House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway and Ranking Member Collin Peterson issued the following statements after announcing an agreement to avoid the cuts to crop insurance which are included in the Bipartisan Budget Agreement of 2015 scheduled for a vote late Wednesday.


Chairman Conaway said, "I want to thank my colleagues who have made it very clear over the last 24 hours that the attempt to gut crop insurance in the budget agreement was not acceptable. Our nation's farmers and ranchers did their part in reigning in our nation's debt in the 2014 farm bill, saving an estimated $23 billion. It is imperative that we do not undermine their trust by attacking the primary tool they use to manage the tremendous risks involved in producing food and fiber.


"Leadership has heeded our concerns by agreeing to completely reverse this disastrous provision in the upcoming omnibus. Crop insurance is working as intended, and private industry deserves to be lauded, not thrown under the bus. I take our leadership at their word when they committed to me and many of my colleagues that we will eliminate these harmful provisions in the not-so-distant future, which is why I will vote in support of the budget agreement today. I encourage my rural-minded colleagues to follow suit and put their support behind this agreement by passing the budget deal on the floor today. While not the easiest path forward, this is a win for rural America and should be viewed as such.


"I will continue fighting against policies that hurt our farmers and ranchers, and I am thankful to leadership for working with us to avoid these harmful cuts."


Ranking Member Collin Peterson said, "I'm pleased that we have an agreement to fix the crop insurance cuts and not open the farm bill. We have assurances that the cuts will be removed and the farm bill will not be raided. We produced a fiscally responsible and bipartisan farm bill in 2014 that saved $23 billion. We've done our part. I can now support the Budget Agreement with these assurances."

NOTE- The House did approve the Budget deal last night- no one else has confirmed the deal that Conaway and Peterson announced in the release that came from the House Ag Committee- but all indications the assurances are solid- although agriculture may have to find other places for the three billion dollars of cuts over a ten year period to satisfy Congressional Leaders and the White House.

The American Soybean Association (ASA) welcomes news of the European Parliament's overwhelming rejection of a proposal that would allow individual EU member states to opt-out of importing and using foods containing biotechnology for non-scientific reasons. The body voted 619-58 to approve a committee report recommending opposition to the controversial "opt-out" proposal. ASA President and Texas farmer Wade Cowan issued the following statement on the vote:


"This is a much-needed action today by the European Parliament. ASA has repeatedly called on the EU to make science-based decisions on the issue of biotechnology, and we are very happy to see the Europeans do so this morning. One of the unifying principles of the EU is to provide a single market, both within Europe and as a partner in in global commerce. Enabling each of its 28 member states to go rogue on GMO acceptance, based on societal or political concerns, is hardly a unifying strategy for success.


"Soybean farmers welcome today's news as we look to expand our European markets for animal feed, edible oils, biodiesel and bio-based products. Europe is a top-five market for American soybeans, and we looking forward to further expanding our trade relationship.


"Moving forward, the Commission has been directed by the EU Parliament to come up with a new proposal. However, in our view, it would be more appropriate for the EU to use its own existing procedures to approve new biotech products rather than trying to come up with another approach. The Commission just needs to do its job by following its own regulations and procedures."

Wednesday was the first really full day of competition for most of the national contest participants here in Louisville at the 2015 National Convention.

In the Career Development Events- several Oklahomans did well on Day One- Kalee Horn of the Edmond FFA Chapter got word that she is one of eight finalists in the Job Interview CDE- she continues in that contest this morning.

The Kingfisher FFA Ag Issues team that we featured in a story yesterday in our email and in the Blue Green Gazette of our website road the topic of drones in agriculture and flew into the second round that is this morning- if they advance out of the second round this morning- they would be on stage in the Final Four this afternoon.  

The two public speakers representing Oklahoma advanced out of the preliminaries yesterday morning- but could not get out of the sweet sixteen to the final four- ending their competition here in Louisville- Adrienne Blakey of Stillwater represented Oklahoma in the Prepared Public Speaking Contest and Cleo Giraldo of Eufaula was the Oklahoman in the Extemp Speech Contest.

