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Louisiana Farm Bureau is constantly working protect and promote Louisiana's farmers, ranchers, and rural residents. This podcast exists to share stories of those farmers with interviews about their farms and issues important to them. Here, we will also share about the work Farm Bureau is doing on their behalf on issues related to public policy from the parish level all the way to the halls of Congress in D.C.
"Hey, everybody, welcome to the Louisiana Farm Bureau podcast. I'm your host, Karl Wiggers. And today we have a very special guest, Ronnie Anderson, long time president of Louisiana Farm Bureau.
If you've missed this for a few weeks, I promise this episode is going to be worth the wait. Mr.. Ronnie, you've been around Farm Bureau for a long time. But before we get into your resume, can you just start with where you got introduced to Louisiana Farm Bureau?"
Well, my dad ran a dairy. And the first contact that I ever had with Farm Bureau was our insurance agent was our eye technician.
Okay.
Artificial intelligence and no artificial insemination.
That's the world we're in now. Mr.. Right.
"Yeah. I'm a but, it was, his odd he drive up in his car in open his trunk, and he had his nitrogen tank with his semen in it, and he'd write books in there. And, that was my first contact with Farm Bureau and Farm Bureau through the insurance part of it. But back then, there weren't a lot of companies that would sell to people in rural areas because they didn't have fire protection, bad roads, all that kind of stuff.
every now and then we'd go to his house and the office was in his house."
Okay.
And, that wasn't really unique for, just us. It was all over the state there. A lot of the first insurance agents were air technicians because they weren't around lots of dairies and they would visit and, you know, tend to other business besides just breeding cows. Yeah, we did that.
That I mean, that's that's really the heart of this is not an insurance podcast. That's really the heart of the insurance company, though, am I right? Like, that's why the insurance company was formed.
That's why the yes, we couldn't get insurance in rural areas. So Farm Bureau was a, started with the idea of, of having access to auto and home owner and eventually it got the life insurance and that sort of stuff. But it was a service back then, and it still is.
Yeah, that's pretty cool. So how old, how old do you think you were whenever you had that first interaction?
Probably 10 or 12, ten or.
12 years old when you first really learned about the name of Louisiana Farm Bureau. And here you are, a rye, 61 years old, 59, 59, 61 years old.
Well, I, I do math and see how much they add to it. But 77, it's been a while.
It's been a long time and expose and around this organization and for anyone. Spoiler alert you were the president of this organization for 31 years. And, that's a huge accomplishment, a huge part of your life that you've spent doing this. And I know for Miss Vivian and your kids, this is a lot of time away from home, a lot of time away from the dairy turned cattle operation turned beef cattle operation. A lot of time away from the farm. What was it about Farm Bureau? What was it about this organization, the people that made it worth that sacrifice that you made away from home?
"when I finished LSU, I went back home and got in the dairy business when my father, he was had been in the his father had been in the dairy business. He was in the deer business. I went home and we bought some more cows and increased the size of the herd.
Well, after I had been at home for about a year, I had a contact from a couple of members of the parish board and where we are in East and west, Felicia, and it's his one parish farm bureau for two parishes. So they invited me to come to a board meeting, and I went to the board meeting and, I thought it was pretty interesting.
You had a lot of the better farmers and people that I knew they were, you know, pretty big landowners and stuff. Then were there and at the second board meeting I went to, I was elected parish president."
Didn't take long,
No, it didn't take long.
Well, were they just that hungry for for some young blood or.
Well, I think it was, the parish president was an older gentleman that, had developed some heart problems, and they needed a person to be women's chairman. So I was elected president, and Vivian was selected to be women's chairman. And, we put on annual meetings and talent shows and, and, Queens contest. She did those.
All that was right up her alley.
"Oh, it was right up your alley. She loved it. And, we always had, cookouts. And we would cook and I'll cook for the annual meeting. And we had, we had some pretty large crowds back then. We would we would have, several hundred people would come to the annual meeting and we'd talk about issues and what we were going to do and what resolutions we were going to send to, to New Orleans.
And, most of the time was New Orleans. The first, annual meeting I went Tuesday in Shreveport."
pretty rare, wasn't it?
"It was very rare. And then, we skipped around and Monroe and Shreveport and Baton Rouge and, and I think most of their annual meetings that were held when I was president were, were in New Orleans. So it could all be under one roof.
