Some Democrats, like U.S. Representative Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), believe a close relationship with the Farm Bureau helps win rural votes.

Others say that the Farm Bureau is the leading voice for corporate agribusiness and that trying to win rural voters by seeking the insurance giant’s support is “lazy” politics.

As the federal Farm Bill is being negotiated in Congress throughout 2023, members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate Agriculture Committees are holding local “field hearings.” These hearings provide opportunities for input by local experts and constituents.

Yesterday, Representative Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) convened one of several summits she has organized in her district. The meeting featured an introduction and opening remarks by representatives from the Virginia Farm Bureau and the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Though the Farm Bureau is widely recognized as a Republican-oriented political machine, some Democrats have a strategy of working closely with the self-described “voice of agriculture.” Spanberger—much like former Illinois U.S. Representative and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Cheri Bustos (D-IL) and former Democratic House Ag Committee Chair Collin Peterson (D-IL)—has touted and promoted her Farm Bureau relationships heavily in her legislative career.

“As Farm Bill negotiations begin in Congress, my top priority is to listen to the needs and concerns of Virginians and bring those to the conversation,” Spanberger said in a statement at a similar Farm Bill meeting in February, where she was also awarded the Friend of the Farm Bureau Award.

“This feedback directly informs my work on behalf of Virginia’s ag industry, which makes up a massive part of our Commonwealth’s economy. That’s why I’m honored to once again receive the Friend of Farm Bureau Award from the Virginia Farm Bureau — and that’s why as the only Virginian on the House Agriculture Committee, I’ll keep working to make sure our farmers have a seat at the table, a voice that is heard, and a stronger future here in the Commonwealth.”

Other rural Democrats think that emphasizing Farm Bureau support is a mistake.

“The Farm Bureau is without a doubt a rightwing front group, as well as being a huge insurance company,” said Bryn Bird, a farmer and Township Trustee in Licking County, Ohio. “They don’t speak for all farmers by any means, and they certainly don’t speak for me.”

Bird points out that the Farm Bureau agenda is very unpopular in rural communities, even though the organization is pandered to by both parties. The Farm Bureau “is against the labor movement. They’re anti-union. They’re fine with monopolies, against fair and competitive markets. They are okay with price-gouging rural America. They’re for Wall Street, not Main Street. They’re against core Democratic values.”

Austin Frerick, a Fellow of the Thurman Arnold Project at Yale University currently writing a book on food and agriculture system reforms, agrees with Bird, saying that the Farm Bureau is against the working class agenda that resonates with many rural voters.

“The Farm Bureau is the Chamber of Commerce for agriculture. And just like the Chamber, the Farm Bureau prioritizes corporations and business over workers and farmers,” said Frerick, whose 2019 essay for The American Conservative criticized the Farm Bureau for its role in breaking the food system. “That’s why I think the elected officials that work with [the Farm Bureau] are undermining farmers, whether they realize it or not.”

The Farm Bureau is often misunderstood by elected officials who are less familiar with their track record, said Bird. “Mostly I get frustrated when an urban legislator is told by some consultant that to be accepted in rural America they need to just reach out to the Farm Bureau. That’s what lazy politicking looks like.”

In Spanberger’s case, while the mainstream media regularly depicts her district as “rural,” all but three of the counties in her updated district are officially “metropolitan” (Orange, Madison, and King George are officially rural). None of the counties she represents are considered “farming-dependent” by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service’s county typology codes.

Spanberger does vote with the Democrats the vast majority of the time. During her last term, she supported the American Rescue Plan Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, bills that are delivering hundreds of billions of dollars in funding for rural America.

But Spanberger was also a lead sponsor of the bipartisan Growing Climate Solution Act, which climate action advocates say will not reduce greenhouse gas emissions. She has been a frequent critic of the “progressive wing” of the Democratic Party, making the case that moderation and centrism are what resonate with voters.

As Farm Bill negotiations continue throughout 2023, the Cocklebur will continue to focus on issues of corporate power and what that means to rural voters. Who will accept or reject the Farm Bureau’s policies and politics? We’ll be here to keep you informed.

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The Cocklebur covers rural policy and politics from a progressive point-of-view. Our work focuses on a tangled rural political reality of dishonest debate, economic and racial disparities, corporate power over our democracy, and disinformation peddled by conservative media outlets. We aim to use facts, data, and science to inform our point-of-view. We wear our complicated love/WTF relationship with rural America on our sleeve.