Agricultural News
AFR President Scott Blubaugh Details Policy Action at AFR's 117th Convention
Sat, 12 Feb 2022 17:04:09 CST
American Farmers & Ranchers/Oklahoma Farmers Union (AFR/OFU) holds its 117th annual state convention at the Embassy Suites & Conference Center this weekend. This year's convention theme is "One AFR."
This year's three-day event features speakers like National Farmers Union President Rob Larew, Montana Farmers Union President Walter Schweitzer, and Oklahoma Reps. Dick Lowe and Ty Burns. U.S. Representative Frank Lucas will also address convention banquet guests.
Convention attendees were on hand to discuss legislative issues, such as industry consolidation and lack of competition in agriculture, and much more.
Oklahoma Farm Report's KC Sheperd was on hand covering the meeting and sat down with AFR President Scott Blubaugh to talk about what policy issues came up from Friday's Session. Blubaugh said the policy committee spent about six days vetting existing policy and learning about the current issues that are the most important to members. Blubaugh said Medical Marijuana is something that continues to be brought up, "Not the legal grows, but all the illegal grows out there. And what a complicated issue that is." Blubaugh said their committee did take action, "But our policy committee did take action. We are supporting some legislation running at the State capital this year. We're hoping to get some reforms and some regulation there."
Blubaugh said the other big issue is concentration in the beef market, "The lack of competition in the fat cattle market to where really since 1980 we're seeing the farmers share of the retail food dollar has declined by over 40% since 1980. Yet, at the same time, we've seen the processor to packer share increase by over 70% and the retailer's share increase over by a 65% increase. These large, multinational processors are very efficient in their operations, but they are the only ones that benefit from that efficiency because the consumer is paying higher and higher prices, while the farmer and rancher is receiving less and less each year."
AFR held a panel discussion called "Increasing Competition in a Concentrated world" with guest speakers including NFU's Rob Larew, Montana Farmers Union President Walter Schweitzer, and Justin Tupper, Vice President at the U.S. Cattlemen's Association with several opinions on what producers can be doing to make sure they get a seat at the table. We will be featuring interviews from Larew and Tupper later on this week.
The AFR Convention will wrap up on Sunday morning.
To hear KC's complete conversation about all the policy issues with AFR President Scott Blubaugh, Click or tap below.
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