And/or follow our FlashAlerts via TwitterAbout FlashAlert on Twitter:
FlashAlert utilizes the free service Twitter to distribute emergency text messages. While you are welcome to register your cell phone text message address directly into the FlashAlert system, we recommend that you simply "follow" the FlashAlert account for Oregon Farm Bureau by clicking on the link below and logging in to (or creating) your free Twitter account. Twitter sends messages out exceptionally fast thanks to arrangements they have made with the cell phone companies.
Click here to add Oregon Farm Bureau to your Twitter account or create one.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 20, 2020
Oregon’s Barry Bushue honored with Farm Bureau Founders Award
The American Farm Bureau Federation presented one of its highest honors, the Farm Bureau Founders Award, to Oregon’s Barry Bushue during AFBF’s 101st Annual Convention in Austin.
The Farm Bureau Founders Award was established in January 2017 to recognize exemplary leadership, service or contributions to Farm Bureau by officers or employees of AFBF and state Farm Bureau organizations.
Barry Bushue served as the vice-president of AFBF from 2008-2016 and is known as a tireless worker, mentor and fundraiser. He served as the Oregon Farm Bureau President from 1999-2018 and on the AFBF Board of Directors, Executive Committee, Trade Advisory Committee and the Vision for Action Task Force. He is a firm believer that farmers and ranchers should get involved in education and the policy making process.
Bushue says, “Activism needs to be a part of your business plan. You budget for fertilizer, you budget for your seed, you budget for maintenance, you budget for all these things you do, new tractors, whatever it is you need. But, if you don’t have a line item that somehow represents an activist piece of what it is you do and show your passion for agriculture, then I think you are missing something on your farm.”
Bushue and his wife, Helen, invite members of the public to their family farm outside Portland, Oregon, to pick various fruits, vegetables, and a fall favorite, pumpkins. Bushue says opening his farm to the public comes with its challenges but he has developed a customer base that recognizes the value of agriculture.
Sharon Waterman, also a former president of the Oregon Farm Bureau, talks about Bushue’s affection for Farm Bureau, “Barry talks about the Farm Bureau family and what we can do as a Farm Bureau family because if we stand together for agriculture, we can move forward.”
Bushue says his father told him if he was going to farm smart, he needed to be part of Farm Bureau, adding, “He said, ‘We’re going to go to the [Farm Bureau] meeting tonight, and you’re going with me. I embraced it and I loved it. I’ve always had a passion for it, I think I inherited that, it’s probably genetics in our family.”
Barry Bushue was nominated by the Oregon Farm Bureau. A national Farm Bureau committee selected each of the winners.
VIDEO: See a YouTube video about Barry Bushue here: https://oregonfb.org/barryfoundersaward/
PHOTO CAPTIONS:
Barrybushue: Former Oregon Farm Bureau President Barry Bushue also served as the vice-president of AFBF from 2008-2016. He and his wife, Helen, invite members of the public to their family farm outside Portland to pick various fruits, vegetables, and a fall favorite, pumpkins.
Barrybushue1: Oregon’s Barry Bushue addressing a crowd of 6,000 Farm Bureau members after receiving the 2020 Founders Award at the AFBF 101st Annual Convention in Austin.
Barrybushue2: Former OFB President Barry Bushue (center) is joined on stage at the AFBF Convention by (from left) AFBF Vice President Scott VanderWal, Helen Bushue, OFB President Barb Iverson, former OFB President Sharon Waterman, and Kentucky Farm Bureau President Mark Haney.
###
* Note to Editors: “Farm Bureau” is a registered trademark; please capitalize in all cases.
Oregon Farm Bureau (OFB) is a grassroots, nonpartisan, nonprofit, general farm organization representing the interests of farming and ranching families in the public and policymaking arenas. First established in Oregon at the county level in 1919 and the state level in 1932, Farm Bureau is organized in all 36 counties.
Oregon Farm Bureau President Barb Iverson, elected on Dec. 12, 2019, comes from a multigenerational family farm from Woodburn, raising industrial hemp, grass seed, squash, vetch seed, hazelnuts, wine and table grapes, and operating the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival, which attracts over 160,000 visitors each year. She is OFB’s 17th president.