Farm Bureau supports immigration reform that addresses American agriculture’s needs today and in the future. This means dealing responsibly with our existing workforce. It also means providing reliably for the future by assuring that farmers and ranchers have access to a usable worker program that responds to agriculture’s unique needs. Clearly, border security and employer enforcement are important parts of the debate, but such provisions alone cannot solve the problem.

The success of the Clean Water Act (CWA) over its 37 year history has been its structure of shared responsibility. This approach allows states to protect truly ecologically important and environmentally sensitive areas within their borders while, at the same time, preserving the authorities of states and local communities over their own land and water use planning.

U.S. ports and inland waterways are vital to the shipment of agricultural products as more than 2 billion tons of domestic and import/export cargo move through our ports and along our waters. Farm Bureau supports having an efficient and reliable inland waterway system and ports to provide affordable agricultural products domestically and to compete internationally.

A sound farm program benefits all Americans: from the producers in the fields to the consumer’s table and provides a significant investment in nutrition programs. Every consumer should have the confidence in the safety of domestically-grown foods. The U.S. food protection system is among the best in the world. Farm Bureau believes farm and food policies are a wise investment in our nation’s health and the future of American-grown food, fuel, fiber and feed.

Congress needs to support a comprehensive energy policy to help alleviate the energy-related economic hardship being suffered by U.S. farmers and ranchers by creating a more divers energy supply, including renewable energy sources such as ethanol, biodiesel, biomass and wind.