While we don’t yet have a new Farm Bill, Congress has compromised on a funding package to extend the 2018 Farm Bill. This, in spite of the news reporting that Elon Musk as head of President (elect as of time of writing) Trump’s (yet to be created) DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) being against it. Time will tell whether we get a new Farm Bill or not.

Health insurance coverage should hopefully start to cover obesity care and treatment. This is a hot-button topic in healthcare and the National Grange has been lobbying for it. Important to Medicare beneficiaries, bills HR2407 and S2075 concerning early cancer screening were not included in end of year funding for 2024, but moving forward so that Caitlin B. Kubler, MS. of the Prevent Cancer Foundation hopes to see these signed into law by the 119th Congress. National Grange has been lobbying hard for these.

Immigration is another hot button topic and one of the reasons why Donald Trump was re-elected.  Immigrants are two thirds of the

nation’s farm workers and two in five (40%) are illegals. That amounts to 27% or just over a quarter of farm workers are here illegally. It makes sense that labor and immigration reforms are not just desirable, but necessary to our agricultural industry in the USA.

This month, the phrase from National President Chris Hamp’s “Speak Like a Champ” series is “Pass the Baton.” It refers to passing on leadership roles in any organization to new people. This requires new blood making membership recruitment a needed and continuous activity that should be on all our minds all the time. As new potential leaders are brought into the Grange, they ought to be scouted out for their talents, mentored in Grange ways while looking for new more efficient ways to do things, and put to work where their talent and potential can help move Granges forward into the future.

The 2025 Northeast Leaders Conference in Danvers, Massachusetts was very successful with great attendance. Twelve from Connecticut attended. On Saturday morning, in addition to the snowfall, we were treated to

a tour with breakfast (items from Culinary Arts Program) of the Essex North Shore Agricultural & Technical School. The facility is state of the art and very impressive with over 500 students. They have agricultural, construction, health sciences; manufacturing, engineering, and technology; and service programs.

In the agricultural department, there are programs in plant (e.g. sustainable horticulture) and animal sciences (e.g. equine science and veterinary science). The tour took us through labs for the various subjects of study: the culinary arts program commercial kitchen, the machine shop, animal barns for equines and livestock, green houses (traditional and hydroponic growing), the equine riding arena, veterinary sciences area, a dog grooming room, to name most of them. We heard a bit of the history of the school, as well as some new plans for expansion of programs with various grant monies.

In the afternoon, we attended two workshops: Finding Hidden Potential and Empowering Members, and Aligning Your Strategic Plan to Your Core Values. In the former, discussion was about learning the talents of members by mentoring and working with them, then putting those talents to their best use. Developing talents and leadership skills in people creates a sense of their belonging to the group. In the latter workshop, the presenter talked about defining core values, mission (internal and external) and vision statements, all leading to a Strategic Plan. While the Mission Statement is basically a reason for being, the Vision is more long-term idea of where you are going. The Strategic Plan is your ‘road-map” to get to the Vision. These are “living” in the sense that they can change. Their importance is reflected by the fact that without them, and organization can wander aimlessly and without purpose.

Sunday morning, the Chaplains present performed the traditional worship service which was nicely done. The entire event closed with the Northeast Connection Business Meeting where we heard all the reports of committees.  Next year the Leaders Conference will be in Vermont.

In February, the National Leaders Conference will be held in California from the 14-16th.

I close with a thought from the Grange Heirloom Program: Hope is the heavenly light that gilds our labors. Were we deprived of that source of consolation, life would indeed be dreary (Fourth Degree, Pomona).