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U.S. Congressman Rick Crawford · The Standard Sportsman

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_05: Welcome to the Standard Sportsman Podcast.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_05: We're talking ghost hunting audit topics.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_05: We permission to leave the resource better than we found it.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_05: Lifelong Arkansas hunter conservationists Kate Stork and Brent Birch bringing thought-provoking conversations with a type of guest before, during, and after the season.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_05: Glad you're here.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_05: Let's get into it.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: Hey everybody, Caston Short back with another episode of The Standard Sportsman, joined as always with Brent Birch.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: Brent, we had a pretty big guest today.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, we yeah, we do.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and and really appreciate him taking the time to come on here.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_03: We're gonna actually skip our little intro small talk we typically do and and jump right into it because he's a busy guy and and definitely has bigger, more important things to do than than visit with us.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_03: But I think uh not only us is being you know in the farming business, even though I don't actively farm, I do own a farm.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_03: Uh you're actively farming, uh, and then how that connects to duck hunting, I think it'll really uh really resonate with our listeners too.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_03: So uh without further ado, I'm gonna introduce our guest, Congressman Rick Crawford from Jonesboro.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_03: He's the district one, uh, which if you chase ducks in Arkansas, you're probably in you're probably in Congressman Crawford's uh district when you while you're doing it.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_03: So welcome to the show.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: I guarantee it.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, thank you.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_02: Appreciate you having me.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, maybe maybe a quick little bow on you because I think your your background is is super interesting, and and not that you have to spend you know a lot of time in it uh on that, but uh, but I think it is, I think it lends to what has made you effective uh you know on Capitol Hill.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_03: So maybe a little bit of that, and and then we'll jump into some of our our topics.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I I um I kind of come out of an ag background, uh kind of a diverse ag background.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of my practical application came in the cattle industry, worked in the rodeo industry for a long time, got a degree in ag business and uh communications, and was able to kind of um you know, through a series of I don't know, I don't know if you call them accidents or whatever, I found out I didn't really need to be riding Bronx anymore and started announcing rodeos, producing rodeos that led to some other opportunities in in um uh communications that ultimately led me to start Ag Watch Network and I, you know, worked in the equipment business for several years.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um and so just a lot of that, and in the course of that work, particularly you can't if you're in agriculture in East Arkansas, you you know something about duck hunting.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's just that's just you're gonna pick that up just by osmosis, whether you're a duck hunter or not, you're gonna learn some things.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: And so I what I learned um, you know, I picked up and and now see it applied um really throughout most of the district is you know the conservation practices that are common for most farmers that help create waterfowl.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: And also, you know, it's it's an agr uh you know agricultural management tool in many cases, so it's dual purpose, but we see a lot of that.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: So I've I've I I said all that to say, I mean, I've got a pretty strong background in agriculture, understand some of the issues that um that sort of surround conservation uh measures that are taken by farmers and landowners to try to create habitat, manage um habitat products, and East Arkansas is pretty much ground zero.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um I get this all the time in Washington when they find out I'm from Arkansas, and they you know, particularly East Arkansas, invariably the conversation veers off toward duck hunting and you know, stuck gart being the duck hunting capital of the world, and you know, just generally speaking, East Arkansas um being a great place for for duck hunting, but I mean it's also a huge agricultural juggernaut.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_02: And and um my district produces roughly half of the U.S.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: rice crop, and you know, where you've got rice, you've got ducks, and just you know, it's all part of it.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, no, no doubt about it.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_03: They uh obviously go hand in hand and and a reason a big reason why ducks still come here, you know, there was a day when that all that was bottomland hardwoods, and now we got uh now we got row crop farming uh with you know a majority of the landscape, but but what's left, the combination of the two, obviously, has brought ducks here for a long time.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_03: But uh and you probably don't remember this.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_03: Kasen and I both came to DC.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_03: This was with Ducks Unlimited.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, we were with Ed Penny, and this was when the farm bill was um a little closer to expiration.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_03: You know, we've gotten up gotten away from it a little bit now and still hanging out there, but we actually came and met with you in your office on Ed Penny with Ducks Unlimited's invite uh to ensure conservation programs you know would stay in there.