Quick Announcements
- SARL Website – we have renovated it and updated it using a new web platform that also allows quick ag clips postings and a blog. Take a look at sarl.us and let us know. Now we are working on a platform that will automatically send Ag Clips, it went last week, but got blocked by our internal spam filterJ so now it is set to send to me and then I will send it out through mailchimp – which is what this email comes through.
- Protect the Harvest, one of our private industry members has filed a legal challenge to the Massachusetts ballot initiative that will pass if allowed and will ban eggs, pork and veal form confined animals. An anti-poverty activist is the plaintiff.
- Gary Baise, of OFW law and our long time pro-bono lawyer has accomplished a great win, with the assistance of Board Member Senator Brent Jackson. Rose Acres Farms, a layer operation with facilities in many of our states has been involved in a 15 year dispute with the state of North Carolina over whether air emissions from a confinement building required a water discharge permit because they fall on the ground. Last week, the state agreed that the agriculture stormwater exemption covered the facility and no discharge permit was required. This is a huge win, that really should never been an issue, if common sense were used.
- MLA and SARL Secretary Ralph Eichler has been named as Minister of Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development.
- There have 8 nominations for the opening on the board for a private industry member following Kim O’Brien’s move from Monsanto to Legos. Six have accepted the nomination. – Jeremy David (Pork) Brittany Jablonsky (Farm Credit), Warren Mayberry (DuPont), Dana Brooks (Land O’ Lakes) Duane Simpson (Monsanto) Kay Johnson (Animal Ag Alliance) – I am collecting statements from each and will snail mail ballot packets to elected board members for their vote.
- With increasing costs, particularly if we are going to try to visit Calgary in 2019, (and in consideration of the merger of some of our major private industry members) we have been looking at expanding our pool of private industry members. Doug Jones and I visited with ALEC, National Renderers, Elanco, Bunge, and Ag Retailers Association in March (Elanco, ALEC and Bunge were members in 2015 but finances or changed personnel resulted in them declining in 2016) and Annette Sweeney and I visited with American Sugar Alliance, Irrigation Association, Wheat Growers and National Milk Producers in DC last week. I still have to follow up with Hersheys and Zoetis. If you have contacts in any of these organizations and would reach out to them to encourage their involvement with the Ag Chairs Summit, it would be appreciated.
Monthly AG CHAIRS Conference call, Friday May 13, 4pm eastern time. 30 minutes maximum
Draft Agenda
Thursday, January 5
Tentative optional afternoon site visit to Monsanto chemical production facility and ADM or Bunge Grain export elevators on Mississippi river?
Reception?
Friday January 6
Site visits, crawfish, catfish, alligator, angola prison Dinner – regional dinners?
Hospitality Suite
Saturday, January 7
8:00-9:30 am Plenary I: Consumer Focus Group – why did millennials vote the way they voted and how can agriculture reach them?
9:45-1:30 am Breakout I: Lunch
1:00 – 2:15 pm Breakout II:
2:30 – 3:45 Breakout III:
Legislative led topic discussions – possible rooms: Livestock
Specialty Crops Forestry and Agritourism Commodity Crops
???
4:00 – 5:15 Plenary
Dinner, Reception, Hospitality
Sunday, January 8
Canadian Agriculture Minister and US AG Secretary Federal offices (OSHA/FDA/EPA/TRADE?)
Panel on the new administration – it has been suggested we invite some key legislative aides that could tell what they think is going to happen ie., Anne Hazlett General Counsel for Senate Ag Committee.. do you have a particularly strong ag/rural staff member for a congressional representatives in your state?
May Conference call
Refine Topic list – if you have not selected your top 10 (whether from below or additional) please do so and clarify if there is an area within a topic you would like to ensure is included, ie., # 11 -endangered and invasive species – Wild hogs,
- Ag Tourism, Rural tourism, boutique travel ✔✔✔✔
- Roads (funding, implements of husbandry) ✔✔✔✔✔✔ sustainability on road infrastructure -
- Animal Issues, Animal Health Issues (antibiotics, Delmarva’s Good Neighbor Policy ✔✔
- Water Quality Issues, Nutrient Runoff , Dead Zone, Disappearing wetlands, Manure work as identified by Carleton, Water Quality Technology, erosion control, how to pay for conservation, Hypoxia Dead Zone ✔✔✔✔✔✔
- Food safety Changes needed to state Laws for FSMA ✔✔✔✔
- Food Deserts ✔✔
- Helping small communities thrive, maybe combine with 8- 9 ✔
- Rural Technology Challenges, Broadband - maybe combine with 9 ✔✔✔✔
- Access to health services , Physician & healthcare professional shortage in rural areas, solutions ✔✔✔
- Trade ✔
- Endangered Species and Invasive Species ✔✔✔✔
Casino/Racinos- Rural Prisons, justice reform/county jails ✔✔
- State Efforts to take back control/ownership of federal lands, lessons learned in federal standoffs ✔✔✔
- FFA and 4H, Ag Education, Veterans into ag, Beginning farmers programs combine with 18 ✔✔✔✔✔
- Truths and myths, jihad training in rural America ✔
- Bio or eco terrorism, do we need to be concerned ✔✔✔✔✔
- Loss of Ag Workers – field, technology, young farmers ✔✔✔✔✔
- Wolf Management, Predator Management
- Out of control population growth and urbanization ✔
- Post election future/analysis, What to expect with new admin ✔✔✔✔✔✔ RFS , trade
- Market Development put with trade ✔
- Trade in Forestry sector
- Pollinator Health (state pollinator programs) - combine with? Ag tourism, ✔✔
- Fish Farming, Aquaculture, land based aquaculture ✔✔✔
- Species Breakouts –all ✔
- USDA financial help ✔
- Overcoming joblessness in rural America, Immigration, Labor, career, seasonal migrant, domestic, DOL issues with Farm Labor with 18 ✔✔
- Food Labeling ✔ with food safety ✔✔
- Work with coal and oil industry,
- Renewable Energy ✔
- Robotics, Drones, Ag Data, Big Data
- Marijuana / Hemp legislation ✔✔✔✔✔✔
- Fresh Produce industry – food safety FSMA food deserts ✔
- Industry Sustainability efforts, State Sustainability efforts
- Property Taxes - lids - use valuation ✔
- What other states are doing ✔✔✔✔✔
- Hard core partisan and ideological walls
- Additional Panels on topics that hit all states
- Pending litigation, Regulatory Issues, How federal laws impact states, legal issues ✔✔✔
Sunday morning - Topics for collaboration between US and Canada - policy session ✔
- Importance of Food to America’s National Security combine for Saturday, collaboration, with Canada ✔