Farm Bureau will honor 18 local affiliates at convention

The American Farm Bureau Federation, the nation's largest agriculture group, will honor 18 county Farm Bureaus at its annual convention, held this year Jan. 7-12 in Atlanta. "The selected winners participated in the County Activities of Excellence program and demonstrated a commitment to offering quality programming to their counties," says a Farm Bureau press release.

Here are just a few of the winners:

• Santa Cruz County, California for partnering with a local hospital, the county health department and other local organizations to become the nation's first county to provide mass coronavirus vaccinations for its farm workers.
• Hillsborough County, Florida for distributing "Ag-Venture" boxes to elementary schools with education materials, videos and instructions for hands-on agriculture learning activities.
• Daviess County, Kentucky for "You're Not Alone," a campaign that sought to educate farmers on the importance of mental health.
• Broome County, New York for partnering with local emergency services to offer free trainings on how to respond to farming accidents.

"These county Farm Bureaus are leading through innovation to support and engage with their local communities despite the challenges brought on by the continuing Covid-19 pandemic," said AFBF President Zippy Duvall.