Farmers Are Like America's Insurance Policy — Consider That When You Vote

Stefanie Smallhouse, the state president of Arizona Farm Bureau, explains why it's crucial to consider farmers when you vote, especially if you care about inflation.

Stefanie Smallhouse is the state president of the Arizona Farm Bureau, an affiliate of American Farm Bureau, which is an independent, nonpartisan grassroots organization serving as the national voice of agriculture. If you don’t work in agriculture or food production, it can be easy to take the foods that fill grocery stores and restaurants for granted. But as Smallhouse explains here in this Voices In Food story, issues that impact farmers impact everyone. Here’s what she wants voters to know as we get closer to Election Day.

I married into a ranching family. My husband is a fifth-generation farmer and rancher, and we’re raising the sixth generation together. Working on the ranch that my husband grew up on, that his great-great-grandfather established and that our kids will one day take over, is very special. It’s not just a business. It’s our family legacy.

All farmers and ranchers are deeply connected in this way. This isn’t just a job you clock in and out of. Less than 2% of the U.S. population grows the food, fiber and fuel for the entire country and also elsewhere in the world. As the state president of the Arizona Farm Bureau, I spend a great deal of time listening to the needs and issues impacting the people responsible for our country’s food supply system.

I listen to the challenges they’re facing and then, through Farm Bureau, learn about how these issues may or may not be affecting food producers in other states. Not all farmers have the same challenges or have the same needs, so it’s important to know the broader picture and find solutions that help all farmers, which isn’t easy. For example, ranchers in Arizona have had issues in the past accessing a drought relief program and that’s because the program was created for farmers who live in other areas outside the desert Southwest. Farm Bureau leaders have to put our heads together to find solutions that have regional solutions and aren’t one-size-fits-all.

Farmers’ issues are everyone’s issues.