Maybe it was the weather. Maybe the rural crowds were inspired by the political town hall meetings sweeping across the country in August. Or, maybe Farm Bureau families were just carrying on with a long-held August tradition when they showed up in impressive numbers for OFB’s annual August area meetings. Regardless of the reason, the meetings provided a snapshot of rural attitudes going into the fall.
"The numbers (of those attending) were tremendous and most were optimistic about the future," said Mike Spradling, president of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau.
The OFB leader said he noticed a slight increase in rural leaders participating in the meetings, which were held in 12 different locations throughout the state. Locations included Guymon, Woodward, Enid, Altus, Ada, Duncan, Ardmore, Vinita, McAlester, Kellyville, El Reno and Muskogee.
"I think people are just more interested in getting involved in the policy development process," Spradling said. "They realize how important it is to have our rural voice expressed in Oklahoma City and Washington, D.C."
Farm Bureau members voiced their opinion on a wide variety of issues, including the sale of water to out-of-state interests, rising production costs, environmental regulations, health care, climate change legislation, the need for stronger no-trespassing laws and animal care regulations.
During the area meeting in McAlester, Kenneth Blan, Pushmataha County Farm Bureau leader and retired Soil Conservation Service official, addressed the Clean Water Act.
"It will be a changed situation if the Clean Water bill passes," Blan said. The bill is up for renewal and the new version would remove the word "navigable" from in front of water, and thus would impact all ponds, puddles and streams, adding a tremendous burden on producers.
Protecting property rights was a hot topic at the meeting in Ada. Pontotoc County rancher Joe West said he wants oil companies to be more responsible when dealing with landowners. West said he spent several years trying to get an oil company to clean up after it abandoned a non-producing well on his property.
"It’s getting to be a serious issue for farmers and ranchers," West said.
Another serious issue facing farmers is the future of irrigation water. At the area meeting in Duncan, Love County farmer Jimmy Rains said he wants regulations protecting groundwater.
"We need to protect our irrigation water, especially for the peanut farmers," Rains said.
The weather was a common topic at all the meetings, which isn’t too unusual anytime you gather a group of farmers and ranchers.
"Rain, or lack of rain, received a heavy dose of conversation as we’ve seen a huge variance in rainfall amounts this summer," Spradling said. "At our southern and southwestern meetings there was concern about hot, dry conditions hurting the summer crops. In the central and eastern meetings we talked about the large downpours filling the livestock ponds and making the grass pastures look great."
Spradling and the other OFB leaders agreed the attitudes among farmers and ranchers remains strong heading into the fall season. Perhaps it was best summarized by rancher Larry Harvey from Okmulgee County: "If we just all work together, look at the positive things, not the negative, we can grow enough food to feed everybody."
