Earlier this year the Illinois Farm Bureau launched an advertising campaign to counter charges that it has sold out independent farmers and become an apologist for corporate polluters. The Farm Bureau has the money to buy advertising time, but no amount of money can change the facts. The facts in this case make for an interesting story.

The Farm Bureau describes itself as a grassroots organization, but a closer examination of it's membership belies this. The IFB claims to have 345,000 members but in 1998 the Department of Agriculture reported that there were only 79,000 operating farms in Illinois. Even if every farmer in Illinois belonged to the IFB this would only account for 23% of it's membership. The IFB membership is so big because anybody who buys insurance through Country Companies is automatically an IFB member.

Through vigorous political lobbying, the IFB has obtained tax-exempt status while at the same time fully or partially owning 18 of the largest corporations in Illinois. These companies sell a variety of products, including insurance, ag chemicals, fuel, seed, feed, mutual funds, and communication services. The IFB is an enormous, profit-driven conglomerate whose interests are by nature antithetical to those of independent farmers.

No other organization has worked as diligentely and effectively to gut environmental legislation in Illinois. The bureau's top 1999 political resolutions stated, "We oppose any attempt to mandate low-input methods of farming." Low input means a reduced use of chemicals, or, God forbid, organic production. This opposition is understandable beause a large part of the IFB's corporate family is involved in the production and marketing of some very problematic ag chemicals.

The philosophy at the IFB was summarized by Steve Barwich, vice president of Growmark, one of IFB's largest subsidiaries: "...in every industry, the most effecient are the survivors. A lot has yet to come in production, and that means fewer people producing more." Farm Bureau members at the grassroots level should ask themselves how they figure in this picture.