With a ten percent lead over his opponent and former OKC Mayor Mick Cornett, Tulsa businessman Kevin Stitt managed to take the Republican nomination in Tuesday's run-off election which will place him against Democratic Nominee Drew Edmondson in this year's gubernatorial race. While Cornett was very popular amongst the urban metro area of the state, garnering 45 percent of the vote, he was still unable to catch Stitt in the end. Some have credited Stitt's connection with rural voters as the clincher in his victory. Steve Thompson, director of government affairs for American Farmers & Ranchers, is one of those people and says this demonstration of power makes rural Oklahoma well-positioned to make its message heard.


"Democracy is great... and it's even better when you have one candidate from OKC and one from Tulsa and rural Oklahoma gets to be very relevant," Thompson said. "I think that's the main takeaway here, is that the rural Oklahoma vote mattered."


Like the race between Cornett and Stitt, the results of many races this week were demonstrative of a shift in voter preference for a younger group of new blood rather than those candidates hailing from establishment political roots as several incumbents lost their seats to a new class fresh faces.


Thompson says he will spend the next several weeks ahead of the General Election connecting with and educating those candidates backed by AFR members about the issues that concern them. "The rural vote has been so critical up to this point and we've got their attention," he said. "So, it's a critical time to get our message across so that when they get to the State Capital, they are aware of the issues."


Thompson also shared during his visit that he, too, is seeking office... as AFR's next president. Terry Detrick has announced his plans to retire from the post at the organization's next convention in February. Excited for the opportunity to throw his hat in the ring, Thompson says he simply hopes to continue serving AFR member in any way possible.


Read more or hear what Thompson had to say about this week's election results and his own aspirations at AFR, by clicking here.

USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) went on the defensive, yesterday, after the magazine Consumer Reports published an article entitled, "What's Really in Your Meat?" which the National Cattlemen's Beef Association is denouncing as "nothing more than sensationalist journalism." The author, who has admitted to referencing "uncertain data," makes the article's intentions clear which is to deceive consumers and reduce the consumption of meat, according to NCBA. A release from the organization exposes the author's use of results on unconfirmed residue screening tests of meat that were erroneously released by FSIS. After the mistake was realized, FSIS provided the author with accurate data from confirmed tests. However, Consumer Reports continued to utilize the inaccurate information in the article.


FSIS called the story "sensational and fear-based infotainment aimed at confusing shoppers with pseudoscience and scare tactics." NCBA added that "the path chosen by Consumer Reports does nothing to protect or inform and will only serve to create doubts about safety in the minds of consumers."



NCBA argues that the bias on display in this article and others like it demonstrates that fair and accurate reporting is no longer a priority for the magazine and suggest it would better serve its readers if it "returned its focus to the testing of lightbulb lifespans and other matters of less gravity."

In September, Chip Kemp, director of International Genetic Solutions is slated to speak at the upcoming Strategy Forum on Livestock Traceability being hosted by the National Institute of Animal Agriculture. Kemp has stated that his goal will be to challenge people's misconceptions about beef traceability and help them find and understand the value in it. Kemp contends that the primary concerns most producers have about traceability programs is when the discussion leads to data sharing which prompts fears he describes as 'find me, know me, supervise me.'


"My presentation at the NIAA Strategy Forum is about how collaborative efforts within an industry, with incentivized responses and results, can help make data collection appealing," Kemp says. "My goal is to challenge everyone to coalesce around the fact that we need beef producers to want this, not just make them use it."


Kemp says the collaborative spirit of NIAA will bring different voices together that will help express the industry's vision for the future of traceability and the technology needed to realize it; foster leadership and consensus; and enhance producers' empowerment.


The 2018 NIAA Strategy Forum on Livestock Traceability will be held in Kansas City, Missouri at the Westin Kansas City at Crown Center, September 24 - 26, 2018 and will feature reports from the USDA traceability team and the Cattle Traceability Working Group, as well as a Technology Showcase with the most current technology, products and services focused on cattle traceability.


Get registered now and learn more about Kemp's views on traceability, by clicking or tapping here.