And it made it really good because these other places that you went to, you would have events in two different places and hotels at 3 or 4 and at that time of the year was always a chance of bad weather. And nobody liked to get in the car and drive from place to place. One of the worst places was Baton Rouge.
We had part of it had hotel on one side and interstate the other side, and interstate was another part of it. And then they went down to the Centreplex area for big of a bigger event, and it was always raining and they had traffic and that kind of stuff."
"I can't, I can't even imagine. After doing convention for almost a decade now as a staff guy and even coming as a kid, it's always been in New Orleans for me and my time and the idea of having to go even across Canal Street and some of these days where you get these pop ups, storms like that sounds terrible.
But, we were you're telling me about becoming parish president. When did you kind of start to get more involved? On that state board level? I mean, you never served in this board room, but you served in a board room like this at Louisiana Farm here for a long time, even before being president. What was that? I guess, journey on to the larger stage afterwards."
"Parish president. For a few years in our district, we rotated and we had seven different rotations. And he came our time and, back then, they weren't let me back up. It wasn't selected like that. It was it wasn't that the parent, the district he rotated to the district, not to the parish. So, we had an election, and that was the first election that I ever won in Farm Bureau.
There was a gentleman from Tambo, and I ran against each other, and I won by a landslide, one vote. And that was after that. It got a little bit better again."
Can't get much worse.
And, I served on the state board for four years. I talked him into the idea of giving me two more years so I could get in line, hopefully to serve on the board.
On the executive committee or on the larger board. Or would you.
Say the board? I was on the board and they let me stay for four years, so I'd have an opportunity to run for the, for the executive committee. And there was a gentleman on the board at the time, on the executive committee. His name was Dave Means, and he was a dairy farmer, and he had been on the on the, executive committee for a good many years. And people said that he was Mr. Grain Yard's hatchet man. I mean, when there was a tough political issue to handle, Mr. Dave would handle it. And so, he had worked the way around the have we had seven dairymen on state board. He kind of promoted people in different areas to serve on the board.
To bolster that dairy voice.
"Oh, yes, indeed. I mean, if there was a vote there, he wanted to vote, whether it was a, you know, never not very often did you have a commodity committee competing, but, he figured you were dairy would win. Well, he passed away after I was on the, executive committee for four years. And, I ran for his seat and, was elected to that, and, it was it was, it was quite interesting.
Mr. Grunwald was president for 26 years, and he was elected Farm Bureau president when he was 41. And I served on the executive committee for four years. And Mr. Grunwald was going to retire. So I ran for president and was elected when I was 41. So it's a matter of timing and being in the right place at the right time.
And, being able to devote the time and effort to, to doing all of that. But it was a whole learning process from the board to the executive committee to finally to being president."
I mean, that's a lot of time, even before you even become president, that you've already committed to the organization. And then I'm sure from his, Miss Vivian realized what she was getting herself into at that point.
"She knew that it was a lot of involvement with the executive committee. She didn't realize,
how much time was going to be involved with being president? And I think, a lot of people in state think being president, the Farm Bureau is a easy position to just, you know, you got a lot of staff and you got people doing stuff, but you're going to be involved with a lot of issues, a lot of travel.
And, it does involve a whole lot of time that, you got to have a real commitment when you decide to do it."
"Well, when you decided that and, I'm assuming you probably had somebody give you some insight. That's what you're getting yourself into. But you've already committed this time. What was it about the organization that you said? It's worth it. It's worth that time commitment. I'm going to continue. I'm going to take another step into more time commitment with this presidency role.
What was it that said it's worth it for you?"
"Well, when you look at the political part of what Farm Bureau does, both in Baton Rouge in the legislature and how that impacts farmers and anybody in rural areas and any taxpayer in the state, it was worth it from that standpoint. And the next step was Washington being able to, have input with congressmen and senators and, and people that are involved with making decisions that affect everybody's lives.
To me, that was the that was the key part of of what, Was involved with and helped accomplish and that sort of stuff was strictly the political aspects of taxes and roads and trade and environmental issues and all of that different things, wetlands and, all the rules and regulations that we had to deal with."
