BY TAMMIE SLOUP
As more data centers are proposed throughout the U.S., American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) delegates approved policy to protect farmers from water and energy shortages while prioritizing private property rights.
During the delegate meeting Jan. 13 in Anaheim, California, language addressing data centers, ag labor and ag research were added to the national policy book by the 333 delegates, including 11 from Illinois.
“I think the one issue that resonated a lot back in Illinois and here was the whole siting of data centers and the impact on agriculture, with electricity, with water and how we view that going forward,” Illinois Farm Bureau President Philip Nelson told FarmWeek following the meeting. “I think there’s a lot of questions that need to be answered in that area.”
AFBF delegates created a new subsection dealing specifically with data centers, supporting responsible development of data centers in rural communities while recognizing their potential economic benefits. The policy prioritizes responsible stewardship of local resources and respect for private property rights, with energy consumption managed responsibly through efficiency measures to minimize strain on local grids.
The policy also supports legislative and regulatory efforts to ensure data centers be sited and operated in a manner that safeguards agricultural water supplies; prioritizing residential and agricultural electrical usage demands over large load users like data centers; and implementation of large load tariff rates to ensure large load users like data centers are paying their fair share for energy.
Delegates during floor debate cited their concerns about the lack of transparency with data center proposals, and while data centers may be a “necessary evil,” as one delegate called it, the policy calls for balance.
The need for a reliable ag workforce was a theme throughout the entire convention, which ran from Jan. 9-14, with delegates adding and amending policy related to the H-2A temporary visa program.
Two H-2A proposals submitted by Illinois Farm Bureau were approved, including streamlining the H-2A application process by using electronic application filing and lengthening the term of stay for H-2A workers.
New policy language also includes support for production agriculture employers to hire and retain H-2A guest workers on a contract with a three-year duration utilizing staggered entry and exit dates to maintain compliance with an annual “touchback” (or “return to home”) requirement. Delegates also supported the elimination of the adverse effect wage rate (AEWR), but until it is eliminated, AFBF supports the Department of Labor’s new AEWR methodology, effective Oct. 2, 2025, and encourages Congress to make the change in methodology permanent in law.
The national policy book also now includes support for a wage methodology that caps year-over-year increases and is based on sound data, as well as additional resources to improve sources used for discovery of agricultural wages. Policy also now includes opposition of the disaggregation of H-2A wages.
Research on domestic endemic and non-endemic animal diseases and parasites needs to continue as well as research on any foreign diseases and parasites that may threaten the U.S. livestock, wildlife and other animal species, delegates agreed. In light of New World Screwworm (NWS) being detected fewer than 100 miles from the U.S. border in Mexico, delegates approved policy supporting federal funding for the construction of new, state-of-the-art, biocontainment animal disease and parasite research facilities, and increased federal funding for such research.
The policy book also now contains a new subsection specifically for NWS that supports any and all measures to control and eradicate NWS, and opposes reopening the U.S.-Mexico border to cattle trade until NWS is controlled in Mexico, among additional language.
“I think there was some good debate, but I think one thing that’s pretty daunting about this is we need more targeted research,” Nelson said.
Delegates also approved about a dozen recommendations to the AFBF board, including opposing the merger of Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern railroads.
”There’s lot of strong feelings on that, and most of them on the negative side, opposing it,” Nelson said. “They’re concerned with the lack of competition. If we have another merger, we’re seeing that on agriculture, on a lot of fronts, when you get down to four seed companies have 80% of the business, four meat packers have 80% of the business, four fertilizer companies the same. So I think we’ve got to be careful going forward, that we make sure we have transparency and competition in those areas, because it impacts the bottom line of all of producers on the input side.”
Voting members also requested the AFBF board of directors analyze several agricultural issues, including the impact of tariffs and the lack of affordable insurance options for poultry farmers.
Two more of IFB’s policy proposals also were approved, including opposing the Federal Communications Commission’s ban on unmanned aerial systems (UAS) equipment used for agricultural purposes until American technology matches the quality, reliability and performance of such technology, as well as supporting the use of science-based conservation evaluation tools to assist in the implementation of voluntary conservation practices and programs.
Nelson complimented Farm Bureau’s grassroots policy process.
“I think it’s terrific. I’ve always been a fan of it. You can take something in LaSalle County, move it through the system at the state level, and then it comes out here. So it’s the power of grassroots,” he said.
Content for this story was provided by FarmWeekNow.com.