Julie Borlaug Recommends Making the GMO Debate Personal to Consumers 

The use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) continue to be debated. The dialogue has remained strong over the last year. Julie Borlaug is the granddaughter of the legendary Norman Borlaug and she serves as an Assistant Director of Partnerships for the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture at Texas A&M. She believes there has been some progress been made in talking about the role of GMOs.


"I think we have done a lot of training this year in the ag industry with the private sector, with the farmers themselves, to make them realize we need to change our massaging," Borlaug said. "We need to be more emotional, more personal and we have to engage with social media. So, I think hopefully we are going to start to see a shift."


However, the perception of GMO's have gotten worse. Borlaug said she thinks the anti-GMO technology campaign has gotten savvier. At public speaking events, she often mentions how Whole Foods made more money than Monsanto did last year.


"They are just as market savvy," Borlaug said. "They want to produce for their stockholders, just like everyone else and I think you need to sit back and question that and realize they have gotten a niche, they are going to push it, but it's all about dollar."


There is still a lot of anti-GMO backlash going on, but there is a positive aspect. Borlaug said there are more people speaking about the topic, but she thinks we need to get more people outside of agriculture to talk about GMOs, such as moms and the once GMO critic Mark Lynas, who has since come out in favor of the technology. She thinks the public is going to believe someone from outside agriculture, over someone from the seed industry or someone with a connection to farming.


In talking with consumers, Borlaug said the important detail is making that message personal and bringing the conversation down to something that is important to them. She often talks about how important oranges are to their children in providing orange juice each day. Then she gets into citrus greening and what's going to happen if the U.S. losses its orange trees. 

Borlaug also addresses federal GMO labeling. To read or have the opportunity to listen to my full interview with Borlaug from the 2015 Ag Issues Forum in Phoenix, click here.  

Lucas, Peterson Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Strengthen EPA Independent Scientific Advice

Congressman Frank Lucas and Congressman Collin Peterson Tuesday introduced H.R. 1029, the EPA Science Advisory Board Reform Act of 2015, legislation to ensure the science guiding EPA's regulatory policy is objective, independent and available for public review. The bipartisan bill establishes guidelines for membership to the Science Advisory Board, which advises the EPA's regulatory decisions. Companion legislation was also introduced in the Senate by Sens. John Boozman and Joe Manchin.


"I appreciate Congressman Peterson joining me in this bipartisan effort to ensure the best experts are free to undertake a balanced and open review of regulatory science. The Science Advisory Board (SAB) informs the EPA on regulations that impact the lives of millions of Americans," said Congressman Lucas. "The heavy costs of these regulations warrant some degree of public oversight to ensure SAB's findings are free from bias or conflicts of interest and not simply provided by a set of handpicked advisors. The EPA Science Advisory Board Reform Act addresses these issues by ensuring the science guiding EPA's regulatory policy is open to review by the public and requiring members who serve on this board to disclose their professional backgrounds." 

To read more, click here.  

House Agriculture Committee Begins Full Review of the SNAP

The House Committee on Agriculture began a full-scale review of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). On Thursday, the Committee heard from University of Maryland welfare scholar Doug Besharov on the past, present, and future of the nation's largest program in the domestic hunger safety net.


"SNAP has grown from a relatively small pilot program to the second largest federal welfare program, quadrupling in spending since 2001," Chairman Mike Conaway of Texas said. "Everyone from recipients to taxpayers deserves an efficient program with a clearly defined mission. That's why the Committee, over the coming months, will thoroughly examine this program and gain a full understanding of its purpose, goal, and participants. The program itself has largely not changed in the last 30 years, despite significant changes in the nation's economy and the socioeconomic makeup of the American population."


"We can all agree that no one ought to go hungry in America, and SNAP is essential in protecting the most vulnerable citizens during tough times. For many it is a vital lifeline to keeping food on the table. What we don't want is for this program to hold people back from achieving their potential. I believe there is a role for SNAP, but we need to have a complete and clear understanding of its mission and purpose." 

To read more or to watch the testimony given at the SNAP hearing, click here.  

And- you can read Chairman Conaway's opening statement- which is available here.

