Last year I felt the Department of Ag was pretty quiet during the legislative session with all focus on the budget, this year it’s shaping up quite a bit different. They held a stakeholders meeting in December to give us a heads up on what they are up to. Below are my thoughts and interpretations of what I heard. I may not be entirely accurate, a lot was thrown at us that day, and time will define what’s all going on but I want to give you all a quick synopsis of what I think I heard.
Secretary Rodman started the meeting by telling us the Dept of Agriculture represents Agri-business and Kansas producers. (He said it in that order too)
They intend to increase the appeal to corporate farming, mostly by addressing and eliminating the county option and making it the same as dairy for pork. (Isn’t it ironic that the entities who keep telling us there is too much government and over-regulation are the same ones who want to take away the counties rights?)
They want to create a Kansas ID card for illegal aliens to give them rights to work and drive in Kansas but not become citizens or vote. (Non-naturalized) (I wonder how insurance companies will deal with illegal aliens legally driving on our highways for our farms and businesses?)
They are not going to apply to the USDA to allow interstate shipment of state inspected meat. (This has been an issue fought and won by Farmers Union and placed in the last farm bill and could help value added producers quite a bit, especially on the fringes of Kansas City. All a state has to do is apply but Kansas isn’t. To me this just goes to show how much influence the KLA has on our Dept of Agriculture here in Kansas. It’s shameful!)
The Dept now has 1,600 applicants who used 2012 irrigation water rights in 2011. They intend to address this by creating 5-year “blocks” of water rights, which allows the producers to use the 5-year allotment of water the best way they see fit. (I assume that as climate change becomes dire and that they use the entire 5-year block the first 2 years that they will then create a “generation” or some other title that will let them pump at will. So much for stewardship of our natural resources) (I shouldn’t be so cynical though because I don’t know how I would do it differently. At least this way lets them have a chance to survive this drought if predictions are wrong about climate change. But if I was a municipality in western Kansas I would be pretty nervous about this whole game.)
They intend to create something called “water banking” which will allow producers to stockpile and then sell their water rights. They were pretty vague about this.
They want to make the voluntary “Water Transition Assistance Program mandatory for certain watersheds (Prairie Dog Creek & Rattlesnake Creek) because of lack of signup in the voluntary program.
They are very public about fixing the “use it or lose it” statue of the Kansas law, however it is just going to be the areas in Kansas that aren’t closed. I’m stupid about most irrigation
stuff but I’m told that most of western Kansas is closed so if I understand it right the law will remain there where water needs to be preserved the most.
The “Ag Marketing Advisory board” will be given new power. They will be the oversight to the specialty crop grant applications and the value added grant applications. This board is comprised of appointees selected by the Governor. (Considering Governor Brownback’s pro-corporate ag statements in recent months I feel this doesn’t bode well for the true intent of these grants.)
Two statements from the meeting that I wrote down were;
1. This year at Dodge City it was the driest and hottest year in the 140 years of recorded records.
2. There were NO private sector job creation in Kansas in the last 10 year census. (This was said during the “we need to make Kansas more friendly to corporate agriculture” statement)
Finally, Fracking. The Wichita Eagle reported that on the way down to the bowl game Governor Brownback stopped in Oklahoma to meet with key people to “smooth the way for energy companies to do more of it in Kansas.” Kansas Farmers Union delegates at our December convention voted to include in policy a special order of business; “We support a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing operations in oil and gas recovery until an environmental impact study guided by sound science, proves the activity safe.”
Looks like it’s going to be a long year!
The next issue I will update what’s going on and correct what I messed up in my interpretation in this issue…..
