NCBA Files Petition in Supreme Court Against Greenhouse Gas Regulations 

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) along with the Coalition for Responsible Regulation filed a petition yesterday in the United States Supreme Court (Supreme Court) challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) finding that greenhouse gases (GHG) endanger public health and welfare, its rule to limit GHG from passenger vehicles and its "timing" and "tailoring" rules that govern GHG permit applicability at stationary sources.

In December 2009, EPA issued a finding that GHGs are an "endangerment" to public health and the environment-providing EPA with a foundation from which to regulate GHGs under the Clean Air Act (CAA), from small and large sources throughout the economy, including farming and ranching operations. NCBA filed a petition with the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals and EPA challenging the science behind EPA's finding. The D.C. court dismissed the challenge in June of last year. The court also denied challenges to EPA's endangerment finding for greenhouse gases and subsequent emissions standards for cars and light-duty trucks.

"We have already seen many actions by this administration's EPA that proves they believe they are above the law. Forcing these greenhouse gas regulations upon Americans, including hard-working cattlemen and women is yet another example of this. We remain hopeful that bringing this issue to the highest court in the nation, the U.S. Supreme Court, will put a stop to the aggressive agenda-driven bullying by EPA," said NCBA Deputy Environmental Counsel Ashley McDonald.

McDonald added that NCBA originally challenged EPA and the GHG regulations in court in order to take regulatory rulemaking power away from those sitting behind desks in a federal agency and place it back into the hands of the American people.

Click here to read more.  

Farm Bureau Members Speak with Congressional Delegation About Issues Important to Oklahomans 

Oklahoma Farm Bureau President Mike Spradling recently returned from a trip to Washington, D.C., with a delegation of 40 members from Oklahoma. 

He said it is very important to go to Washington and meet with Congress members on their own turf. He said it was especially important to meet with Oklahoma's two newest members in the House of Representatives, Markwayne Mullin and Jim Bridenstine, and cultivate new relationships.

There were three issues in particular, Spradling said, that OFB members feel strongly about and wanted to make sure our Congressional delegation understood where the members stood: the farm bill, immigration reform, and the Endangered Species Act.

Concerning the farm bill, Spradling said there are those who are pushing to remove the commodity title from the overall all farm bill. He said that might not be a prudent option at this point.

"I think the people who say that, and I really mean no disrespect to them, but don't quite understand really how government functions. We could certainly take out the nutrition bill and, of course, that's about 80 percent of the budget for the farm bill. But, then, that only leaves a very small portion to be divided up among 14 other titles. And I think the thing that most of the individuals, most citizens of the nation need to understand is that the farm bill is not just for farmers. There's something in there for everyone." 

You can listen to our conversation or read more by clicking here. 

U.S. Pork Producers Demonstrate Earth Day Principles

As the world celebrates another Earth Day on April 22, research shows that America's pork producers have made huge improvements in environmental management over the last 50 years. The research, titled "A 50-Year Comparison of the Carbon Footprint and Resource Use of the U.S. Swine Herd: 1959 - 2009," found that modern pork production methods have led to a 35 percent decrease in the carbon footprint, a 41 percent reduction in water usage and a 78 percent drop in land needed to produce a pound of pork compared with a 1959 baseline.

"As a pork producer, I'm proud of the accomplishments we've made as an industry," said Conley Nelson, National Pork Board president and producer from Algona, Iowa. "But today's competitive market demands that we do even more to improve how we produce pork. That's why pork producers are working together to fund new environmental research that will help us build on the progress we've made over the past 50 years."

"The study underscores just how much improvement farmers have made over the past half century," said Garth Boyd, Ph.D. The environmental researcher and former university professor led a team of university and industry scientists in conducting the Checkoff-funded study. "The pork industry has been very successful in significantly reducing its environmental impact and its use of natural resources by nearly 50 percent across the board per pound of pork produced, which is quite an accomplishment."

Click here to read more of this story.

 

FFA Has Multi-Generational Impact on Life of Keith Kisling

There are thousands of former FFA members that serve as role models for current and future FFA students- and the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and OklahomaFarmReport.Com is pleased to be working with the Oklahoma FFA Association to spotlight some of the tremendously successful men and women who wore the Blue and Gold Jacket of the FFA during their high school days.

Our latest spotlight shines on Keith Kisling. He is a farmer from Burlington, Oklahoma, and vice president of the Oklahoma FFA Foundation. He said he didn't have to think very hard about becoming an FFA member years ago.  His children followed in his footsteps and there are so many things he is thankful for when it comes to what FFA has done for his children.

