New American Farm Bureau president says immigration reform is No. 1 issue

Vincent Duvall

The new president of the American Farm Bureau said "immigration reform would be the first issue he would choose to testify on before Congress if he were given the option," Chris Clayton reports for DTN The Progressive Farmer. Vincent "Zippy" Duvall, who was elected to the position last week, "said immigration needs to be addressed immediately." He told reporters, "There is a crisis across this country of having a stable workforce to be able to get the crops out of the field. Americans no longer want to do the work that we do with the cows and the chickens and the fields anymore. It is absolutely vital that sometime soon in the future we find a solution to that. It is a moral issue. It's a sensitive issue, but it is a business issue."

Duvall, who has been president of the Georgia Farm Bureau for the past nine years, said in his first press conference as president that he "will be dealing immediately with issues such as EPA's waters of the U.S. rule, trade and biotechnology labeling," Clayton writes.

"Duvall stressed that farmers are overburdened by regulation and challenged by the lack of labor for farm jobs," Clayton writes. "A Farm Bureau member since 1977, Duvall is a beef, poultry and hay producer near Greshamville, Ga. He has a 300-head cattle herd and produces about 750,000 broilers every year. Duvall grew up mostly in the dairy industry until he converted the dairy to a beef herd about a decade ago. Duvall talks frequently about the diversity of agriculture in his state, ranging from fruits and vegetables to cotton, dairy and poultry." (Read more)