West Coast Port Labor Agreement Welcomed by Asian Meat Buyers

Seven billion dollars' worth of beef exports in 2014. The U.S. beef export value averaged a record $300 per head in calendar year 2014. With those kind of values, the U.S. cattle industry is very interested when something is impacting beef exports and the west coast dock slow down caused millions of dollars of losses on a weekly basis. With a settlement announced last weekend, it looks things will be getting back on track fairly soon, as far as beef exports and other shipments of other U.S. meat related products.


U.S. Meat Export Federation Senior VP for the Asian-Pacific region Joel Haggard said the deal is being enthusiastically welcomed by Asian meat buyers.


"Especially those in Japan and Korea, where the volumes are significant," Haggard said. "In 2014, the US exported approximately $2 billion dollars of beef and pork in chilled form to Asia."


The chilled pork trade alone is worth approximately $1 billion per year. On average about 1,000 containers of chilled pork being shipped to Japan monthly. If there is a delay in shipping product, Haggard said chilled product can be frozen down as it crosses the Pacific Ocean. That is not a desirable option, due to price discount for frozen product versus the chilled product. Product can also be shipped by air, but that is a very expensive option. During the labor dispute, Haggard said air shipments to Japan and Korea did increase.

Shipping delays create the most headaches and most heart burn for those involved in shipping chilled beef and pork into the Pacific rim markets. At the same time, those that were choosing frozen product also experienced some real problems during the massive slowdown.  To read more or to listen to this Beef Buzz feature, click here.   

The Oklahoma Quality Beef Network (OQBN) was established to aid producers in taking advantage of "value added" marketing opportunities in Oklahoma. To be able to accomplish this mission a clear line of communication is need to all segments of the beef industry. OQBN is that communication system and it also is an educational tool where all cattle producers can learn what effects their price at marketing and how their cattle need to perform from pasture to plate.


One clear message cattle buyers have been sending for many, many years is that health of cattle when leaving the ranch effects the industry as a whole. In fact, in 2001 it is estimated that Bovine Respiratory Disease cost the industry 800-900 million dollars annually. To help combat that huge loss, OQBN started a Vac-45 program for cattle that have been weaned and well managed for 45 days or longer, (visit http://www.oqbn.okstate.edu/ for specific requirements). These calves are then third party verified on the ranch before shipment.


In 2014 OQBN enrolled over 6,400 calves selling both at auction and private treaty, increasing enrollments by 16% over 2013. Several livestock markets hosted OQBN verified sales selling almost 4,300 head at those verified sales across Oklahoma. Records were recorded on 10,079 calves being sold at auction including the 4,300 OQBN verified calves. The premium for 2014 was $18.99/cwt for all OQBN calves as compared to non-preconditioned cattle. Figure 1 illustrates premiums broken out by weight and sex for 2014.

For additional information on OQBN, click here.  

Kellie Curry Raper, Eric A. DeVuyst, Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University Agricultural Economics, Gant Mourer, Oklahoma State University Animal Science, all contributed to these comments regarding the OQBN.

Award winning broadcast journalist Jerry Bohnen has spent years learning and understanding how to cover the energy business here in the southern plains- Click here jump over to the Oklahoma Energy website where you can subscribe to Jerry's daily update of top Energy News.

Power of Social Media:  Greg Peterson After 35 Million Views

One of the biggest "stars" on You Tube when it comes to the world of agriculture is Greg Peterson (and his siblings), who call the state of Kansas home. The Peterson brothers videos have been seen millions of times since they began their effort to show that "agriculture is cool." Peterson was a part of a Millennial panel in Phoenix at the Bayer Crop Science Ag Issues Forum.


Peterson is a 2013 Graduate of Kansas State University- and his interest in producing a video began in early 2012 when he observed that even his college friends had little understanding or appreciation of what being a farmer meant. As a result, that summer, Peterson talked his brothers and little sister into helping produce their first video called "I'm Farming and I Grow It." Posted on YouTube, it went viral, receiving over nine million views.


Since that time, they released six more parody videos as well as other informational videos about life on the farm. To date, the number of views for all of their videos has topped thirty five million.  


I talked with Peterson about his work in telling the story of agriculture after his presentation at the Ag Issues Forum- and you can hear their conversation by clicking here.  You can also enjoy that first video which is embedded into our web story- a video that has been seen now more than 9.2 million times.