OKAgPolicy Today is a morning email containing the day’s top agriculture and policy headlines. The inclusion of a particular story does not equal an endorsement. Subscribe to the email here.
OKAGPOLICY LEGISLATIVE REVIEW: SB1018 – H-2A COMMERCIAL DRIVER’S LICENSES
Sen. Mike Schulz explains SB1018, which allows the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety to issue commercial driver’s licenses to temporary agricultural workers on H-2A visas. Without access to a CDL, the H-2A workers cannot assist farmers with harvest, meaning crops stay in the field. Watch the video on YouTube here.
TOP HEADLINES
Oklahoma Farm Bureau president discusses SQ777 at rotary meeting:
State Question 777 has nothing to do with Oklahoma’s water quality or water quantity, said Oklahoma Farm Bureau President Tom Buchanan. SQ-777 would not empower more corporate farming to come to Oklahoma, he added [Edmond Sun].
Pruitt sues to stop tribe’s water district expansion:
In a dispute over the right to access state property, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has sued a water utility controlled by the Citizen Potawatomi Nation [Journal Record].
Loss of oil-field jobs hits Elk City, western parts of state hardest:
The Elk City labor market, which includes surrounding counties of Beckham, Custer, Roger Mills and Washita, lost 1,249 energy sector jobs over the past year, a 30.9 percent decline, according to numbers from the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission [NewsOK].
Ballot questions cost the state money:
Voters face a lot of decisions this November, and those choices cost money. So much that the state Election Board is one of few government agencies to get a budget increase to pay for an election that’s expected to involve a long ballot and a lot of voter interest [Norman Transcript].
Study details economic benefits of GM crops:
A study by U.K.-based PG Economics finds that farmers around the world who use genetically modified (GM) seeds reaped economic benefits averaging more than $100 per hectare (about 2.5 acres) in 2014 while at the same time improving the environmental sustainability of their operations [Agri-Pulse].
Gluten-free water? A fad without a grain of sense:
Gluten-free foods have swept across America. Millions of consumers are convinced that a diet devoid of gluten—a protein found in wheat, barley and rye—is the cure-all for everything from dementia and schizophrenia to diabetes and obesity [Wall Street Journal].
Millenials’ food values:
I’ve given a couple presentations recently on food trends, and in each instance I was asked whether the so-called Millennial generation thinks differently about food issues than older generations [Jayson Lusk Blog].
Bees get highest concentration of pesticides from homes:
Honeybees do not spend most of their time feeding on crop plants like corn and soybean even when they live in agricultural regions, a new study has shown [Tech Times].
