The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) recently held its annual meeting. This year, it was held in Indianapolis, and a lot was covered. Farm Director KC Sheperd spoke with the Oklahoma State Board Representatives who were at the meeting. Brent Bolen, from Idabel, represents the southeast district and Clay Burtrum, from Stillwater represents the northeast district. Both were appointed to their positions by Governor Kevin Stitt.
Burtrum highlighted the exceptional representation of Oklahoma by Ag. Secretary Blaine Arthur, who was well respected by other attendees and serves as President of NASDA. He noted that despite the meeting being held in Indiana, Oklahoma was effectively hosting it. He also mentioned that the meeting showcased the common issues faced by different states, particularly those with animal agriculture.
“The theme was Cultivating Common Ground,” Burtrum noted. “From my perspective, when you bring these various state officials together, it is about collaboration. From high-path avian influenza to drought management, and other things. It’s a collaboration of how we can work together to tackle the problems within each state.”
A key takeaway for Bolen was the session on Avian Influenza. Because of the complexity of the issue, the discussion seems to have no end. “It is still going to be a challenge from here on because we heard from experts in the field and it sounds like there are more unknowns than knowns,” he explained.
Other sessions he mentioned covered topics such as emergency management and preparedness. “The number one thing to all of those different discussions was that pretty much every state has those challenges, or those issues, or those dynamics,” he highlighted. “The other common thing was, no matter which type of food we are trying to produce, there is a disconnect between the producer and the consumer and we are all trying to reconnect that relationship.”
“One highlight that really stuck with me was that they brought the Elgin FFA Chapter up, and they performed the FFA Opening ceremonies as part of our opening session,” Burtrum added. “That just speaks wonders to what we do in Oklahoma for the 4-H and FFA sessions to have them be a part of bringing in the next generation of agriculture. Secretary Arthur does a great job of making the youth in Oklahoma a big part of that.”
Because of his background with Farm Data Services, the CoBank session also stuck out to Burtrum. There, the position of the agriculture industry within the current economic recession was discussed. It also covered interest rates, the pending Farm Bill, and prices of commodities.
He described the officials from other states as just like himself and Bolen. He said, “They are forthcoming to talk to. They are producers like we are, and they need to know what’s going on in the real world and how things work. For me, it’s not being afraid to speak up and tell them what we need as producers. They need to know what’s going on, what affects us, and what we do on a day-to-day basis on our farms and ranches.”
Bolen emphasized the presence of foreign leaders and dignitaries who were there for trade saying that his eyes were opened to learn how curious they were about integral things done in each of their operations.
“It seems like something like trade should be really simple, right?” he said. “But it’s not. It gets really convoluted and complicated in D.C. I enjoyed getting to rub shoulders with those different folks from different countries, and I think they were well-represented there. They were from Japan, France, the United Kingdom, and many other countries.”
