Perspective Oklahoma Farm Bureau
www.okfarmbureau.org
June 26, 2015
American Farm Bureau Federation releases detailed analysis of Waters of the US rule he American Farm Bureau Federation released documents outlining how the EPA’s Waters of the U.S. rule will give the agency sweeping powers to regulate land use despite a body of law clearly prohibiting such overreach. The Farm Bureau analysis, now available online, makes available to the public details the EPA has refused to address in public meetings over the past year. The documents are available as PDF attachments. “Our analysis shows yet again how unwise, extreme and unlawful this rule is,” American Farm Bureau Federation Presi-
dent Bob Stallman said. “Our public affairs specialists and legal team have assembled the best analysis available anywhere, and their conclusions are sobering: Despite months of comments and innumerable complaints, the Waters of the U.S. proposal is even worse than before.” The WOTUS rule, first released in draft form in April 2014, has garnered fierce opposition from farmers, ranchers and land owners of all kinds. Dozens of states and countless municipalities oppose the measure because it would federalize regulation already handled at the local level.
Just as important is the rule’s radical view of “water” which, in its view, should encompass the vast majority of land in the United States because it surrounds actual water that may or may not be protected under the Clean Water Act. Alarmed by the agency’s actions, the House of Representatives recently voted to prohibit the EPA from enacting the rule. A similar bill is moving through the Senate and could come to a floor vote within the next few weeks. To review AFBF’s WOTUS documents, visit the Newsroom page at fb.org.
OKFB Executive Director Monica Wilke hosts 52 high school leaders in the Youth Leadership Oklahoma program on June 11. Designed to encourage youth to stay in Oklahoma, the group takes a weeklong educational journey across the state to learn about leadership, trust, communication, cooperation, career opportunities and more. Most importantly, the students learn why Oklahoma is a great place to live and work.
Sixteen incoming high school seniors attend OYLA June 10-12 in Oklahoma City (right). OKFB President Tom Buchanan teaches OYLA students about water issues in Oklahoma, including groundwater and surface water rights (left).
OKFB trains Oklahoma youth in agriculture, leadership he Oklahoma Youth Leading Agriculture conference was held at the OKFB home office June 10-12. The conference is a three-day event hosted by OKFB’s Young Farmers and Ranchers. Participants of the conference were high school seniors selected through an application process. The students selected represent some of Oklahoma’s most promising high school agriculturalists. OYLA is aimed at not only preparing young people to be future leaders of Farm Bureau, but also of the Oklahoma agriculture industry as a whole, said Holly Carroll, OKFB YF&R coordinator. During the conference, students had the opportunity to take part in discussions with agriculture leaders like Tom Buchanan, OKFB president, Jayson Lusk, Oklahoma State University professor of agricultural
economics, and others about current events in the agricultural sector. Along with gaining skills to become leaders themselves, each student learned creative methods and techniques to transmit the benefits of agriculture to others. “We want them to be able to share agriculture with their hometowns,” Carroll said. “We equip them as much as we can with tools to go to their local schools and do something to generate knowledge about agriculture.” Being proponents of farming, students were given the opportunity to evaluate their stance on issues like GMOs and animal rights through a tour of Whole Foods, and a media interview training session with Dustin Mielke, OKFB director of corporate communications. “It helped me to be able to see how
a consumer thinks, and if you weren’t educated or didn’t come from the production side of things how one might interpret agriculture,” said Grant Wilber, OYLA participant representing Alfalfa County Farm Bureau. Other trips included visits to American Plant Product and Service Inc. and The Escape OKC. It is important to invest in the youth that will one day be the leaders of Oklahoma agriculture and OKFB, Carroll said. “I’m interested in the future of agriculture, and part of that is growing leaders that are going to lead the organizations,” said Sarah Gruntmeir, representing Kingfisher County Farm Bureau. “I want to do my part for agriculture and teach more people about our practices.”
Oklahoma Farm Bureau Online Keep up with us on Facebook
June is National Safety Month
Summer is officially here, but things at OKFB are not slowing down! If you’re looking to keep up with all things OKFB, make sure to like the Oklahoma Farm Bureau page on Facebook. Each day, we post photos, news articles, announcements, sound clips, videos and more to ensure our members stay up-to-date on the most current issues.
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As the month of June comes to a close, so does National Safety Month. Throughout the past several weeks, we have posted several safety articles from our member benefits partners on our website. Make sure to learn how to keep you and your family safe by visiting www. okfarmbureau.org.