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_03: And I and you've obviously met with a million people since then, but uh that's kind of where we want to start today.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, you know, maybe what the latest is with the farm bill.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, you know, a lot of property owners uh are very aware of the programs that are wrapped up in there that relate to conservation and and wildlife.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I didn't prior to owning a farm, I didn't know all that was wrapped up in there.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_03: Uh so a lot of a lot of folks maybe not uh not connecting those dots and realize how important the farm bill is to to ducks and to waterfowl and and to other wildlife too, because of all those programs.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_03: But maybe maybe give us a quick update where things are uh as of today and and and then you know how how close are we, or or no, not close at all.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: We passed the farm bill out of the house in June, sent it over to the Senate.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, we're very fortunate in Arkansas that we have um a Senate Ag Committee Chair is John Bozeman.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_02: He's in Arkansas and he knows what he's doing over there, but he can't just unilaterally pass a farm bill.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so we moved a little quicker, but it wasn't, I mean, I you know, I I'm I I say this with all deference to to John Bozeman.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_02: He operates in a in a um in an environment that's a little bit different than the House.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_02: They move a little bit slower, and um you know, they had uh an issue a couple months ago where they didn't have all their members present, so they couldn't pass it um out of committee.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_02: They finally did.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_02: So it has it has cleared committee.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's got to go to the floor and pass uh the whole Senate so that we can reconcile the two bills.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_02: So I would anticipate probably best case scenario, if we're gonna get this done, it's gonna happen in lame duck, obviously.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I hope that they're able to move the farm bill in some package shortly.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm I'm talking about within the next week or two.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if they'll be able to do that or not.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_02: We'll see.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but that the the conference process can be time consuming, and that that puts us a little bit behind the eight ball when we get into lame duck, that is after election day, and we go back to Washington and start trying to clean up the last little bit of this Congress.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the farm bill will likely be part of that.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_02: And um, so I think it's um that's sort of the state of play with where we are with the farm bill in terms of the substance that you're interested in.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_02: So many is a conservation title.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there's multiple titles in every farm bill, and and um the conservation is a pretty prominent one in that all the programs that govern those conservation um efforts that take place on agricultural land, working land, whatever, um, that is part of the farm bill.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_02: And we don't necessarily think about that, um, but it's the farm bill that authorizes those programs, most notably things like CRP.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_02: That's one of the bigger ones.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_02: But there's other things, wetlands restoration, environmental quality uh improvement program, things of this nature.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of different uh programs that USDA administers through NRCS that is authorized in a farm bill.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: And it's important that we continue to support um conservation measures on working land and even on land that's you know set aside or being restored into, as I said, like wetlands restoration is one example.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um there's there's you know our the environmental quality improvement programs, things of this nature that are geared toward um habitat management and restoration.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_03: Serious waterfowl management isn't about reacting day to day.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_03: It's about making better decisions every season.
• 8:20
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• 8:24
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• 8:27
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• 8:31
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• 8:42
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• 8:49
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• 8:53
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• 8:58
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• 9:05
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• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, coming out of that district, I'm obviously very aware of the amount of rice that we grow up and down that area.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's still staggering to me to think that 50% of America's rice is grown right there in your district.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's an amazing stat.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um I'm I'm curious, in your conversations, and and I know you may not be going into great detail, but is there an appetite for increased conservation?
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: I know when we talk about farm bill, I think it's probably lost on a lot of people that the majority of the funding in that bill is really not for farmers.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's for a lot of other interests.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: So what is the the tone and the appetite for conservation projects?
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's an interesting point that you bring up.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_02: Production agriculture counts for probably around 10% of the total authorization.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: A big chunk of it is nutrition, but conservation is is a is a an important part of it.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_02: And there typically is a pretty good uh level of support for conservation programs because you know we look at it from the standpoint of just sort of what farmers are doing anyway.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, look, farmers are good stewards of the land, they have to because they derive their livelihood from it.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_02: They have to be good stewards of the land, it makes sense.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_02: And if you can create some incentives for them to do things, uh maybe they get um some you know some cost share, maybe they get some tax incentives, whatever, for things that they would probably it's in their interest to do anyway, that's a fairly easy sell.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_02: Where we run into I I you know opposition is generally rooted in ignorance of how that works.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: But there's not a whole heck of a lot of opposition to an expanded conservation title because it does sort of play into even folks in metropolitan areas that are you know densely populated, urbanites that don't really understand rural America.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: This is something they feel a little bit better about because there's obviously it's it's conservation, there's an environmental component to it, a climate component to it.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_02: So typically we don't run into a huge lot of opposition.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: Where we run into problems sometimes is a little difference in perspective on where the money ought to go, how it ought to be spent, how much money ought to be spent.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and so those typically are are ironed out in a bipartisan way, but it's not like we're dealing with an issue that is um, you know, a lightning rod that people just don't want to support.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_02: I think most people in general recognize the need for um environmental stewardship and see it in that light.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, well, I think that's a big misunderstanding, too, is you don't uh associate people in these urban environments that that will jump on board with something like that.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_03: But but we all understand Capitol Hill's got a lot of push-pull um in how things work.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_03: But uh yeah, that's always curious for us on this end uh of things as we evaluate dollars that are available and and the pockets of money and which programs you can you can qualify for and apply for.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_03: Uh you know, we're always looking for more and and always to do more you know with our with our uh land that we own.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_03: So that's that's good to hear that it's that that there's some appetite for keeping that in there because that's that was a a main reason we went uh whenever that was three, four years ago, uh and met with all the Arkansas delegation.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_03: We met with some of the Mississippi uh uh folks too.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_03: So um yeah, so that that you know that process, it's gonna take a little bit before it gets to the House, uh I would guess, but uh it are there hurdles once it gets there, or is it is it if once the Senate gets it, it's kind of going.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_02: Well, once the Senate passes out of out of off the Senate floor, the the whole Senate votes on it, then we essentially are gonna it'll be a motion to go to conference so we can reconcile the two.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_02: Now it's possible, depending on on, you know, in the interest of time, it's possible we could, you know, depending on on what the Senate version looks like, how it compares to the House, and and we have a pretty good sense of what that is now.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's possible they could just send theirs over with you know maybe sort of pre-conference type deal, and then we could move it quicker without having to go to conference.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I've been on two conference committees for farm bills, and it's not worked that way in the past.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't want to I don't want to provide you know this sort of false hope that we're gonna get it done lickety split without having to go to conference.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: I think the more likely scenario is we would probably end up having to go to conference.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: But I think that we can move quickly because there's probably sort of less to reconcile, and that being the case, it should move relatively smoothly.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: So um we just gotta get the Senate's gotta pass it out of uh across the floor, and then we can start talking about what the timeline looks like for reconciling the two bills and and moving that um moving that conference bill in both chambers.
• 14:06
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• 14:19
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• 14:28
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• 14:33
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• 14:40
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• 14:54
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• 15:01
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• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: You know, when when we talk conservation programs, I think we're all pretty familiar with this stuff because we we live here, you know, and when we were up there in DC, we gave some briefings on WRE and talked about, you know, crop insurance and crop failures and kind of how these conservation projects in the end save taxpayers a bunch of money.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: You mentioned that there's not necessarily any opposition to that on the hill.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think maybe maybe there's a lack of understanding?
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: Because so many other topics like solar and wind get a lot of attention, and there's most people are aware of that.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think it I don't want to say falls through the cracks, but it's just maybe doesn't get the views that it should.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it's you're gonna get it from sportsmen.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, people that are involved in the Congressional Sportsman's Caucus, you know, which is a a lot, and it's a bipartisan organization.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_02: They get it.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: They know.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: Where you're gonna run into potential resistance is in um from members that are represent major metropolitan areas, large large urban centers.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_02: Even then, I mean, I think when you look at it, you view it in the context of you know, the contribution that this makes to overall environmental quality and and um uh you know the the environmental impact that it makes in a positive way, typically they're viewed very uh pretty favorably.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_02: So like I said, it's not like we're we're we're running a real partisan piece of legislation or a particular topic that has everybody running for their various camps.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, um usually you get a quite a bit of support on both sides of the aisle for these conservation measures, and particularly as it applies to things like uh um wetlands restoration easement, as we mentioned before, is one example.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_02: The CRP has been a staple for 25 years or longer.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um those are some examples of programs that have historically had really good support, broad bipartisan support that we don't have to really fight on those.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_02: There's some others that that might be a little more parochial in nature, but for the most part, those are issues that we don't typically have to fight.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: Now we're gonna fight over nutrition.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um those are those are the things when we start to see the lines drawn.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but this is one that inside the farm bill is fairly quickly and easily addressed without a lot of fanfare.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_02: And so to your point, it's not as though it's fallen through the cracks as much as it is like, okay, we agree on this, let's move it aside and talk about the things we don't agree on.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_02: And so it's a fairly easy um topic to address without a whole lot of controversy.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that we we definitely see that you know through the media.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_03: The it it doesn't seem like the disagreements relate to anything that we're talking about.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_03: Now we we would always want more funding.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_03: We we'd love to would love to see more CRP.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_03: Um you know, the the success, the rise and fall of ducks, you know, really counts on a couple of things.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_03: It it counts on uh a wet prairie pothole region and you know, the grass on the landscape, and and CRP obviously covers a lot of that.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_03: And and when that that money was booming, um you know our duck population did really well, and we're we're kind of seeing the inverse of that a little bit on both fronts, yeah, with the dollars and with the you know, the whatever rut we're stuck in with not enough rainfall in that part of the world.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, um I've heard I've heard you uh make some comments too.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_03: You you in your little intro, you did not mention your your military service and you're and you're also uh you know serving on the intelligence committee, but I've heard you make comments related to national security.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_03: A country that can't feed itself uh is not secure.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um and and I I I I would think maybe that would be a a way to take these big city, these big city people to to uh make them feel a little bit differently about what goes on in rural uh states like Arkansas and and Mississippi Delta, where we're producing a lot of food.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we have one of the most productive regions in the world from an agricultural perspective, and yeah, it's a national security imperative.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: And honestly, you mentioned this, you know, trying to get buy-in from people that really just don't understand it.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um the best time for us to have moved to Farmville would have been during COVID.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_02: And the reason I say that is because everybody was aligned with the idea that we needed to feed and clothe ourselves because they went to the grocery store and saw the back of the shelf or they the bottom of the meat case and they freaked out.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: And they recognized how important it is, the contribution that farmers make to national security, that we don't need to be reliant on foreign sources for staple items.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_02: And historically we've not been, and I don't see us getting in that position anytime soon, although I will say that I have some concerns about the decline in in uh um our our production base, uh, the increased number of solar arrays uh on our most productive farmland, um, wind.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um seeing some wind turbines in areas where I don't think it's indicated, but they're popping up.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_02: That's gonna have an impact on um migratory flight uh paths, and not to mention ag pilots flying different routes now because um you know these things have popped up.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: So there's a lot all tied up in this farm bill that that do have far-reaching implications that do rise to the level of national security, but the most basic one is our ability to feed and clothe ourselves.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: And so a lot of times that that argument is lost on people who represent uh urban districts, and there are a lot of members on the ag committee who represent urban districts and they're there to advocate for food stamps or SNAP of supplemental nutritional assistance program.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: Fair enough, but understand where those benefits come from.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_02: How does that food get to the major uh population center?
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_02: And it gets there because it starts in the ground in places like Arkansas.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_02: And so we've sort of lost sight of the whole economic um loop that actually provides the sustenance for people who live in major metropolitan areas that are reliant on our farmers' ability to produce at scale.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_02: And they don't have that understanding.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_02: They just think they go to the grocery store and that's that's pretty much where it ends.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_02: And so there is a there's a huge disconnect between consumers and producers and how their food gets where it where it is.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_02: And but but we we know, and COVID demonstrated this, that when they go to the grocery store and they see the back side of the uh of the shelf or the bottom of the meat case, then panic sets in.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_02: And again, not trying to capitalize on that panic, but that would have been the ideal time to talk about a farm bill because people were tuned in.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, heck, we got a problem here.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_02: We need to fix this problem.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_02: And we let it go.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_02: And it was because obviously, I mean, you know, we were still in the, you know, the farm bill was last farm bill was in 2018.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_02: So are we going to start talking about a farm bill in 2020?
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_02: Typically, no.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_02: But this also makes the point, and I I've advocated for this for years.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_02: I would like to see the frequency of farm bills improve because we're not doing it every five years.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_02: We should do it every two years for a variety of reasons, because economic conditions change quickly.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_02: And five years may not be an accurate reflection of what the economic demands are for production agriculture, what the conditions are out in rural America, what they're looking at with regard to interest rates and inflation, and how that impacts production.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_02: And so when we wait on a you know on a five-year cycle, that that makes it a lot more difficult to be to deliver the kind of relief uh to farmers it's meaningful in real time.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Congressman, I think that is a fantastic idea.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: You know, when you when you consider the way other governments are subsidizing their farmers, you know, it makes it difficult to compete on a national stage, and we're seeing that kind of come home to roost.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: And it seems like we we adjust very slowly when it comes to our, I don't want to call them aid packages, but but how we handle farming and some of the safety nets in place there.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: I'm curious what your thoughts are, you know, as we look at the the number of acres that Arkansas is down in rice production this year.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: We've got record high farm fuel, not to go down the list of all the other inputs.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: It is difficult to look at it on paper and try to turn a profit growing rice this year.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: What do we do going forward?
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: How do we how do we dig this rice economy back out?
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I mean, I I use this analogy all the time.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you can cut an oak tree down in five minutes, but it takes years to grow it back.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_02: And here's where I'm going with that.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_02: And I made this observation in you know in the cotton industry as well.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, when you start to lose infrastructure with within an industry, that becomes a problem.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_02: And and we're at the point now where we're it I we see these the the big companies are like, okay, we're gonna shut down some facilities because the acres aren't there to support it.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: Does that infrastructure go away forever?
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_02: I hope not.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_02: I hope it doesn't because it's a really important part of our rural economies, not only the fact that it allows for us to process the rice that we grow, but the jobs associated with it in those small communities where people actually work at those mills, those elevators and whatnot.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so it's an important thing to understand that it's not just about a decline in acres, it's also a decline in infrastructure associated with the production of a crop.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_02: We saw it in cotton, and it's a it's a slow return.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_02: We start to see the decline in acres.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_02: Now, historically, you know, the United States is going to grow less than three million acres.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_02: And you think about this, we grow less than three million acres of rice, and yet we're in the top five exporters.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_02: What does that tell you?
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_02: Then we have a domestic consumption problem.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_02: So compounding that problem is the fact that we import highly subsidized rice from India that we can't compete with.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_02: Thailand's another one, but the Indian support is off the charts.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's just a complete violation of WTO norms that displaces our ability here in the domestic market.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_02: So my argument has always been let's try to dominate the domestic market.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_02: And with 3 million acres, we should be able to do it.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_02: And yet we still see a precipitous decline in the acres, so much so that the in the Arkansas, as I said, roughly half of the U.S.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_02: rice crop uh in my district, we're gonna see somewhere in the neighborhood of 800,000 acres.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_02: We're historically been at about one to one point two million, but I think we're somewhere down below 800,000 acres this year.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_02: That's a huge uh hit to the industry.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_02: And the decisions have to now then after year after year, we're we're we're now seeing it like a five-year trajectory of this acres decline.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_02: These are decisions that are tough, but you know, economically driven.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and you know, when you're looking at the bottom line, these decisions have to be made.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_02: And what's the total economic hit to a small community, um, you know, in in Hickory Ridge, Arkansas, or Wiener, Arkansas, or Parkin, or you know, somewhere where there's a where there's a there's an elevator that employs several people and and those folks in those rural communities rely on that economic output from those.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_02: It's gonna it's gonna take a hit.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_02: Now, granted, they probably they won't feel that in New York City or Chicago, but we'll feel it here.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, it matters.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_02: And when we see a decline in acres, let's talk another uh scenario.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: We may be losing duck habitat.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_02: And when we lose duck habitat, we lose duck hunters.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_02: We lose duck hunters, we lose the economic impact associated with those folks, particularly folks that are coming from out of state and spending their money in Arkansas because what we know about outside money introduced into a local economy turns over seven times.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_02: So the economic impact of this is far reaching.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_02: It's not just about we're gonna we're gonna shutter an elevator, we're gonna scale back a mill, we're gonna do this and that based on those acres.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_02: No, those acres, they they punch way above their weight in terms of the economic impact that they provide to rural communities and not just the rural communities that I mentioned before, as you know, mentioned Hickory Ridge or Wiener or Parkin or wherever you're talking about.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_02: It's the entire state economy in Arkansas that will hear that, I mean feel that and respond because um duck hunting is a huge part of our economy, and rice acres are a huge part of our duck hunting ecosystem.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: So the the effects are far reaching.
