LISTEN: Profit Matters 3-13-17
At Commodity Classic earlier this month, the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) announced a new national Vice President, Jimmie Musick from SW Oklahoma.
Musick is a successful farmer who has always been active in leadership and trade associations. He speaks with a regional voice but with wisdom born of hard work in tough conditions addressed the needs of wheat growers in selling their product to buyers worldwide.
He also addressed the hope that the New EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt, would redirect the agency to be less aggressive on regulating water on farms.
Musick is heavily into the policy issues of NAWG and outlined their priorities for the next farm bill. As a farmer with unpredictable weather and thin soil, he still finds optimism in agriculture as he observed the farmers who were attending Commodity Classic.
?There?s concerns about trade and the new Trump administration and how that?s going to play out,? Musick said. ?He?s talked about trade a great deal and I really do think that we are going to have a better trade situation we?ve had in quite some time.?
Although he did express his disappointment with Trump?s decision to back off the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Musick remains optimistic that the President will manage to negotiate a better trade deal in its place. He hopes the same is true about the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement as well, given Trump?s statements that he intends to open NAFTA for renegotiation.
?Makes me very nervous. We?re all very concerned about how that?s all going to play out and the honest truth is – no one really knows,? Musick admitted. ?But we?re not going to sit back and wait and see what happens.?
Musick asserts that the NAWG leadership and staff will actively engage the administration and encourage the US Department of Agriculture to work diligently on crafting sound trade partnerships for the US agriculture industry, while also not disrupting any trade opportunities with Mexico, Canada or anywhere else during that time.