So was there a trip to DC, a, a fight at the in Baton Rouge and the Capitol? There? Was there was there any kind of a story or any major issue? I mean, I'm thinking of something like that. We I feel like we've talked about Lotus for my entire life or, or any kind of those big fights that, that you were part of that really showed you the power of Louisiana Farm Bureau, a farm bureau like American Farm Bureau, that where you said, oh, man, like, I have an impact here. Do you remember any of those in any of those types of issues that might have come up?
the right to farm and, use values? Probably the most important thing that went on in Louisiana. If we did not have that, if you look around and all the development subdivisions and how cities are growing and if you didn't have use value taxation, you could not stay on and farm because of the taxes that would be imposed on you. And that's probably one of the one of the bigger issues that that we did that we also had, right work. And, Farm Bureau did a, did a number on the, Labor unions in the state. They did not do well, right to work at all. And, we were involved with, with, helping to to allow people to have a business without having to be, tied to some of the stuff that the unions or that some of the things unions asked for won't are good, you know, and I don't want to say that is terrible, but, it it really it puts a ban on smaller, businesses to be able to match all of, you know, wage rates and, and all, like, kind of, active ity. We've got a lot of union people that are part of the Farm Bureau, and that's a good thing. And, and, we don't have a lot of fights over that anymore. But, I was wanting to some of the key issues in the state. And then you had nationally dealing with, wetlands. They environmental issues and rules and regulations that affected, you know what? Pests, sads, herbicides, fertilizers and stuff that, that we use. And, no till and till and all of the things that have changed over the years that have improved the way agriculture works and also contributes to better environmental impacts.
You became president when you were 41 years old, right? That's six years past. I don't know what the ages were back in those days, but now it's young farmers and ranchers from ages 18 to 35. And you were involved in that as well? Looking back now, you're 77 years old, became president at 41. Is there anything that you wish you would have learned about this organization? I mean, be it that power in Washington or at the state level, is there anything that you've learned? Later in life, later in your career, even at 41, 45, early in your presidency that you're like, man, I wish I had known that at 25.
"We had a good, young farm and rancher program. Is that time that I was, involved on the board and, and, then his early years, but we still do. But it was kind of developing back then. He wasn't as activist as some of the other states. When I was elected president, I went on the APF board, and it was kind of an interesting thing.
I was the youngest Perry, state president on that board and had a lot of older guys that he kind of picked on me and, and tried to didn't work, but they tried. And, we had some interesting meetings. We, we met in Chicago then. And I'm getting away from your question a little bit."
I'll bring you back.
we, had an office in Park Ridge, which is a suburb of Chicago. Really beautiful office and a kind of a small town. It was all surrounded by towns. And, we met there, and we had two meetings in the office, and we stayed at a hotel slash, oh, folks home called a Park Ridge in. And it was pretty interesting. You did half the hotel was.
A long term residence.
"Yeah, and half was in and out people. Well, it's, since I'm as old as I am, I can probably say it. Most of the people there were paddling around on wheelchairs and eating prunes, and we were trying to stay in other part of the thing, but we could walk back and forth, to the army of meetings.
Then we moved out by the airport. They have both did. We met there for a good many years. They were had an opportunity to move to Washington. Chicago was a center of agriculture. Years ago, and the Mercantile Exchange is there and all that stuff. And that's why American was there. But American really is supposed to be American Farm Bureau. It's supposed to be a political arm. And we were too far from Washington. So we were able to move the headquarters to Washington. And it worked out really well. It was it was close. We could meet a half a day and go to the hill half a day. And, I think our influence up there, changed a whole lot. And, I'm pleased with being part of that move. From Chicago to Washington."
That that's talked about a lot in those days of, you know, going to Chicago for American Farm Bureau convention or something. And the idea of going there in January didn't seem very appealing to people.
No one we had, several meetings that we couldn't get out. The airport was almost shut down, the flight was delayed, and we'd sit in the boardroom and watch them pile up. Snow that was falling. And, it wasn't one of my favorite places to be, in the winter. So, when I moved to Washington, it made it a lot easier.
So looking back on your years, what's one of those things that, that you wish you'd have known earlier in your career, your time and Farm Bureau weather? I mean, you talked about life and being so, impactful. It is that, like a best kept secret or has that been at times.
