With strong support from its members, the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation (IFBF) recorded a very successful legislative year in 2018, Craig Hill, IFBF president, said last week.

At the Iowa Statehouse, lawmakers passed Farm Bureau-backed bills on water quality funding, tax reform and healthcare benefits, Hill said in his address to voting delegates and others at the start of the IFBF Summer Policy Conference in West Des Moines. And in Washington, D.C., he said, lawmakers are continuing to make progress on a market-oriented farm bill that protects crop insurance, a Farm Bureau priority.

But agriculture faces continuing challenges, especially with the growing uncertainly on trade, which means that farmers need Farm Bureau today more...