Agricultural News
Oklahoma Wheat Growers Jeff Hickman Wants Safety Net Prioritized in 2023 Farm Bill
Thu, 25 Aug 2022 14:50:45 CDT
Farm Director, KC Sheperd, had the chance to visit with the Oklahoma Wheat Growers Association Executive Director, Jeff Hickman, about the 2023 Farm Bill from a wheat grower’s perspective and how the upcoming election will impact the decisions made on behalf of producers.
“The runoff elections are over now so the ballots are all set for November with the exception of knowing whether the recreational marijuana vote is going to be on the November ballot or not, but as far as the candidates go, those are all set and so we know who the nominees will be and we are obviously talking to those nominees and have been for several months about agriculture,” Hickman said. “Particularly the wheat growers have been talking about the policies related to those.”
Hickman said the National Wheat Growers Association and the Oklahoma Wheat Growers Association work hand in hand.
An Oklahoma Wheat Grower member is automatically a member of the National Wheat Growers,” Hickman said. “It is only 50 dollars to join, but you automatically get that membership in the National Wheat Growers.”
The National Wheat Growers Association, Hickman said, worked with Congressman Lucas to get wheat added into the CFAP (Coronavirus Food Assistance Program) payments this past year. Wheat wasn’t included in the first round, but Hickman said thanks to NAWG, OWGA and Congressman Lucas, it was in the second round.
“That is just a small example that for only a 50-dollar investment, that producers got thousands of dollars in payments through CFAP, so we will be talking to nominees at the state and federal level because that is just one example of policies where the rubber meets the road for wheat producers, farmers and ranches in Oklahoma on farm policy,” Hickman said.
Hickman also talked about the 2023 Farm Bill and how Congressman Lucas will be playing a large role in writing it.
When Congressman Lucas left the Ag Committee to chair the Science and Technology Committee, Hickman said Lucas made a deal with leadership that when it came time to write the farm bill, he would return to the Ag Committee as the senior member.
“He has been involved with every farm bill since he got there in the mid-90s, so it is very important,” Hickman said. “G.T. Thompson from Pennsylvania will be the new House Ag Chairman if Republicans have the majority, who learned under Frank Lucas as one of his best friends.”
While there are terminals in Oklahoma, Hickman said at the federal level, seniority matters.
“Congressman Lucas will be one of the top 5 republicans in terms of the years he has been in Washington and in the top 20 of all members of the house, and that matters,” Hickman said. “When I was in Washington and visiting with Representative Thompson from Pennsylvania, he talked about needing to change the narrative and not talk about rural America, but talk about essential America, because rural America is essential America.”
Hickman said it is important to have representation from rural America because they understand agriculture and have roots in that area. From a wheat growers’ perspective, Hickman added that a safety net is the importance of the farm bill.
“I think Congressman Lucas has a great strategy and I assume Chairman Thompson will have a similar one having learned under Congressman Lucas, to bring everybody together and talk about those big-ticket items that are more important probably to the urban areas than the real farm issues,” Hickman said. “At the end of the day that is what the farm bill is all about. It is a safety net for producers when something they cannot control, which is both weather and prices- when something happens, that they are able to make sure they are in a position to continue to feed the world the following year.”
Hickman also talked about the need for conversation about ways to move water around Oklahoma in the future to help impact agriculture and what we can grow across the state. Click the LISTEN BAR below to listen to KC’s full conversation with Jeff Hickman on priorities for wheat growers.
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