Double Dose of Positive News from Conservation's Point of View- Flood Control Structure Money and State Disaster Assistance in New State Budget

Two developments, one on the federal level and one on the state level gave conservationists something to cheer about this week. On the federal level, Senator Jim Inhofe took a stand to protect maintenance funding for refurbishing aging flood control structures across Oklahoma.   On the state level, state lawmakers approved funding for emergency drought relief to be made available if the drought continues.

Clay Pope with the Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts spoke with me about these developments.

"Oklahoma has over 2,100 upstream flood-control dams, more than any other state in the union. One of the challenges we've seen with some of the numbers from sequestration and some of the budget cuts over the last few years to try to get our federal house in order, one of the things that's happened is that they've consistently ratcheted down the money that's available to match with the state to rehabilitate these dams.

"When you think about the costs, it's well over $2 million a dam to rehabilitate these structures. With over 2,100 we've got over 1,000 in the next five years that are going to be past their design life. There's no way the state can take up that responsibility on its own. This is actually a program that Congressman Lucas was the father of a few years ago to set up a matching program between the federal government and the state to do this.

"Senator Inhofe has been very concerned about the reduction in the funding for the rehabilitation program. He sent a strongly-worded letter to the ag appropriators this last week asking them to continue funding that at least at the $15 million level that we saw last year, hopefully seeing a little bit of an increase." 

Pope also spoke about a state budget agreement which allocates funding for drought emergency measures.  You can read more or listen to our conversation by clicking here.
 

EPA Continues to Release Producers' Personal Information 

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) is appalled to learn that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to illegally release information on cattle operations to the activist groups Earth Justice, the Pew Charitable Trust and the Natural Resources Defense Council. In this latest action, the agency again admitted it had released too much information on livestock producers, specifically producers from Montana and Nebraska. This action happened less a month after the agency found it had released too much information on livestock producers in 10 states.   

NCBA Past President J.D. Alexander, a cattle feeder from Pilger, Neb., and whose information was released to the activists groups in the initial EPA action, said it is clear "someone at EPA is either completely incompetent or intentionally violating federal law. Either way, this action shows EPA cannot be trusted with sensitive information and should not have the authority to procure or disseminate it. NCBA is calling for an investigation by the Office of Inspector General into this matter."

The records released in February by EPA include names of producers and operations, locations and in some cases even personal phone numbers for farmers and ranchers who own beef, swine or poultry operations. Most of the 80,000 facilities listed are not regulated under the Clean Water Act (CWA), some having as few as 12 head of livestock. After NCBA and other livestock groups expressed outrage over the initial release of information, EPA conducted a review of the records and admitted it released too much personal information for 10 of the 29 states included in the documents. After a second review, the agency once again said too much information was released for operations located in Nebraska and Montana.

Click here for more.

 

Beef Checkoff Launches Accredited Web-Based BOLD Study Training Program for Physicians

The Oklahoma Beef Council recently announced the launch of a nationwide program to educate physicians and other health professional groups on how lean beef fits into a heart-healthy diet. The effort is a follow up to the 2012 Beef Checkoff-funded BOLD (BEEF in an Optimum Lean Diet) study. The study demonstrated that lean beef could be added to a heart-healthy diet everyday and significantly lower cholesterol.

Since then, there have been significant efforts by National Cattlemen's Beef Association and state beef councils, including Oklahoma, to share the information with health professionals across the US.

According to Heather Buckmaster, the executive director of the Oklahoma Beef Council, her organization has taken that process to the next level.

"There have been extensive efforts on a state and national level to provide that information to health professional groups, but we wanted to take that one step further. Feeling like the physician level, that family physician level, is where people get their first bit of counseling, 'You need to lower your cholesterol, you need to take these steps in your diet,' we wanted to really target in on that."

Knowing that continuing medical education (CME) was an important requirement for most physicians and knowing that online medical education was also growing, the Oklahoma Beef Council engaged a top medical communication company to develop an online training program on the BOLD study to help educate physicians looking to fulfill their continuing medical education requirements. 

Heather joins me on the latest Beef Buzz.  Click here to listen or to read more of this story.  

Agritourism Limited Liability Measure Heads to Governor

Those who participate in agritourism activities such as hayrides and riding horses and get hurt will not be able to sue the agritourism owner as long as a warning is prominently posted on the property about the inherent risks of such activities. Senate Bill 931, by Sen. Ron Justice and Rep. Scott Biggs, will provide agritourism professionals with liability protection for such incidents.              

