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The AG-PAC Educational Services Association — AESA — is a nonprofit educational organization that has been connecting Oregon's legislators, candidates, and public officials with the state's agricultural and natural resource industries since the early 1990s. Through direct, hands-on experiences, AESA builds understanding between the people who make Oregon's laws and the families and industries whose livelihoods depend on informed policy.
All AESA programs are approved by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission.
Oregon's natural resource families persist and persevere through some of the most challenging conditions in modern agriculture. Like never before, Oregon's farms, ranches, and forests are facing increased costs and regulation, greater competition from other states and countries, and a deepening misunderstanding at the elected level of what it means to operate a family farm or natural resource business.
Oregonians in poll after poll value and trust farmers. Yet public policies are increasingly eroding the ability of family scale farms, ranches, and forests to remain viable. AESA was created because the most effective way to address that gap is not a policy brief or a lobbying campaign. It is a conversation, on the land, with the people who work it.
Our members care for people and for the land and resources that allow them to produce Oregon's remarkable variety of farm, ranch, and forest products. They want to be part of a better Oregon and find solutions to the challenges we can overcome together. But they must be partners in the process to be successful. AESA creates the conditions for that partnership.
AESA sponsors educational tours and receptions for Oregon's legislators, candidates, and public officials, bringing them face to face with the farmers, ranchers, foresters, and industry experts whose work sustains Oregon's natural resource economy. AESA hosts two signature programs on an alternating year schedule:
Held every two years, the AESA Legislative Tour is a full-day educational experience visiting working Oregon farms, research facilities, and natural resource operations. Attendees travel together by bus, meeting the families and experts behind each operation and hearing directly about the challenges shaping Oregon's natural resource economy.
In alternating years, AESA hosts a Legislative Reception bringing Oregon's agricultural community and legislators together in a relaxed setting for fellowship and conversation, keeping relationships strong between tour years.
AESA is the educational affiliate of AG-PAC, Oregon's Agricultural Political Action Committee. The two organizations are legally separate and serve distinct purposes, operating completely independently of one another.
AG-PAC endorses and contributes to legislative candidates. AESA does not. AESA's sole purpose is education, creating direct and meaningful experiences between Oregon's lawmakers and the agricultural, forestry, and natural resource families and businesses that depend on sound, informed policy.
All AESA activities are approved by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission. AESA does not endorse or contribute to any political candidate or committee and does not participate in any political campaign.
