Agricultural News
Joint Oklahoma Beef Packing/Processing Task Force Announced- First Meeting This Week
Mon, 04 May 2020 16:49:37 CDT
The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture and the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association are joining forces to establish the Oklahoma Beef Packing/Processing Task Force, a joint effort that will meet for the first time by the end of this week. We know two of those that will be involved- Co Chairs Oklahoma Ag Secretary Blayne Arthur and Michael Kelsey.
Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays talked on Monday afternoon with CO Chair Kelsey, theExecutive Vice President of the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association about what is expected to be about a fifteen person task force to "explore opportunities that can be provided to Oklahoma beef cattle men and women specificially in the area of beef Packing/Processing."
Kelsey says that "To accomplish this, our task force will need to turn over every rock, ask every question (no matter how far-fetched they may sound), explore every dream and define every challenge. We are not going into this with a naïve or "pie in the sky" attitude. It will be a hard discussion. When we are finished, we are confident our results will be positive even if those conclusions say now is not the opportune time to expand capacity. We will allow failure to be defined only as "we didn't try"."
Kelsey says that after the Joint Task Force has met, they will decide how to announce who is a part of the group- and how they may plan to reach out to solicit ideas and input to throw up on the drawing board. Kelsey tells Hays that "we've got a clean slate...and we need to ask the hard questions to figure out what we can do and what we can't do" when it comes to expanding existing small processors and/or establishing new operations that can process cattle to allow consumers to have another pipeline to access safe, wholesome and great tasting product.
Kelsey adds that To aid our discussions we ask that we all hold ourselves accountable to these two simple rules:
1. We are not assembled to discuss and lament the current state of the beef industry. We are giving our valuable individual and collective time to exploring solutions and opportunities.
2. The table top is a blank canvas. We bring no preconceived agendas or "must-be's" to this effort, as that will only stifle our dreaming and exploration of the opportunities that exist.
Listen to their conversation by clicking on the LISTEN BAR below.
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