Brian Duncan Farm Week Now: Tuesday night American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) issued a communication stating the AFBF Board of Directors voted to terminate Illinois Farm Bureau’s membership in AFBF, effective Dec. 20.
We believe AFBF is choosing to abandon our more than 70,000 Illinois farmer members because our affiliate insurance company does not want to force non-farmers to join.
We believe AFBF is choosing to put our farms, our families and our communities at risk at a time when we need support through federal policy. In short, we believe AFBF has chosen to break its promises to Illinois farmers.
We have no desire to leave AFBF and we will fight to stay. We made good faith efforts to mediate on Monday and AFBF walked away from the table. I want to reassure you we are committed to defending the rights of IFB, our county Farm Bureaus and our farmer members throughout the state. Today, we filed a lawsuit in McLean County circuit court to hold AFBF accountable and protect our members.