Agricultural News
Oklahoma Farm Bureau Delegates Re-elect Rodd Moesel as President- Adopt Marijuana Policy and More at Annual Convention
Mon, 08 Nov 2021 06:45:02 CST
Delegates at the 80th Annual Convention of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau re-elected Rodd Moesel to his third two year term by acclimation on Saturday afternoon in Norman. After that session, Moesel talked with Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Senior Director of Farm Programming Ron Hays about the progress the organization has been able to make since he was elected for the first time four years ago. Moesel says "it was kinda unexpected that I ran in the first place- but it has been an absolute joy working with the Farm Bureau folks- both the members we get to work with and the staff that we get to work with, too- it's been a real joy and I have soaked up and enjoyed every minute and have learned a lot." Listen to Hays and Moesel's complete conversation about his re-election and the policy development process at the Convention by clicking on the LISTEN BAR below.
Moesel will be working with a less experienced State Board in 2022 as five of the nine Board members will have been in place for one year or less. He considers that an opportunity to build on the positive things that have been achieved in the recent past as he hopes to lead the new board to set a fresh set of goals to pursue in the next few years.
Moesel and Vice President Gary Crawley led the annual resolutions adoption process on both Saturday morning and afternoon- with the delegates adopting 81 resolutions brought forward by the State Resolutions Committee- mostly with the language proposed by the Committee but with several being amended and changed on the floor of the meeting.
Moesel told Hays that the number one issue in terms of the number of resolutions that were adopted were cannabis related. "Where we had little policy in our book on cannabis before this meeting- we not have a great deal of policy that has been adopted by the delegates." That includes:
"increasing the new and renewal annual permit fees for producing marijuana comparable to or higher than neighboring states fee structures"
"transparent laws regarding the ownership of production, processing, distribution and dispensary entities."
"Absolutely no foreign national ownership of marijuana grow operations."
"We support providing the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority with the resources needed to properly monitor licensing and legal medical marijuana production. We also supporting enforcing regulations and laws against illegal marijuana production, transporting and sales. We support allocating seized funds from illegal operations to go into an account to support the cause."
The delegates also addressed neighbor to neighbor issue of ag chemical applications. They adopted three measures on this topic:
"Herbicide labels are federal law. All herbicides should be allowed to be used as specified on the label. Chemical drift is a concern for all crops, but marijuana grow houses should not be allowed status that exceeds label requirements."
The Oklahoma Farm Bureau supports the ODAFF in administering a spray drift policy regarding medical marijuana growth and limiting the liability exposure of landowners and commercial applicators relative to herbicide application, prescribed burns and any other industry accepted pasture and cropland managed practices."
"We strongly support legislation to protect farmers and ranchers from financial consequences of drifting on marijuana grow houses in cases where there is no negligence."
Beyond the cannibas issue- the delegates went on record to expand efforts in the state to eradicate feral swine, overturn the McGirt Supreme Court Ruling, oppose vaccine mandates from the Federal Government, continue to work to simplify the application process for the ag sales tax exemption, support the Right to Repair concept for modern farm equipment and to continue to develop private meat packing capacity in Oklahoma.
In addition to the policies that were state issues- several resolutions were also adopted that will be carried by Moesel and the leadership to the American Farm Bureau in December to be considered at the National level by the American Farm Bureau at their convention in early 2022 in Atlanta.
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