Mccormick tells Rotarians about state's economic backbone: agriculture

As the president of the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation and a member of the agriculture community, Mike Mccormick knows how important it is for all Mississippi farmers and ranchers to work together.

During the Starkville Rotary Club's weekly program earlier this week, Mccormick spoke to the Rotarians on the state of agriculture in Mississippi.

The Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation serves as the largest and strongest general farm organization in

Mississippi, with more than 177,000 member families in 82 county Farm Bureaus.

Since its inception in 1922, the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation has been to provide a unified voice for Mississippi agriculture in the legislative arena, promote farm markets and serve as a leader in the state's agricultural community on local, state, national and international levels.

Eight years ago, Mccormick was elected to “be the voice of the farmer and carry the legislative burden for members of all agriculture.” Although he operates cow-calf operation back a home, he spends more time on the road and in Jackson than he does back on the farm. But what he does on the road is where his heart is.

“We recognize a number of different commodities here in the state that we worked with. We consider ourselves an umbrella organization,” said Mccormick. “Back when we were formed, we covered all commodity groups. Since that time, most commodities have their own specific organization that they work with on their policy issues, but Farm Bureau is still the nation's largest with about 6 million members in the state. We consider ourselves an umbrella organization that covers all of those, and we work with those commodity groups to affect policy in those areas.”

As the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation turns 100 years old this year, Mccormick is looking forward to being its president when it reaches that milestone, and is also looking forward to leaving it better than he found it.

The Starkville Rotary Club will meet again on Monday, June 13 at the Hilton Garden Inn with guest speaker Keith Coble, who serves as the vice president of Agriculture, Forestry, and Veterinary Medicine at Mississippi State University.