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Agricultural News


Senator Lankford Working on Ways to Help Ag Producers in the State

Tue, 30 Aug 2022 13:59:15 CDT

Senator Lankford Working on Ways to Help Ag Producers in the State Farm Director, KC Sheperd, had the chance to visit with Senator James Lankford talking about what is impacting businesses in the area and his work to protect the well-being of Oklahomans and those in agriculture.

“Some of the high points are obviously inflation, supply chain issues, and how we are going to continue to be able to deal with energy costs,” Lankford said. “The price of gasoline and diesel is coming down, but it is still very much higher than what it was two years ago, and it is affecting everybody’s budget.”

Businesses in Oklahoma are doing better than many other states, Lankford said, and the Oklahoma unemployment rate is lower than it is in many other areas in the country.

“It still comes back down to manufacturing,” Lankford said.

Many people cannot get supplies from China in a timely manner, Lankford said, and motor parts from Mexico are difficult to access right now too.

Lankford talked about protecting ag land from foreign purchases.

“This is a big issue to me,” Lankford said. “We have restrictions- what are called CFIUS restrictions- if you wanted to buy a hospital or you want to buy a technology company, you would have to go through some approval process on that as well because you are a foreign entity in that purchasing. There is no USDA piece on this so if you are buying agricultural technology or you are buying agricultural land and you are a foreign entity, USDA does not have a seat at the table to say this is a threat to the local economy.”

When marijuana was legalized in Oklahoma, Lankford said the next year there were more foreign sales of land in Oklahoma than any other state in America by actual acres, not just percentage. This tremendous rush into foreign ownership into Oklahoma has had an effect on the price of land, Lankford added.

“If this marijuana trend collapses at some point, we have 8,000 growers in the state,” Lankford said. “If that collapses at any point it is also going to affect the prices on the other side so that instability does affect us. It is not just foreign ownership next to Tinker Airforce Base or next to Altus Airforce Base or next to Fort Sill. It is also the stability of our own prices and the predictability as well.”

As for recreational marijuana, Lankford said there will be another vote on it and Oklahomans are going to have to make a decision.

“I don’t think more marijuana usage helps our families, helps our workplace, or helps our streets be safer,” Lankford said. “I know there are people who disagree with me on that. As a youth pastor for 20 years before I came into congress, I never met a family that I thought ‘you know what would help this family? If only the mom and dad smoked more marijuana, this family would be so much better.’ I don’t get the trend of folks saying, ‘let’s do even more marijuana in our state because it is helping our state.’”

Lankford said because of marijuana in the state, transnational criminal organizations have moved into Oklahoma and there is now a large presence of Chinese underground organizations.

“We have human trafficking coming into our state and we have sex trafficking moving into some of these facilities,” Lankford said. “There are real risks that are happening in our communities right now based on the rapid acceleration of marijuana growth.”

Lankford has been taking part in helping ag producers in various ways such as working on a bill that would establish a universal application across federal agencies for people who need assistance from things such as floods, natural disasters, and other uncontrollable events.

“In multiple areas where we have got people applying for FEMA grants and USDA grants, they basically have to go through the same information over and over again, and there will be just a slight difference,” Lankford said. “We have got to fix this with our agencies to try to simplify that process.”

Lankford also talked about the transparency and honest energy relations act aimed at preventing the government from USDA flawed social cost.

“The social cost of carbon is this big piece that is out there where the federal government and the Biden administration is trying to say, ‘we are going to guess what this worldwide effect of this carbon emission is going to be, whether that be from cow emissions or whether that be from raising any kind of crops or whether that be from running a tractor in the actual diesel usage there.’” Lankford said.

Lankford said the administration aims to get a social score onto a carbon usage score and then to have an increased cost based on that.

“This is a way to be able to sneak in a carbon tax on people without actually passing it into law,” Lankford said. “That kind of tax has to come through in law and has to come through congress, that is the constitutional construct.”


Click the LISTEN BAR below to listen to KC Sheperd and James Lankford talking about the latest issues affecting Oklahomans in agriculture.


   

   

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