WV Farm Bureau Magazine November 2015 | Page 8

Bright Lights of the Big City (or, How a Country Gal Learned About the Farm Bureau Policy Process and Lived to Tell About It) Becky Crabtree I attended my first West Virginia Farm Bureau Resolutions Committee meeting in Flatwoods, West Virginia on October 13. It was the second Farm Bureau gathering of any kind I had ever visited - the first being our local county board meeting a few weeks earlier. My husband and I have been members of Farm Bureau for a couple of years because we feel like this organization supports a way of life that we love. We don’t make a living off our 30 acres; shoot, we don’t even break even, but it gives us a reason to be outdoors and to be lifelong learners. The difference between reading about sheep care and actually delivering lambs, for instance, is quite a steep learning curve. Plus, we want our grandchildren to at least know where their food comes from and be able to make animal sounds because they’ve actually heard them - not from 8 West Virginia Farm Bureau News listening to an electronic toy. We love the way we live and try to protect our lifestyle. Our involvement prior to this fall was to pay our dues and read the news magazine each month. So, when we felt threatened by a planned pipeline route across our pasture, I turned to the West Virginia Farm Bureau for information. Our pipeline policy, set by the American Farm Bureau Federation, is to support all pipelines. Our news magazine does not feature articles that promote thoughts contrary to policy so the only information available from WVFB is pro-pipeline. Good business, but not as informative as I would’ve liked. I bickered and groaned a day or two and made phone calls and got the exact policy and read it. It is on page 140 of the American Farm Bureau Federation Policy book and reads: