— After decades of making a positive difference in helping farmers locally and statewide, a Limestone County native will be honored this month for his contributions.

Jerry Newby will be one of three people inducted Feb. 22 into the Auburn Ag Alumni Association’s Hall of Honor. He will be honored for his achievements in the agribusiness sector of agriculture.

The Ag Alumni Association established the Hall of Honor in 1984, according to a press release. The awards banquet is held each year in conjunction with the association’s annual meeting.

“I’m humbled by it and I don’t understand how I’m getting this award,” Newby said Tuesday. “I’m thankful to all the people who have helped me receive this.”

Though beginning his 13th year as president of Alfa Insurance and the Alabama Farmers Federation, he said the experience has been completely different than anything he’d ever thought he’d be doing with his life.

“All I ever wanted to be was a farmer,” Newby said. “I certainly want to give a lot of credit to my family and my wife Dianne.”

He and his kin built a successful family farm with Newby Farms, which extends from Limestone County into Giles County, Tenn. The farm raises cotton, corn, wheat and beans, while also raising grass-fed steers.

“There’s a whole lot of mouths living off that farm,” he said.

Newby described the Alabama Farmers Federation as a “grass roots” organization with 67 member groups representing each county in the state. Despite each county being represented, he said, farmers in the state and nationwide face serious obstacles, including an increase in government regulations.

Two of the biggest issues, Newby said, is the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed cap-and-trade policy that would require industries, including farms, to buy carbon offsets if emissions exceed the legal cap.

“It appears that Washington, D.C., is trying to put the farmers out of business,” he said. “There’s a whole lot of things they’ve been working on to make it harder for us.”

The Obama administration, he said, is working to downsize American agriculture and outsource more food production to foreign countries. He said the U.S. is exporting about 30 percent of the world’s food supply at a profit of $40 million, but farmers will have to increase production 70 percent over the course of the next 50 years to feed the world’s growing population. In an effort to stay profitable, Newby said farmers will need additional overseas markets they can sell to.

“We’re concerned about rampant government regulation and inflation on (planting),” he said. “It’s costing us more and more each year to plant the crops. Corn crops will cost 12 percent more than last year (to plant).”

Newby said Limestone County farmers are facing many of the same hurdles, but he wants to ensure that farmers are able to pass down their operations to the next generation of farmers. He’s been active in the Family Farm Preservation Act signed into law last year by Gov. Bob Riley, which prevents law-abiding family farms from being declared a public nuisance.

His other concerns for area farmers include conditions of farm-to-market roads throughout the county and ensuring that taxes levied on farms are fair and reasonable.

Paul Looney, president of the Limestone County Farmers Federation, said he and Newby go “way back” and worked in dairies together right out of high school. He said Newby’s success as president of the Alabama Farmers Federation came as no surprise.

“During all those years, he had an ambition about working for the farmers,” Looney said. “Sometimes we’d laugh because while the farmers were talking to each other, Jerry would be off talking to a politician. He’s always had our best interest at heart.”

Looney said Newby has worked diligently over the years for the farmers of Limestone County and continues to assist local farmers through his work in Montgomery.

“He’s not only been a neighbor to us, but he’s really helped us,” Looney said. “It’s hard for us to call him Mr. Newby. We always call him Jerry.”

Auburn’s Ag Alumni Association Hall of Honor banquet will be held at The Hotel at Auburn University in the Dixon Conference Center. Tickets are $50 per person. For more information on corporate sponsorships or the awards and banquet, contact Elaine Rollo at 334-844-3204.