It has been. We don't, we don't get enough Farm Bureau in Louisiana and now does not get as much support and involvement by young farmers as we should have. And I'll tell you why. Young farmers are just starting out. Most of them and just getting married got small children, and they're so involved with family and farm that they do not have the time, to devote for, you know, coming to Baton Rouge, going to Washington and doing those sort of things and serving on the, Louisiana Farm Bureau Board. Is a lot of involvement, even for, you know, that at that age of their and that time of their career, if there were a way to get them more involved. Now we've got some parishes that really do a good job. There's some of them have big numbers of of, young farmers and, there's a lot of parishes that do not have much, young of participation.
They may not have much. Many young farmers.
True. They may not have many young farmers. And the population in these cities are growing and moving out and taking a lot of farmland. And it's fewer and fewer of the bigger type farms now, the smaller, you know, strawberries. And, some of the, vegetables and smaller operations work hand in hand. And nursery bees and some of those things work hand in hand with, the population moving out. And those are some key things that people could like dairy. And in the area where there are no dairies left in our parish and, very few in the Florida parish area, area that used to be.
Right. Well, I mean, I've been out to your house. I remember when I first got this job, Avery and I came out to your house one of the first couple of weeks, and we did a story with you. And it was Vivian. And I know that's happened many times, and I know it's cost you many dollars over the years. I blame Mike Danna for that. But, I've seen that. I've seen your property before where it is now and not your property, but your property to you, your daughter and son in law or your son and daughter in law built right there on your on the property. Yeah, there's there are lots all down the side of Line Road. Is it line road. Yeah. There are lots popping up, five acre lots out there. And people are moving to the country because they want that. So it's I know you see it every day. Let's talk about this building. You never were present inside this building?
"I was one of the first to get Covid. I was in a coma for over 30 days in the hospital, 78. And during that time, I had, told people before I got sick that I wanted to retire, and I thought it would have been a good time.
I didn't know I was going to be in hospital when it happened, but, we did a lot of work and looking at property around Baton Rouge and were looking at property and, and all kind of different areas. And I think we were really lucky to find this in an area that's, got a lot of new development.
I believe we were out on Airline Highway for 60 years, I think at that location."
Sounds about.
Right. And, had an opportunity to visit Phil Witter that owns the property back behind office here. He is, got cattle, he's got open land, he's got hay, horses and, he and I got to talking one day about the possibility of buying some property from me. And he talked about drive cattle from here to Cortana Plantation, which is over past the whole office. And we hit it off pretty well. And I was able to, talk him into letting us buy this particular piece of property. And it is ideal. It's great. We went through all kind of plans and with the board, the executive committee, insurance staff, sales staff to look at what they needed. And, I think we got one of the nicest, Corporate buildings in Baton Rouge. If you go down there where we were on airline and you said you were at the Farm Bureau office, nobody knew it was you. Tell them the Farm Bureau office. Now they know where it is.
Oh, yeah, I get it all the time. And as someone who hopefully will work here at least a couple more years.
Very few more.
I hope so, I appreciate it. And, it's a nice place to come to work. It's also really bad for the diet because there's plenty of great food options right around the place, right around the corner. It's bad for the budget, too. My wife told me about that. But this room here, you never sat as president in this room? No, I did. You, you got you've gotten to see it. Now, this, I joked with Mr. Ronnie when we were getting ready to the budget. So we're going to do it in the boardroom because you spent so many years. I've never been in that boardroom. And I know that's not true because the.
Boardroom, well, I've never been to a meeting in this.
The boardroom is named for you.
Yes it is.
What did that mean a lot?
It really does. Having a nice building for staff. I'm talking about Federation staff insurance. They have sales staff. It makes them feel good about coming to work. And it's not just a little building in the corner, you know, it's a building that people notice and see. And, it makes them feel good about Farm Bureau. And, we have been able to, raise the, the, awareness of Farm Bureau in Baton Rouge and in the legislature when you get politicians, legislators, congressmen, senators, secretaries, or whatever it might be, high commissioner to come to this building. And they look around and say, wow, these these people have it going. And, it's not that it's extravagant from the standpoint of taking money away from our members over the years, his management of the boards over all that time to be able to set money aside, to be able to do this, and we were able to do it in a manner that did not put the Federation in a bind financially. And it's an investment that if we ever decide we want to sell it, I don't see a reason for doing that. But we could, make a considerable amount of money, by turning it over and doing something else with, you know, let somebody else have it. But you get people to come to Baton Rouge to a board meeting and sit around this board table. They feel good about the organization that they're part of. They feel good about the position that they have. And, I think it's just a, I don't want to say ego trip, but it makes you feel good about Farm Bureau and what we able to do, and that people come to us to get our help in the legislature, in Congress, and, Farm Bureau has done well. And, not that I was a, the one that caused all of that, but I was glad to be part of it. So many good board members that we've had over the years, and so many good leaders, volunteer leaders that have helped promote the organization. And, the insurance guys that have, sold our product, it's our companies. It's the mutual company and the casualty company and the life company all was started by the federation. And we're the owners of federations, the owners of these companies. And, you can be proud of them. And, have ups and downs of prices. Rates of insurance goes up and goes down. Service is always good if you stick with it for the long run. It's kind of like being stock market. Stick with Farm Bureau for the long run. I don't care if you're dealing with the Federation or the insurance companies, you're going to be better off in the.