"They've all got good jobs. They've all got good families. I think probably the biggest thing is their work ethics. My kids had to get up every day and go do chores, brush their steers, feed their steers, help on the farm, in the field, Kim making meals for everybody on the farm and it really made a difference in the work ethics that they have now as they're older and they have their own families."

Looking back on it, Kisling says, wearing that blue jacket means more to him than he could have imagined.

"I was proud to wear that jacket. Even back then we had to zip it up and be careful of what we did. And I used to tell Brent when he was wanting to run for state president, 'You make one mistake that people see and they never forget it. You've got to make a lot of good things happen for them to remember you. But you make one bad move and people remember the bad things you do.' So, our kids were pretty good growing up. We didn't have a lot of trouble." 

You can hear my conversation with Keith Kisling and read more of this story by clicking here.

 

Food Safety Takes a Concerted Effort from Producers All the Way to Consumers

Safety is always near the top of concerns consumers have about their food. Publicity in the media can often make small, local problems seem much larger than they really are, and consumers can easily be misled into thinking danger lurks where, in fact, none does.

But, says Dr. John Ruby, that doesn't mean that food producers shouldn't be constantly seeking to make their products evermore safe. Ruby is the Vice President of Technical Services for JBS USA Beef Division. He oversees the Food Safety, Quality, and Animal Welfare departments. He has worked for JBS for 13 years in a variety of food-safety roles.

I him at the recently-completed National Institute of Animal Agriculture's annual conference. He says food safety is everyone's business from the producer all the way through the consumer. He says a tremendous amount of that responsibility, however, does indeed lay with producers.

"So, like I said in my presentation: As a general rule of thumb, if you're making money selling product that eventually somebody is going to eat, you have a responsibility in food safety. Whether you are producing an animal-and I've heard the term 'well, it's not food yet'-eventually it's going to get to be food. As a packer, we owe that responsibility of making sure if we produce it to get it to the further processor. I've heard further processors will say, 'Well, I bought this, it's got the mark of inspection,' but at the end of the day, we all have the responsibility of making sure that product is as safe as it can get going through every segment of that food chain."

You can read more and listen to our conversation in the latest Beef Buzz by clicking here.

NIAA Opposes 'Humane Education' Indoctrination; Supports Animal Welfare

Domesticated animals deserve respect and care. That's animal welfare-and a priority of the National Institute for Animal Agriculture, an organization comprised of livestock, equine, poultry and aquaculture producers, producer organizations, veterinarians, extension personnel, academicians, scientists, Federal and state regulatory agencies and allied industry.

Jim Fraley, Livestock Program Director for Illinois Farm Bureau and co-chair of NIAA's Animal Care Council, stresses that animal welfare and animal rights, however, are not the same. Significant discussion was devoted to this topic during NIAA's annual conference in Louisville, Ky., April 15-17. In the end, NIAA's membership agreed on two key items: 1) NIAA believes in animal welfare and does not believe in animal rights; and 2) Today's children and future generations should understand the importance of animal welfare and not confuse animal welfare with animal rights.

"We believe in, and support, animal welfare as these practices focus on the prevention of suffering and cruelty to animals," Fraley explains. "NIAA does not believe in animal rights as the animal rights philosophy advocates an end to all 'human use of animals.'"

Click here for more.  

 

This N That- Southern Plains Farm Show Winning, Canola Touring and OALP Traveling 

Thanks to all of you that stopped by and said hello this past week at the 2013 Southern Plains Farm Show- Thursday was a little rough on the weather side of things- but Friday and Saturday were great days and lots of folks were strolling down the aisles- inside and outside- across the Oklahoma State Fair Park grounds. 

At the Radio Oklahoma Network- we gave away the Priefert Round Pen on Saturday afternoon that was used by Horse Trainer Scott Daily during this year's show- and we congratulate Ken Mach of Yukon for winning the pen. 

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Two of the three OSU Canola Field Tours that were cancelled because of bad weather a couple of weeks ago have been reset for this coming Thursday- we have details on our calendar page for the plots in Grant County and Noble County- click here for that- and while you are there- you can look over the lineup of wheat plot tours planned for this week that are listed as well.

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Finally- this past week- members of Class XVI of the Oklahoma Ag Leadership Program found out their international destination next winter in February 2014- and this class will make history as it will be only the second class to step foot on the continent of Africa- but it will be the first class to spend its entire international study program time in Africa- specifically South Africa.

To learn more about the OALP program itself- click here for their website.