Agricultural News
AFR President Scott Blubaugh Discusses Opportunities for Oklahoma With Ag Secretary Vilsack during Recent Washington Visit
Fri, 24 Jun 2022 11:54:33 CDT
Farm Director, KC Sheperd caught up today with American Farmers and Ranchers President, Scott Blubaugh. Back from his trip to Washington D.C., Blubaugh talks about the highlights of his visit.
"I had a really busy schedule," Blubaugh said. "I was invited to meet with the Secretary of Agriculture and his senior team in his office."
Blubaugh said afterward, he was invited to the White House to talk to the president's team on competition issues faced in the agriculture supply chain.
"I had a great visit with my congressman, Frank Lucas, up on the hill, and then I got invited to the Japanese Embassy to have dinner with the ambassador," Blubaugh said. "That was a very packed, eventful day."
Blubaugh said AFR was thrilled to see the special investigator act in the U.S. Senate passed out of committee, as well as the transparency act.
"The markups, I thought were good," Blubaugh said. "You are always concerned about your bill getting marked up, but I think we came out of that thing pretty well."
Although there is a lot of controversy over S. 4030, the Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act of 2022, and S.3870, the Meat and Poultry Special Investigator Act of 2022, Blubaugh said there are a lot of positives.
"I don't understand why they are so controversial," Blubaugh said. "The special investigator act is giving them power over the USDA to do subpoenas to investigate anti-trust stuff. That is just right and wrong."
If you are not doing anything wrong and are following the rules, Blubaugh said he does not understand why someone would oppose it. If you are honest with your business practices, Blubaugh said this bill should not bother you.
The Cattle Price Discovery and transparency act, he said is about fairness to farmers and consumers.
"It is keeping us all on a level playing field," Blubaugh said. "Again, if you are following all of the rules, it shouldn't be a problem."
There is a Texas A&M study out, Blubaugh said, that says if we don't implement the transparency act, the cash cattle trade in the southern United States will be down to zero.
"It is really important that we have cash cattle trade throughout the country," Blubaugh said. "The formula cattle prices are all based on that cash market."
The transparency act doesn't really change what is going on today in the marketplace, Blubaugh said, but it does put a floor in to keep it from getting any worse than it is today.
"We all know that it's not good today, and we don't have competitive markets in the fat cattle business right now," Blubaugh said. "At least it puts a floor in and stops the climb."
Blubaugh also talked about his visit with the Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack and his team.
"There are a lot of opportunities and tools that that USDA has available right now that have not been available in the past to create local competition in the agricultural world," Blubaugh said. "Especially in the meat processing business and distribution processing and being able to sell directly to consumers or to independent grocers."
The goal that the USDA has in mind, Blubaugh said, is to be able to keep as many of the food dollars as possible local in the communities in the state that they were created in, instead of pulling the wealth out of rural areas and sending it overseas.
"There is a lot of opportunities that the USDA has made available, and we are looking at what we can do here in Oklahoma with some of those grant opportunities," Blubaugh said.
Blubaugh said the 10 million dollars the state received through the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act 2 years ago has made a tremendous difference already.
"The governor sent 10 million to the Department of Ag here, and we were able to turn that into new processing plants and expand our old plants," Blubaugh said.
With the funding from the CARES Act, Blubaugh said they were also able to help plants get some plants up to USDA and state inspection standards.
"These are just some more opportunities we can extend that out and help us with long-term goals as well," Blubaugh said. "We are excited, and I have another meeting with the secretary in about two weeks and we will try to hammer out a few more details then."
Click the LISTEN BAR below to hear Scott Blubaugh talk more about his time with Congressman Lucas and the 2023 farm bill.
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