarls and all the rest, so that is really important at this specific time, of course.”

AFBF is focused-in on protecting crop insurance, Young said, as it is a great tool for uncertainties farmers are faced with.

A large part of the Farm Bureau approach, Young said, is educating members about advocacy for agriculture.

“We spend a lot of time engaging with our members, making sure that they have to tools to be effective advocates as part of the whole overall Farm Bureau approach, which involved folks at the county level, the state level, the national level- all facets of the organization,” Young said.

The American Farm Bureau Federation, Young said, has a great history of being the voice of agriculture and representing farmers and ranchers across the country in all walks of agriculture. That history of supporting those in the agriculture industry, he added, is to continue.

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