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We’re not finished talking about water yet By John Collison OKFB Vice President of Public Policy and Media Relations s you are now in the last days of harvest, I hope and pray it was a successful year for you and your farm or ranch. As we all know, May was a month of plenty of extremes. We saw a drought buster take place that I dare say none of us saw coming. Who would have thought that May 2015 would be Oklahoma’s wettest month on record? Many lakes and rivers are still swollen and some are still miles outside their banks. While I am curious to see how many acre feet we will be dumping out of our state in 2015, I can assure you it will be in the hundreds of millions of acre feet. For many, this water has been a blessing that has been a long time coming. For others, it is
more than a mere inconvenience that has just about washed them out. I’m sure many of you are thinking, ‘Well now that Oklahoma is full, what’s next?’ I will take the stand that while we are full today, history shows us that we won’t be for long. In this time of plenty, we need to be asking ourselves what can we do to store up for the future. If we are going to move forward as a state and ever truly understand that American farmers and ranchers feed the world, we have to look at new and inventive ways to use all of the water we have to its highest purpose. Water storage today has to be a high priority. We have millions and millions of ground water storage right under our feet. The aquifer system in America has to be replenished and the rate we are taking water
out is faster than we can put it back in the ground. We have the technology today to capture and store this excess water we let out of Oklahoma and move it to aquifers around the state to be stored and used at a later date. We can no longer sit back and just go through the motions like we have for the past number of years! Just because it has rained doesn’t mean we are off the hook to look for new ways maximize this precious resource. Oklahoma Farm Bureau will continue the fight to make sure whether we are in the deepest depths of a drought or where we find ourselves today, we will continue to press water issues forward and one day realize its full potential.
OKFB Women’s Leadership Committee members LoWayne Piercey (left), Lena Henson, coordinator Marcia Irvin, and Kitty Beavers, chair, attend the National Ag in the Classroom meeting in Louisville, Ky., June 16-20. Alongside more than 400 educators from around the country, the committee members learned how to use agricultural concepts to teach reading, writing, math, science, social studies and more. Other committee members in attendance included Mignon Bolay, Nadine Butler, Beverly Delmedico, Linda Fox and Roberta Hughes. WLC also sponsored conference registration for the 2015 Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom Teacher of the Year Connie Whitmore.
Member Benefits
Calendar
Polaris
State YF&R Leadership Conferene July 9 – 11 — Stillwater Contact: Holly Carroll 405-523-2307
Oklahoma Farm Bureau members receive an incentivized $300 per unit discount on all Polaris Full-Size Utility and Sport Vehicles, $300 per unit on all GEM Electric Vehicles, and $200 per unit on all Full-Size All-Terrain Vehicles. To learn more about eligibilty and to print your discount certificate, visit www.fbverify.com/polaris.
www.okfarmbureau.org/benefits
OSU Big Three Field Days July 14 – 16 — Stillwater Contact: Holly Carroll 405-523-2307 Women’s Nursing Scholarship Deadline July 15 Contact: Marcia Irvin 405-523-2405
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Published by Oklahoma Farm Bureau Published Oklahoma Farm Bureau Postmaster:by Send address corrections to: Postmaster: Send address corrections to: Perspective, P.O. B. 53332, OKC, OK 73152-3332 Perspective, P.O. B. 53332, OKC, OK 73152-3332
Oklahoma Farm Bureau 2501 N. Stiles Oklahoma City, OK 73105-3126
STAFF DIRECTORY
Non-Profit U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 131 Okla. City, OK.
Executive Director Monica Wilke 405-523-2303 VP of Public Policy and Media Relations John Collison 405-523-2539 Directors of Corporate Communications Sam Knipp 405-523-2347 Dustin Mielke 405-530-2640 Communications Specialist Hannah Nemecek 405-523-2346
All Around Oklahoma: Wrapping up with photos
Top left: OKFB Director of Commodities Todd Honer teaches students about agriculture, food and fiber in Okemah, Okla., using the Grown for You commodity trailer. Top right: Woods County Farm Bureau President Chad Budy cleans debris off his combine header while harvesting wheat June 19 in Alva, Okla. Like many Oklahoma wheat farmers, recent rains made harvest difficult for Budy. Left: Photo by Dustin Mielke, director of corporate communications, wins Best Single Photo at the 2015 AFBF Strategic Policy, Advocacy, Resources and Communications Conference, held June 16-18 in Charlotte, N.C. Mielke also won Best Graphic Design and Sam Knipp, director of corporate communications, won Best Audio News Story. The entries competed against state Farm Bureaus across the country.
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