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The Idaho Farm Bureau Federation was officially founded in Murtaugh in 1939 as a farm advocacy, dues funded ($5 per year) organization established to "work for the well-being of farm and ranch families, bring about and maintain parity prices for agriculture, industry, and labor, and secure for agriculture a fair share of the national income."

Since that time our organization has grown to include over 60,000 Idaho families. We have active county boards in 37 counties. Our main goals are to enhance net farm income and improve the quality of life for farm and ranch families. We accomplish these goals through a grassroots policy development policy process wherein members of independent county Farm Bureaus meet regularly and discuss pertinent issues. They formulate ideas that are refined to become policy statements. Those policies are then debated at the district level (Idaho has five districts) and are then further debated at the state level during the Idaho Farm Bureau Federation's annual convention.

We are affiliated with the American Farm Bureau Federation which is made up of independent Farm Bureaus from all 50 states and Puerto Rico. State policies that also pertain to national issues are often put forward and debated at the national level where they have a chance to become American Farm Bureau Federation policy.

Idaho Farm Bureau Federation is also affiliated with Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance of Idaho, which has caused confusion for some people over the years. Let me explain the relationship. In 1947 Idaho Farm Bureau leaders decided to form a crop insurance company because they could not acquire crop insurance through commercial insurers at the time. Idaho Farm Insurance Company began offering crop and automobile insurance as a means of acquiring and retaining members. That business plan has matured into a successful insurance company offering automobile, property and casualty, crop insurance, life insurance, a finance company and much more. For more information on Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance of Idaho, go to www.idfbins.com.

Farm Bureau serves agriculture, rural Idaho, and others who share the same goals and interests. Farm Bureau is the Voice of Idaho Agriculture®.