Nine members of Georgia's U.S. Congressional Delegation are recipients of the Friend of Farm Bureau Award recently announced by the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF). AFBF gives the award at the end of each Congress to legislators who have at least a 60 percent voting record in agreement with AFBF priority issues.

Georgia legislators receiving the award are: Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson and Reps. John Barrow, Sanford Bishop, Hank Johnson, Jack Kingston, John Lewis, Jim Marshall and David Scott. Sen. Chambliss is the ranking member of the U.S. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee. Reps. Barrow, Marshall and Scott serve on the House Agriculture Committee. Reps. Bishop and Kingston serve on the House Appropriations Committee and the Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies, of which Kingston is the ranking member.

In awarding the Friend of Farm Bureau Award, AFBF considered the votes legislators cast on legislation pertaining to the farm bill, energy, water and private property rights along with trade agreements and disaster aid. The AFBF Board of Directors, on which Georgia Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall serves, established these priority issues.

"We thank all of the award recipients for their efforts. The legislators who received this award for the 110th Congress went above the minimum requirement and voted with Farm Bureau at least 70 percent of the time on key votes, and Farm Bureau really appreciates their support of Georgia agriculture," Georgia Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall said.

The first recipients of the Friend of Farm Bureau Award were announced in September 1996 and have been announced every other September thereafter near the end of subsequent congresses. Founded in 1937, Georgia Farm Bureau is the state's largest general farm organization with more than 400,000 members.