CFBF Holds Annual Meeting

CFBF holds Annual Meeting

By Bruce Fry, SJFB President

Happy New Year everyone! Last month the 93rd CFBF Annual meeting was held Dec. 3-7 in Sparks, Nev., at John Ascuaga’s Nugget and I wanted to mention several important events.

First, I graduated from the Leadership Farm Bureau Class of 2011, which was held at the NationalAutomobileMuseum in Reno, Nev. It was a great venue to reflect on the road my class traveled throughout the year. To our surprise, it went perfectly with our class theme, “Driving future leaders to Commit, Connect and Conserve.” To read about the 2011 LFB Class journey go to and click on programs.

Second, the San Joaquin County Farm Bureau did get recognized this year for some Activities of Excellence Awards for membership, policy implementation, leadership, ag education and public relations. Great job this year everyone, but next year our goal is to hit our membership goal all four quarters!

Third, all the delegates attending the CFBF Annual Meeting from the 53 counties had a thorough discussion on all 39 “TBR’s” (tentative basic resolutions) or policy changes and the three bylaw changes. All in all, we made some good changes on policy for the California Farm Bureau. Some of the recommended changes are to the AFBF policy, too. So this policy discussion will be held at the American Farm Bureau Annual Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, Jan. 7-11.

Speaking of AFBF, I did put my name in for the nomination for being a delegate at the AFBF annual meeting in January along with six others. After the votes where counted, it was a tie vote and then a runoff between me and another candidate for the only delegate spot [a two-year term]. I lost, but as the runner-up, I was selected to be the first alternate delegate to go to the AFBF Annual Meeting in Hawaii. This will be my first AFBF Annual Meeting, so it should be interesting.

David Simpson … What can all the farmers and ranchers say to you for our gratitude for the hard work you did at NRCS (Natural Resource Conservation Service)? As some of you may or may not know Dave Simpson retired this past December after serving over 20 years here in San JoaquinCounty. Dave always gave us an “enthusiastic” report at our Farm Bureau board meetings about all the happenings over at the NRCS office. We will definitely miss that, but we will still have him on our board as a director at large. Again, thank you Dave for all your hard work and dedication to agriculture here in San JoaquinCounty.

Lastly, in December I attended a Delta Caucus (Contra Costa, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Solano and Yolo County Farm Bureaus) meeting up at the CFBF office with SJFB staff and others from the Delta Counties. We discussed with the CFBF officers and CFBF staff the status of the Delta Plan, TEP’s, Delta Stewardship Council, the PEIR, the BDCP and the Water Bond.

Are you confused? Well that is just the drop in the bucket. There is still the Delta Conservancy, the Delta Protection Commission and it goes on and on. Long story short, the Delta has a bulls-eye on it and the Farm Bureau must protect and promote the viability of agricultural production and operations in that area.

This is where the government is trying to shape the future water needs of California. If we are not at the table discussing our thoughts and needs we will be forgotten! As Tom Orvis from StanislausCounty always says “whiskey is for drinking water is for fighting.”

Again, Happy New Year!