NCBA's New President Shares Priorities

NCBA’s New President Shares Priorities

I’m KayDee Gilkey with today’s Open Range.

National Cattlemen’s Beef Association new President Scott George took the reins of the organization at the end of the NCBA convention. As President - George says there are a number of issues of importance to the industry. He shares some of his top priorities.

George: “We’re real concerned about the EPA’s attempt to take over waters of the United States that is a big priority item. We also want to see some more expansion of trade opportunities. We’ve kind of expanded our trade for our exports to a lot of different countries. We’d like to see some more expansion of that opportunity as well. I’d also like to see us continue our work trying to promote to our domestic consumers. We can’t ignore our own consumers because they consume a majority of our products.”

According to George - there is a challenge for producers at the federal level. He notes there are many people making decisions that may not fully understand agriculture or the consequences of their choices.

George: “ We are very good at taking care of the water and the land and the soil and the animals. We’ve been doing it for generations. Sometimes they’re misunderstood, so we have got to educate these people about what we are doing already. Number two, we have to help them realize that some of the actions that are proposed can have some serious detrimental effects. We’ve got to make them understand there is a limit; we want to be good, but we don’t want to be over regulated so that we can’t afford to stay in business anymore.”