Meet the Illinois Farm Bureau
The Illinois Farm Bureau, also known as the Illinois Agricultural Association, speaks of itself as the "voice of agriculture." Most people assume the Illinois Farm Bureau represents farmers and farm families, but few know that a majority of Farm Bureau members are not farmers. In fact, its constituency includes a number of large and powerful agribusiness, insurance, and financial corporations.
A few facts about the Illinois Farm Bureau:
• The Illinois Farm Bureau claims over 345,000 members, but Illinois
has only 79,000 farm operations according to the 1998 Illinois
Agriculture Statistics Annual Summary. The Department of Agriculture
defines a farm operation as any operation that sold or could have
sold $1,000 worth of agricultural products in a year. Even by
this liberal estimate, farmers account for only 22.9% of total
members in the Farm Bureau -- assuming all of Illinois' farm operators
are members.
• The majority of the Illinois Farm Bureau's non-farmer "members" are holders of Country Companies Insurance. Illinois Farm Bureau owns Country Companies and requires membership to purchase insurance.
• Illinois Farm Bureau supports 300 full-time employees, including 97 county managers who administer county Farm Bureaus (IFB, "A Family of Companies").
• Illinois Farm Bureau and its subsidiaries employ 57 registered lobbyists, 42 of whom work directly for the Illinois Farm Bureau (Illinois Secretary of State, Index Dept.).
• Illinois Farm Bureau owns, in full or in part, 18 separate corporations. These include agricultural chemical companies, insurance companies, and companies concerned with seed and feed, livestock production, dairy production, accounting, commodities, mutual funds, financial trusts, fuel oil and refining, and communications (IFB, "A Family of Companies").
• The Illinois Farm Bureau is a not-for-profit organization, enjoying a special tax exempt status that places it in a group similar to churches, charities, educational and other traditional, public service non-profit groups. The Farm Bureau also enjoys special tax status in the form of the "Unrelated Business Income Tax" (UBIT) exemption.
• In a recent audit of Illinois and other state Farm Bureaus, the IRS found that less than five percent of "associate members had joined for agricultural-related purposes." In 1994, the IRS issued a memorandum (Technical Advice Memorandum 9416002) that eliminated the UBIT tax exemption on non-farmer, or associate, Farm Bureau membership dues.
• According to documents from a 1996 court case involving the IRS, the Illinois Farm Bureau's total revenue that year was almost $29 million, and its total assets $25 million. The Illinois Agricultural Holding Company, 94 percent owned by Illinois Farm Bureau, earned over $51 million and had year-end assets of over $291 million.
• At the urging of national and state Farm Bureaus, Congress passed the Small Business Jobs Protection Act of 1996 that gave the exemptions lost in court back to the Farm Bureaus, and gave the Farm Bureau additional tax relief.
Not just your family farmers…
Illinois Farm Bureau has built a large web of companies to profit
from the services and goods they provide. The special tax status
gives Illinois Farm Bureau special power in the marketplace over
competitors and producers. That and its claim of "over 300,000
members" give the Farm Bureau power to push legislation resulting
in increased Illinois Farm Bureau profits.
In other words, the Illinois Farm Bureau is Big Business. Like most other businesses, it's interested mainly in increasing and protecting earnings. This interest is sometimes detrimental to the interests of small farmers, water quality, and the environment in Illinois.
How to contact Prairie Rivers Network:
Phone: 217-344-2371
Fax: 217-344-2381
Web: http://prairierivers.org
E-mail: info@prairierivers.org
Mail: 809 South Fifth Street, Champaign, IL 61820
