July 20, 2016
www.gfb.org
Vol. 34 No. 26
YOUNG FARMER CONFERENCE: TELL YOUR STORY OR SOMEONE ELSE WILL Young farmers were prompted to make agriculture more visible to consumers, learned about Department of Transportation rules for trucks hauling farm products and received information about USDA programs and the Georgia Ports Authority during the 2016 Georgia Farm Bureau (GFB) Young Farmer Leadership Conference, held July 13-16 on Jekyll Island. Using the theme, “Tell your story or someone else will,” several speakers at the annual conference encouraged nearly 300 young farmers to share what they do and why with the general public. “I ask, hope and expect you to be involved,” GFB President Gerald Long said. “It’s so important. You are the future leaders of this organization.” Long stressed that developing relationships in their communities with those not involved in farming is key for agriculture’s long-term survival. “You sell yourself,” Long said. “Do that, and your product will take care of itself.” Look for the Keynote speaker Matt Rush, a New Mexico rancher who gives humorous next issue of presentations on leadership, put it this way: Make sure your product is viable GFB News (willing and able to grow), valuable and visible. Alert on “Is our product viable? Absolutely. We’re the most viable industry on the August 3. planet,” Rush said. “Our products are amazingly valuable. But, does everyone know what value you bring?” It’s not enough, Rush said, to simply churn out great products. “Those of us in agriculture are content to sit on a tractor, sit on a horse and just do our job,” Rush said. “I’d truly just like to be left alone to do my job. I just want to farm. We’d be content to just do our job. But in the absence of our voices, those who don’t know us, don’t understand us or don’t like us are redefining who we are.” GFB Legislative Director Jeffrey Harvey gave a summary of what the Legislative Department does and key bills in Congress and the Georgia Legislature, where an attempt to change the Georgia Agricultural Tax Exemption (GATE) program was introduced in the 2016 session but failed. “We must protect this program,” Harvey said. “We need to be extra careful every time we put -continued