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The National Grange Challenges New Farm Legislation to Encourage a Rural Entrepreneurial Spirit
RALEIGH, N.C. (Feb. 1, 2007) -- The president of the National Grange told the North Carolina Agricultural Development Forum here today that the 2007 Farm Bill must encourage a new entrepreneurial spirit in Rural America. William A. Steel, himself a veteran farmer and rural leader, said that new farm legislation must develop agricultural entrepreneurs who will exploit successful farm business plans and rural lifestyle goals. “This is critical so that the next two generations of farmers and ranchers can earn above-average, market-driven returns on their investments of time, talent, and capital,” he pointed out.
According to Steel, the National Grange supports the adoption of a 2007 Farm Bill that will stimulate interest and appreciation for an expanding and evolving agricultural industry. This includes adoption of innovative farm practices such as part-time, new uses, direct-to-consumer, biotechnology, bio-energy, and organic farming. The National Grange is the nation’s oldest general farm and rural public interest organization.
Steel told the North Carolina Forum, hosted by state agriculture commissioner Steve Troxler, that American agriculture faces both difficult challenges and lucrative opportunities as the nation’s population grows over the next half century. He pointed out that nationwide, farmers today are a highly diverse and constantly evolving group of nearly 2.2 million entrepreneurs who differ greatly in the size and location of their operations, the products they produce, the environmental challenges they face, the marketing decisions they make, and the annual revenues they derive from farming operations. “There are nearly limitless numbers of potentially successful farm business plans and rural lifestyle goals that the next two generations of farmers and ranchers will be able to deploy to capture their fair share of the market,” Steel stated.
The National Grange president believes the 2007 Farm Bill should set a goal of increasing human resources in the domestic agricultural sector by encouraging the greatest participation by entrepreneurial individuals and families, as well as the broadest distribution of agricultural production among those participants.
Steel concluded: “At no point in time since founders of the National Grange met in Washington, D.C. 140 years ago to create a voluntary grassroots organization has an impending structural shift in the nature of U.S. agriculture been more apparent.” He noted that circumstances have brought us to a seminal point in time, which calls for creative leadership to help shepherd U.S. farming and rural communities through the rapidly changing demographic, social and economic forces sweeping the country. “I am confident,” he said, “that by working together we can forthrightly address the major challenges facing today’s family farmers and ranchers and the rural communities that nurture them. We can do this through the adoption of innovative and progressive policies as part of the 2007 Farm Bill.”
The National Grange is the nation’s oldest national agricultural organization, with 2,800 state, county, and local grassroots chapters in 37 states. Grange members provide service to agricultural and rural communities on a wide variety of issues. A full copy of Mr. Steel’s remarks is available from : pweller@agriwashington.org.
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