"The agritourism industry in Oklahoma is very popular but we need to protect those who provide these fun activities, like corn mazes and petting farms, to the public. It's just commonsense that if you're around animals, you might get bitten and if you're on a hayride and you don't sit down, you could fall off," said Justice, R-Chickasha. "The farmers and ranchers who open up their facilities shouldn't be punished for others lack of good judgment. This bill will protect the owners from being liable as long as they have all the risks posted for guests to see."            

Under SB 931, assumption of risk will be an affirmative defense against any claim for damages against an agritourism professional.
 

You can read more by clicking here.

Attendees Learn How to Interact with Online Moms; Industry Encouraged to 'Get Social' at Animal Ag Summit

"We don't need them to understand us, we need to understand them," said Joe Miller, General Counsel for Rose Acre Farms of consumers at the Animal Agriculture Alliance 12th annual Stakeholders Summit which kicked off this morning in Arlington, VA.

The theme of improving communications throughout the food chain was reinforced frequently throughout the morning panels, which is perhaps ironic, given that one of the first speakers was discussing farm protection legislation, or as it is more commonly known, "ag gag."

Miller began his presentation by providing an overview of the controversy surrounding farm protection legislation, but ended by discussing how the industry must better understand consumers, rather than the other way around.

"The public needs to know they can trust us," said Miller. "We need to close the gap between a producer and a consumer."

You will find the rest of this story on our website.  Please click here to go there.  

Rural Youth Optimistic About Future of Agriculture

A surplus of optimism was obvious among visitors to the Oklahoma Farm Bureau exhibit during the 2013 Oklahoma FFA convention, April 30-May 2, as 84 percent said they're convinced agriculture has a bright future.

When asked to list the challenges facing agriculture today, the top three answers, in order of popularity, were the weather, telling the farm story to the non-farm public and a lack of young farmers and ranchers. Other answers included attacks on animal agriculture by animal welfare groups, lack of profitability and dwindling natural resources.

"It's encouraging to see the energy and enthusiasm these kids have for agriculture," said Mason Bolay, chairman of the OFB Young Farmers and Ranchers Committee and exhibit sponsor.

Almost 80 percent of the FFA students responding to the survey also said they were planning on a career in agriculture. Several of the youth said they were choosing a medical career over agriculture.

Click here for more.

This N That- Cantor on Farm Bill, Past OCA Presidents Pass, and American Agri Women Hoping to Organize in Oklahoma

Washington's Politico Pro has a blurb that has been highlighted this past Friday by the House Ag Committee- looking ahead to summer and what is going on in the mind of the House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. It seems the Majority Leader has mentioned the "F" word-

"Cantor said the House's summer agenda will include consideration of the Farm Bill, which leaders on the agriculture committees have said they want to complete before completing reauthorization of the CFTC."

This seems to offer House Ag Committee Chairman Frank Lucas of Oklahoma a little more incentive( if he needed any) to move on marking up a 2013 version of a five year farm bill sooner rather than later- May 15 is the date that the Chairman has mentioned to us and others as the day he intends to move on the Mark Up.

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The Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association has lost two of its Past Presidents in the past week- at the beginning of last week- Larry Cannon of Blackwell passed away at the age of 79- Cannon was not only a past President of OCA, but also earned NBCA's Environmental Stewardship Award in 2002.

Then at the end of this past week- the OCA weekly newsletter reported that R.A. Lotspeich from Laverne.Oklahoma passed away on Friday in an Oklahoma City hospital. R.A. was 81 years old- services are pending and are being coordinated by Mason Funeral Home of Shattuck.

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The President of the American Agri-Women, Karen Yost, plans to be in Oklahoma City at the end of this week to meet and greet ladies that are involved in Oklahoma agriculture- exploring the possibility that a state affiliate of the AAW might be formed. The AAW website offers this description of the group- "American Agri-Women is the nation's largest coalition of farm, ranch and agribusiness women with over fifty state, commodity and agribusiness affiliate organizations throughout the country. It is an all-volunteer organization, working to advocate for agriculture since 1974."

Yost will be at the Best Western Saddleback Inn on the west side of Oklahoma City on Thursday evening and Friday morning- click here for details and some contact information if you want to learn more about how you can hook up with these ladies.