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compiled by Susie Taylor

With work expected to start in early 2005 on the next farm bill, a new American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) program will pave the way toward explaining how all Americans benefit from federal farm programs.

AFBF has joined with seven commodity organizations to create "Home Grown," a public information effort to educate Americans about the benefits provided by today's farmers and to explain the benefits of U.S. farm policy.

Among the messages Home Grown plans to deliver is that farm families are producing 92 percent of America's food and fiber, and because of that, the United States still enjoys the most affordable food and fiber products in the world. The program will explain how existing federal policy helps sustain this record of success.

In addition to AFBF, partners in the Home Grown program include the National Association of Wheat Growers, the National Corn Growers Association, the National Cotton Council, the USA Rice Federation, the American Sugar Alliance, the U.S. Rice Producers Association and the United Soybean Board.

Explaining why Home Grown was created, AFBF President Bob Stallman said, "All of the groups involved in Home Grown agreed earlier this year that some sort of public relations program was needed to put us in a better position in future farm policy debates." Stallman further explained that the debate over farm spending in the 2006 federal budget process, which starts early next year, "poses a real threat to maintaining the programs and the funding provided by the 2002 Farm Bill."

OFBF’s Director of Promotion and Education Pat Petzel echoed Stallman’s comments. "The more the public knows about agriculture and understands our nation’s food production system, the more they’ll realize what a value they have and how affordable food is in this country."

"Home Grown" will fit in well with promotion and education efforts already under way within Ohio Farm Bureau, Petzel said. "We work every day to raise the awareness of Ohio agriculture within the consuming public," she said. "If included in that is an understanding of the benefits that consumers get from farm policy, then that’s all the better."

The next federal farm bill may be more scrutinized than any other farm legislation in the past, according to Keith Stimpert, OFBF’s vice president of government affairs.

"There are so many people and special interest groups tracking farm program spending that it feels, sometimes, like everybody’s going to be a part of it (farm bill talks)," Stimpert said. And the farm program doesn’t impact just farmers. It includes policy on energy and rural development and "many programs that impact all Americans."

He added that "I could go dollar by dollar for every bit spent in farm programs and show how it’s returned many times over. Our federal farm programs are an incredible investment for all Americans."

"We know from public opinion research that we've done that the public doesn't much understand agriculture and farm policy," AFBF’s Stallman said. "As a result, it's far too easy for nonfarm groups to convince segments of the public and the media that farmers are doing a bad job, when they're not, or that farm payments only go to millionaires, when that's not true either. There are lots of misperceptions we have to counter, and this program is an attempt to get ahead of our critics."

Home Grown will conduct a wide variety of activities in the coming months in and outside of Washington, D.C., including meeting with reporters. The groups involved in Home Grown plan to launch other efforts, such as a program to educate school children in large cities, to create point-of-purchase educational materials and to develop a communications resource center for agricultural producers.