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Sunday, July 16th has been set as the tentative date for the re-run
of CBS's expose of Farm Bureau leadership in Iowa entitled,
"Demise of the Family Farm."
Check local listings for viewing times in your area.
PLEASE POST THIS FAR AND WIDE!
Scotty Johnson
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(The following press release was put out by CBS for the initial
airing of this show on April 9th.)
CBS NEWS
524 West 57 Street New York, NY 10019-2985 April 6, 2000
FARMERS SAY THE FARM BUREAU HAS ABANDONED THEM
FOR BIG BUSINESS, WHOSE INTERESTS ARE A BIG FACTOR IN
THE DEMISE OF THE FAMILY FARM - “60 MINUTES” SUNDAY
The Farm Bureau, the non-profit, tax-exempt organization which calls
itself the “voice of agriculture,” is a ruralinstitution known to family
farmers across the nation. But many farmers will learn for the first time
onthis Sunday’s 60 MINUTES that in recent years, while tens of
thousands of farmers are sinking in debt, theassociation they support
with their annual dues has been building a for-profit business empire
worthbillions - and investing millions of dollars in some of the same giant
agribusiness corporations the FarmBureau members say are driving them
out of business. Mike Wallace’s report will be broadcast Sunday,April 9
(7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
The Farm Bureau has many for-profit interests outside of traditional
farming. Its Iowa chapter alone ownsand operates a $3.5 billion
insurance and financial services company that’s traded on the New York
StockExchange. That company, FBL Financial Group, gave thousands of
stock options to its directors,including the presidents of 14 state Farm
Bureaus. Wallace questioned Ed Wiederstein, presidentof the Iowa Farm
Bureau and Chairman of FBL Financial about the “couple of hundred
thousand bucks fromstock options that you cashed in” in 1998, a year of
severe economic hardship for Iowa farmers. “Yeah,that’s right, and that
no doubt helped me out,” says Wiederstein. “I’ve got four kids in
school, andthat’s part of it. I mean, that’s just the way it is.”
The Farm Bureau says its investments make it possible for it to fund
education programs and to providefarmers things they need, such as
insurance. But some family farmers say that the Farm
Bureau’sinvestments have placed them in the pocket of corporate
America. “All [the Farm Bureau’s]decisions are made for corporate
America because they own part of it,” Iowa farmer Linus Solbergtells
Wallace. The farmers point to the Farm Bureau’s efforts to defeat
national legislation that wouldhave imposed an 18-
month moratorium on corporate agribusiness mergers. Through its
various holdings, the Iowa Farm Bureau’sFBL Financial Group has
invested millions in Conagra, a diversified food giant that has
frequentlyengaged in mergers. Another Farm Bureau company in
Mississippi owns more than 18,000 sharesin Premium Standard Farms, an
enormous corporate hog processor that family farmers say is
squeezingthem out of business.
Not all the Farm Bureau’s investments are agriculture-related, however.
The Iowa Farm Bureau and two of itsaffiliated companies sank at least $1
million into AccessAir, a start-up airline in Des Moines that recentlyfiled
for bankruptcy. “They’re using farmer’s money to invest outside
agriculture while farmers arestruggling,” says Gary Bierschenk, an Iowa
farmer who ran unsuccessfully for the presidency of the IowaFarm
Bureau. “That just burns me up.”
Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, which has
battled the Farm Bureau onenvironmental issues, tells Wallace that what
the Farm Bureau does should concern all Americans, not justfarmers.
Fortune magazine routinely ranks the Farm Bureau among the most
potent lobbyists inWashington and, as Cook points out, its agenda goes
far beyond farming. “If you’re concerned about civilrights, they oppose
the Voting Rights Act of 1965. They want to repeal it, cornerstone of
civil rightslaw,” Cook says. “If you think that the minimum wage is low,
they oppose raising it. If you think that we shouldn’tbe drilling off-shore
for oil, they want to drill off-shore for oil.” Even some Farm Bureau
leaders aresurprised to learn of the association’s non-farming agenda.
When confronted with his own organization’scall for the repeal Voting
Rights Act, Iowa Farm Bureau president Wiederstein told Wallace hewas
“shocked.”
What makes the Farm Bureau such a Beltway powerhouse (George W.
Bush addressed its annualconvention this past January) is the size of its
membership - nearly five million, making it the nation’s largest
farmorganization. But what many people do not know is that many, if not
most, of the Farm Bureau’smembers are not farmers at all and live in
urban areas far from rural America. Sallyann Garner, a bank vice-
president inChicago, tells Wallace she was surprised to learn she was a
Farm Bureau member just because she boughtinsurance from a Farm
Bureau company. When asked by Wallace if she was aware that
theorganization she belongs to opposes, among other things, the Equal
Rights Amendment, the VotingRights Act, gun control and an increase
in the minimum wage, Garner tells Wallace, “I did not knowthat.”
* * *
Press Contact: Kevin Tedesco
(N.Y.) 212 975-2329
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Rex L. Bavousett
Photographer
University of Iowa
Our old name: University Relations - Publications
Our new name: University Communications & Outreach - Publications
100 OPL, Iowa City, IA 52242
http://www.uiowa.edu/~urpubs/
mailto:[log in to unmask]
voice: 319 384-0053
fax: 319 384-0055
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