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Guebert says focus on restoring farm prosperity

Illinois Farm Bureau president Richard Guebert says the big focus at this year’s annual meeting, going on now in Chicago, is on restoring farm prosperity, “We’re going to have a sense of the delegate resolution that talks about the farm profitability and where we need to go from here and try to get it back to a state of prosperity.” Delegates have now passed that resolution calling on Congress and the Trump Administration to resolve trade disputes and enter into new trade deals.

Guebert says he’s very happy about the farm bill advancing through the conference committee, “That’s got, you know, a couple hurdles to get through before it gets to the president’s desk and we need certainty and we’ve talked about certainty all along.  So, this gives us some hope or light at the end of the tunnel, you might say.”

Guebert also praises the signing of the USMCA – and, told Brownfield Friday that any breakthrough in the Chinese trade war would be huge for Illinois farmers. Guebert tells Brownfield Ag News that farmers desperately need relief from the five to six year trend of increasing debt load and their farm equity that is – in his words – “eroding at warp speed.”

AUDIO: Interview Friday (11;30) with Richard Guebert upon his arrival in Chicago for the IL Farm Bureau annual meeting ~