$61K in expenses

America needs an agricultural industry that supports healthy rural communities, protects the environment, and promotes a safe, diverse, and stable food supply. A healthy family farm-based system of agriculture is required to achieve these goals. Targeted, top-notch legal information and advocacy are indispensable in the struggle to defend family-based agriculture and secure social and economic justice for farmers. To provide this service the kansas farm bureau legal foundation (legal foundation) used more than 20 volunteers in 2024. The legal foundation started a new program that helps place attorneys in rural kansas by awarding up to 3 grants to new law graduates that pass the bar and begin their practice of law in a rural kansas community. Twelve grant recipients have been identified since the beginning of this program. The legal foundation is a proud sponsor of efforts to provide continuing legal education to attorneys serving agricultural clients, including the annual aala symposium, and a joint symposium with the kansas bar association. This aala symposium gathers the best and brightest agricultural law attorneys from around the u.s., and provides lectures and open formats for them to learn from one other. The legal foundation provides grants to county farm bureau associations to host legal education seminars. In 2024 four grants were awarded for seminars hosted on estate planning, rails to trails, and electric transmission. Through legal education seminars, the legal foundation reached over 1,000 individuals in 2024.