Agricultural News
Tulsa Farm Show a Powerful Tool in Strengthening Relationships Both In and Out of the Ag Sector
Mon, 12 Dec 2016 16:53:56 CST
If you didn't make it up to the Tulsa Farm Show this past weekend, you really missed out on a great opportunity to connect with product vendors and service providers from the ag industry on a grand scale. Michael Kelsey, executive vice president of the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association, told Associate Farm Director Carson Horn, this is a tradition he and his staff never miss.
"This is really good, we come to the farm show every year," Kelsey said. "It's a great venue for us to just connect with our members and obviously get new members."
Kelsey has been a major advocate for continuing the work that started with the State Question 777 - Right to Farm movement, sharing agriculture's story proactively to urban residents to build relations and understanding between rural and urban communities. Despite the proposed question's defeat, Kelsey says it is imperative to continue spreading agriculture's message and keeping up that momentum. Farm shows like the one in Tulsa offer a perfect opportunity to do just that.
"If you think about it, a lot of urban folks here in Tulsa will come to the farm show," Kelsey said. "So it's a great opportunity for us to tell our story."
American Farmers and Ranchers took advantage of the opportunity, too, and hosted a Rural to Urban Outreach reception, which attracted Tulsa's new mayor, G.T. Bynum to make an appearance (Click here to jump to a related story about Mayor Bynum's address at the reception). Kelsey attended the reception and remarked what a great idea it was and a perfect example of taking advantage of every opportunity to further build that rural-to-urban relationship.
"Hats off to our friends at AFR," Kelsey said. "Really great opportunity to sit down - rural America is not asking the mayor to do anything other, other than to say, 'Let's start a conversation.'
"We just want to sit down and create a relationship between rural and urban because we are so dependent on each other. We have to work together."
Listen to Horn's entire interview with Kelsey about his and the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association's experience at this year's Tulsa Farm show, by clicking or tapping the LISTEN BAR below.
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