The National Creed Speaking Contest gets underway this morning- Madelyn Gerkin of Kingfisher represents Oklahoma in a contest won by Oklahoma FFA member Kale Parker in 2014.

Andy Paul grew up in the tiny rural community of Lexington, Georgia- but over the past twelve months, an airplane and hotel room have been his home. Paul has served since last November as the President of the National FFA organization. He is in his final days as National FFA President- presiding over the 88th National Convention and Expo of the FFA in Louisville, Ky. As he and his national officer team made final preparations for the opening general session on Wednesday afternoon, Andy Paul talked with several broadcasters and other media reps that are covering the 65,000 members and guests gathered. I was among those who talked with the National President - and you can hear our conversation in full by clicking here. 


Paul us that the past twelve months have "been an unbelievable blessing" and that he has traveled to 29 states, interacted with an estimated 35,000 members of the FFA across the US over the last year and is looking forward to seeing the thousands of members and guests from his vantage point on the stage in Freedom Hall.


As he has traveled over the last year, Andy Paul says that he has appreciated the chance to meet with many sponsors and other supporters of the organization- and he has been able to remind them in conversations why FFA members are seen as so valuable by those wanting to hire young people. Andy contends that FFA teaches practical skills- but that FFA members also learn "power skills." He says that includes the ability to be a leader, the ability to network and to be a team player.

As he prepares to take off the Blue and Gold jacket for the last time- Andy told us that FFA has taught him to always be on the lookout for the next door to open and step through.  He says he looks forward to the doors that are ahead of him after his days in FFA are complete- which is coming up this Saturday afternoon here in Louisville. 

The World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) recently released a report classifying processed meat as carcinogenic and red meat as a probable carcinogen. Shalene McNeill serves as the National Cattlemen's Beef Association Executive Director of Nutrition Research. She is a nutrition scientist and registered dietitian. She was in France when IARC panel of experts were unable to reach consensus regarding red meat and processed meat and its connection to cancer. She said the recent decision by the international agency connected to the WHO is flawed at best.


"Well, this is a body of science that we've been taking a really close look at and the bottom line is the scientific evidence just simply does not support a causal association between any type of red or processed meat and any type of cancer," McNeill said. "And that's based on the fact that about half the time the studies that we do see aren't even positively associated. We also see that anytime associations are seen they are very weak in magnitude and we also see this body of evidence is weakening over time. So that doesn't look like a sufficient link in anyway and for those reasons we just don't believe the evidence supports a causal relationship."


McNeill said it's very important to understand how IARC actually came to the conclusions they released earlier this week. She said IARC usually provides a consensus view, but in this case they only reached a majority. McNeill said the conclusion in the report were made on observations of correlation, not causation.


"It shouldn't be used to establish cause and effect," McNeill said. "These are weak studies and that's why we disagree with the conclusions that IARC has come to."

To listen to McNeill talk about this IARC study, click or tap here.

Farmers and ranchers see tremendous benefits with technology, but can't turn a blind eye to the privacy concerns that remain, Missouri Farm Bureau President Blake Hurst told the House Agriculture Committee Wednesday. Hurst, a board member of the American Farm Bureau Federation, was asked to testify on innovation and its implications for agriculture.


"The big data movement-and the innovative technologies and analytics it yields-could lead to at least as much change in agriculture as the Green Revolution and the adoption of biotechnology did," Hurst said. "Farmers are reporting higher yields, fewer inputs, more efficiency and higher profits thanks to technology."


While farmers are eager to adopt these groundbreaking tools, they are not willing to simply hand over their sensitive business information - nor should they have to. Farmers have the right to know what information is collected, how exactly their data is used and who else has access to it. "It's then up to farmers to determine whether the benefits outweigh the privacy and security risks associated with usage," Hurst said.

Click or tap here to read more about big data concerns.