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  • From: "Rick Hopkins" <rdhopkins AT americanpasturage.com>
  • To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: RE: [Market-farming] Why I can't believe a word out of Dennis Avery's mouth
  • Date: Fri, 7 Feb 2003 21:46:52 -0600

Rick W.

I have been in touch with Bob Drake and others the past few years regarding
GLCI, and other than testimony and a little ineffective lobbying, I have
seen no results. I would not classify GLCI as being the main grazing
advocate in the U.S. unless we qualify that to mean grazing range lands.
The American Forage and Grassland Council has been more effective in
advocating grazing support for our kinds of operations.

Funny you asked about Missouri Farm Bureau membership. We were just
discussing that very thing this week here. Even the members don't know.
The legislators have tried to refute some of their high membership claims
when they use that as an argument in the committee hearings. I think
someone knows, but are keeping that information close to their chest. We do
know that all policy holders in the state are required to join FB to
purchase insurance. If one uses the offices as a guide to the size of their
customer base, then the two main metropolitan areas would contain the
largest concentration of members. This would indicate that their membership
claims are made up mostly of urban dwellers.

You missed the point in my example. In Missouri the corporate sponsors sit
on one side of the room and the membership driven groups sit on the other.
The grassroots groups do not have corporate sponsor, only some honest and
hard working legislators that make it more difficult for the corporate
lobbyist to railroad unfair legislation through committee.

Rick H.

-----Original Message-----
From: market-farming-admin AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:market-farming-admin AT lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of Rick
Williams
Sent: Friday, February 07, 2003 7:06 PM
To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: RE: [Market-farming] Why I can't believe a word out of Dennis
Avery's mouth


Rick Hopkins wrote:
> So your state grazing organization and the GLCI is funded by corporate
> sponsors?

I was referencing the political organizations such as the think tanks and
similar. The GLCI you surely must know well since it is THE main grazing
advocate in the U.S. and is an ad hoc group of everyone from conservation
groups to the American Farm Bureau. About as wide a cross section as you can
find. So it does show that people can work together for a common cause, even
though they may not always agree on some things:)

GrassWorks is the state grazing organization and has been financed in the
past through grants. It is now increasingly financed through direct
farmer/owner memberships since we were able to finally make the switch last
year. I will admit that some of us who are active on both fronts, did
approve grant money to GrassWorks. One of our very active grazing promoters
in the State went to Washington with another friend and they were able to
get increased funding for grazing grants. The main purpose of the GLCI is
educational so that is where we direct the money. We were fortunate to
allocate a substantial amount and it seems like it was $250,000 if I recall
correctly. We had so many grant applications that we could not come close to
meeting the demand and even then we decided to not award any one
organization the maximum allocation. That way we could spread the money
around more:)

> I am sure many of your observations that pertain to Wisconsin are as you
> say. But generalizing about organizations to which you are unfamiliar can
> lead to mistruths.

I am obviously familiar with the structure of many of the organizations. I
can not always know who is funding them but they are not in the same league
as the think tanks that I was referring to.

Many of the groups you mentioned are primarily membership organizations. The
Wisconsin Farm Bureau is primarily funded through memberships, with very
little corporate sponsorship. What percentage of your state Farm Bureau is
sponsored by corporations?

I was not suggesting that corporate sponsorship was bad so please don't take
it that way. My point was that groups on different sides of the spectrum
both are often corporate sponsored.

Sincerely,

Rick Williams
Misty Ridge Farm
Direct marketed dairy beef and produce
(also dairy heifers and beef stockers)
Viroqua, WI


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