Get involved

Photo: Kathy Images, Adobe Stock

Now is a vital time for green industries to advocate with their elected officials, citing issues like the soon-to-be-negotiated Farm Bill, labor reform and any legislation aimed at curbing inflation, says Craig Regelbrugge, AmericanHort’s executive vice president of advocacy, research and industry relations.

And it’s necessary to do even if someone is tired of, worn out by or even ”disgusted” by politics, he adds.

“Message number one to them is that opting out really isn’t an option,” Regelbrugge says. “When you think about it, our political environment is, by its very structure, competitive. The quickest way to ensure you’re going to get a result out of the political process that isn’t the one you’d like is by disengaging. So, first and foremost, people have to make it part of their business to be involved in politics.”

“Point number two,” he continues, “we try to make it fairly easy for people to have their voice heard and send a message to Congress or whatever when the time is right. That stuff is all important. Our numbers matter and the more numbers we can generate, the better our impact. What I really want to emphasize, though, is that at the end of the day, politics are our world. It is incredible the impact someone — an individual or a group of companies in an area — can have when they forge a connection with their elected lawmakers and their staff.”

In addition to their lobbying in Washington, D.C., Regelbrugge says their main strategy is pursuing local advocacy. In partnership with other organizations, he says they are participating in events in different states where they are targeting certain senators on a possible labor bill. Regelbrugge notes that a reform bill passed the House in 2021, but hasn’t yet been moved on by the Senate, with only a few months left before both chambers will welcome new members.

The key to those events, he says, are industry members attending. At a recent event in Kansas City, for instance, Lyndsi Oestmann from Loma Vista Nursery was one of the main speakers. At an event in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, a greenhouse manager from Natural Beauty Growers spoke about the need for labor reform. And at an event in Maine, Jake Pierson from Pierson Nursery made his case.

“We are doing these local events where you end up with a dairy farmer, a rancher, a nurseryman or greenhouse operator, a fruit of vegetable grower — a rounded group with an agriculture focus — calling on the need for reform and following it up with a closed-door roundtable where the growers can talk directly to someone, usually staff,” Regelbrugge explains. “These are all states where we have Republican senators that need to be hearing from their constituents, and these kinds of events put their staff face to face with our people in a local environment. And there’s the splash of coverage. Face-to-face meetings are how relationships get built.”

Nursery Management editor Matt McClellan contributed to this article.