Through a partnership of the CO₂ Coalition and members of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau (PFB), the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) has adopted policy statements presenting a rational consideration of the climate change issue. The action was taken at the AFBF national convention this month, reports Julie Schrum, a PFB board member.

Last summer, CO₂ Coalition Senior Advisor Gordon Tomb, a member of PFB’s Lebanon County chapter was asked by Lehigh County Chapter Board Member Perry Long to help bring rationality to an AFBF policy that gave credence to the fallacious theory of CO₂ causing harmful atmospheric warming.

Following presentations on the benefits of CO₂ and natural warming, the Lebanon and Lehigh County PFB chapters recommended policy changes through the state organization, which forwarded them to AFBF. The two policy statements adopted were:

• We oppose any laws or policies that implicate human activity or agricultural activity of any kind as a cause for climate change without empirical evidence.
• We support science-based, peer-reviewed research to determine the causes, benefits and impacts of global climate change.

Among those who worked with Gordon and Perry were Lebanon County Farm Bureau board members David Zimmerman and Curtis Martin. AFBF represents nearly 6 million member-families in 50 states and Puerto Rico.