you kind of just said this, but it sounds. Do you like to share the, you've probably got a few years of experience doing this, but sharing the, the praise with fellow board members, the time your wife, obviously, the insurance companies. Are you proud of your time you spent at the Farm Bureau?
Oh, yes. They totally, It's opened so many doors for me. And they will open doors for these board members and the executive committee and of the state president. I mean, I served on the LSU board of, the supervisors, for almost 21 years. And it wasn't a Farm Bureau position, but it was the fact the Farm Bureau put me in a position to be made aware them to be made aware of what we do and and what I did at the time to allow me to be appointed by four different governors to serve on the Board of Supervisors, served on the AFB board for 30 years, the casualty company board, and is chairman of it for almost 15 years. That's the auto company. And then on the life company board for 30 plus years. That and ag leadership and different things that we were involved with, Farm Bureau opened many, many doors for me. And they will do the same for these leaders that we have now.
Well, that perfectly leads me to my last question. And that's what would your advice be to a 25 year old Ronnie Anderson or, you know, any any other young farmer, 41 year old Ronnie Anderson? What would your advice be to someone that's maybe not sitting in one of these chairs, but has come and sat in one of these chairs during a board meeting? Or is on a commodity committee, or is just a member, or not even a member yet? What would your advice be to someone that's sitting on the sidelines as maybe, well.
First, join Farm Bureau, then participate in whatever. If you got a commodity, get involved with that. Look at what Farm Bureau does for you for it. Regard for taxes, roads, all and wetlands, environmental issues and all of that, and realize what it can do for you and get involved with your parish board, seek to be to participate, run for that board, get involved with the young farmers we've raised that age limit from 25 to 30 to 35. Now, and they go much higher. I'll get back on the young farmers, but they got to move pretty high for me. But get involved with with that and learn more about the organization, what it does. I had a a man about 8 or 10 years ago ask me, what did he need to do to become president? So I told him, I said, look, get involved. Parish. He did be a parish president. He was get on state board. He did get on the executive committee. He did. And now he's president. It's a lot of steps. But if you are willing to take those steps and. Put an effort into it, it's good for the organization and it's good for you. If you look at what how that affects your lifestyle, I'm talking about back home and what you're able to do and your income and allowing you to farm and all of those different things that this organization is the cause of, you jump on it right away.
Well, Ronnie, I am forever grateful for all the time that you spent doing this. I as long as I've been around Farm Bureau as my dad was on this board with you for many years. I got to see you. I've known you. I feel like my whole life as Mr. Farm Bureau. So thank you for all the years that you've set up for me to be able to have a career doing this. I know a lot of other folks have the same. So thank you for all the years.
"Thank you. Thank all of y'all for allowing me to do some of the things, coaching me and moving me, along for guided. I went to school with 32, people in his high school class. Worked on a dairy farm, taught school. Was a I technician. Not not the, kind of got now, but can we still have an ad back to you and, you know, the what the staff and the people I've met have done for me.
You wouldn't believe the great friendships that I've made and the places I've been able to go in Louisiana and around the country and around the world. From of Louisiana. It's kind of like being from jigger."
I'm familiar.
With here. I'm very lucky.
If you want to learn more about Mr. Ronnie and the time that he spent, I'm sure we've got a story. Do we have a story? Ever done a story on you? Once or twice?
Once or twice.
Thanks for watching this episode of the Louisiana Farm Bureau podcast. We'll see you again right here next week.