The Illinois Farm Bureau sued the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) on Nov. 13 after the national group voted to oust the Illinois chapter and its 70,000 farmer members. The lawsuit seeks to halt the AFBF’s decision, which takes effect on Dec. 20.
The AFBF Board voted to expel the Illinois Farm Bureau after the state chapter’s affiliate, Country Financial, decided to eliminate a requirement for non-farm insurance policyholders to become Farm Bureau members.
Illinois Farm Bureau President Brian Duncan said in a statement to DTN that his group believes the AFBF is “choosing to abandon” more than 70,000 Illinois farmer members.
The Illinois Farm Bureau filed its lawsuit against AFBF in the McLean County, IL, circuit court, asking a judge to step in and prevent AFBF from terminating Illinois Farm Bureau’s membership. The Illinois Farm Bureau also asked the court to enforce a previous settlement agreement with AFBF to continue using the Illinois Farm Bureau name, to require AFBF to pay monetary damages and to issue an injunction to maintain the status quo until the issue is resolved.
Zippy Duvall, president of AFBF, spoke to reporters in Milwaukee, WI, about the Illinois Farm Bureau decision after he addressed members of the American Bankers Association’s annual Ag Bankers Conference.
“We feel like they have broken our membership agreement we had with them by not supporting building membership and other factors in there,” Duvall said. “I would want to stay out of the legal discussion, but it’s about farmer control and a membership agreement.”
Duvall said AFBF learned about the membership change in September. There was a mediation, but Duvall said it did not work.
The lawsuit stated that members pay their annual dues to the Illinois Farm Bureau and their local county Farm Bureau, then the Illinois Farm Bureau pays a portion of the dues to the AFBF.
The Illinois Farm Bureau informed the AFBF of Country Mutual’s decision to modify its underwriting rules effective Jan. 1, 2025.
“Weeks after learning about the management decision, AFBF began sending contentious emails to Illinois Farm Bureau accusing Illinois Farm Bureau and/or Country Mutual of taking action ‘against AFBF’s interest’ that AFBF asserted ‘threatens immediate, severe and long-lasting harm’ with ‘devastating financial impact’ to AFBF,” the lawsuit said.
Country Mutual said it made the decision not to require Illinois Farm Bureau membership for several reasons. Those included that a failure to pay membership dues could leave clients without insurance, the cost of insurance has increased from severe weather, inflation, economic pressures and other factors.
AFBF sent a letter to Illinois Farm Bureau and county Farm Bureau officials on Oct. 25, “which again threatened to terminate Illinois Farm Bureau’s membership in AFBF,” the lawsuit said.
In a statement to DTN, Duncan said the Illinois Farm Bureau believes the AFBF acted because “our affiliate insurance company does not want to force non-farmers to join.”
Duncan said the Illinois Farm Bureau is proving its commitment to serving its members, defending county Farm Bureaus and protecting the use of the Farm Bureau trademark in Illinois. An Illinois banker approached Duvall after he spoke at the banker conference to ask about the situation. The banker asked Duvall if farmers could directly become members of AFBF.
“That’s something we would have to explore,” Duvall said. “Hopefully, we never get to that.”
He added, “This is all about farmer control, and it’s in your all’s hands.”
Country Financial had more than 300,000 members who paid dues to the Illinois Farm Bureau, and $5 of those dues went to AFBF as well. That’s roughly $1.5 million in annual revenue for the national organization affected. — Todd Neeley, DTN environmental editor, and Chris Clayton, DTN ag policy editor
