South Dakota Farm Bureau : VanderWal Re-elected Vice President of American Farm Bureau Federation

Delegates to the American Farm Bureau Federation's (AFBF) 2018 Annual Convention re-elected Zippy Duvall of Georgia as President and South Dakota farmer Scott VanderWal as Vice President of AFBF for another two-year term.

VanderWal is the president of the South Dakota Farm Bureau and a third-generation corn and soybean farmer and cattle feeder from Volga, S.D. In addition to cattle feeding and crop production, VanderWal and his family also have a custom harvesting operation.

VanderWal was first elected AFBF vice president in 2016 and continues to serve as president of SDFB, a position he has held since 2004.

Delegates also approved measures to help assure a prosperous agricultural and rural economy in the coming year and beyond. Resolutions approved by farmer and rancher delegates from across the nation ran the gamut of issues, from trade to regulatory reform, crop insurance, biotechnology and more.

Among other things, delegates approved measures supporting:

· An improved Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) program to decrease risk-management disparities across counties

· Using site specific rainfall data

· Strengthened and more flexible risk management and safety-net programs for dairy farmers

· An overhaul of the highly erodible land and wetland conservation rules

· Permission for workers to seek employment from more than one farmer under the H2A program

· Trade and trade agreements that strengthen market opportunities for U.S. agriculture

· Elimination of sunset provisions in trade agreements, to give certainty to businesses into the future

· Modification of NAFTA to improve market access to difficult Canadian dairy markets, in addition to improved food-safety standards for imported products

· An end to use of non-GMO labels on products that do not have GMO alternatives

· A $1 per member increase in dues paid by state affiliates of the American Farm Bureau Federation

· Support for the use of gene-editing techniques such as CRISPR, along with a voluntary and uniform labeling program for such products

More information on South Dakota Farm Bureau can be found at www.sdfbf.org.