• 27:59
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• 29:52
  SPEAKER_03: There's no doubt about that.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_03: I made a reference a couple of weeks ago on the show where this came up.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_03: And people that aren't in that part of the world outside of duck season, they're going to be shocked when they drive through whether it's Walnut Ridge, whether it's uh, you know, where Caseon is at McCrory, Hunter area, you get to Stuttgart, they're gonna be shocked at the number of fields that don't have a stitch of crop in them uh that were that were left out because farmers just could not make it pencil and and uh they left the fields out.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_03: And you're right, that is gonna have the trickle-down effect to ducks.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that's that's a great point you made.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, I know there's a lot of contention over residents and non-residents, and then you and then you get a lot of outside viewpoints.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_03: Arkansas obviously is the the crown jewel of duck hunting.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_03: People can say whatever they want, it it is and still is, has been, all those things.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think they realize just how big a deal it is here and and maybe why we're so passionate.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_03: Um they try to almost judge from afar, not realizing the impacts it has for us, not not only the economic, but it's just kind of who we are, especially on the east side of the state.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_03: So uh yeah, I could I could see that being something you have to educate people on Capitol Hill and and as you as you travel too, just because I don't think people quite get it.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_02: I I think, and I try to make this point all the time, that duck hunting is not just an activity, something we do to kill in the afternoon, you know, get up in the morning and you know, get in the blind and you know, um spend the morning.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, heck, I remember in college, these guys would they're going out to get in the duck line before they hit an eight o'clock class.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_02: I mean I say that to say this is it's a it's a cultural thing here, it's a cultural identity for Arkansas and particularly East Arkansas.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, my son's now in college, and you know, him and his paternity brothers foaming at the mouth for November 21st.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it it's just that's it's what we do.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_02: This is Arkansas.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's it's not something that you uh can can can explain to folks that you know, I I mean folks in Mississippi get it, people in Louisiana get it, you know, uh Southeast Missouri, you get it.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_02: Uh if you live in the Mississippi Flyway in particular, but I just don't think it's more ingrained in any culture anywhere than it is in East Arkansas.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_02: And yet it's the same argument we have about the understanding of agriculture because you take a town like I live in Jonesboro, you take a town like Jonesboro, and you got you know, my neighbors that don't have any idea where their food fiber comes from, they might work at the hospital, they might work at one of the, you know, one of the you know, an engineering firm, or they may work and they we've just grown up.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_02: We've grown up without that full understanding of the the complete impact and contribution made by not just agriculture, but uh the cultural phenomenon that is duck hunting in East Arkansas.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's just it's a it's a big deal.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_02: I just don't think you can overstate that.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I agree completely.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: And we're getting into some more of the fun topics now.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm curious, uh, where do you where do you like to hunt?
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: Where's your favorite place in the state to go duck hunt?
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I've been to a few places, um, a couple of them I don't want to tell you.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um loose lips sink ships.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_02: You know, they might not like me telling you, but yeah, so I live in Craig A County, and you know, obviously we're there's a few places we go down in um around Wiener.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um the the St.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_02: Francis is always a nice spot to go there.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um over in Lawrence County.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um again, don't want to do commercials for folks, but there's some folks over there in Lawrence County that would love for me to mention their names.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um you probably know who I'm talking about.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um we've got lots of really good spots here that we are fortunate.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um there's a couple of places I've been down in Lonak County.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um but you you you go anywhere in East Arkansas.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um is a pretty good spot.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_02: I mean it's it's it can be hit or miss depending on the year.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um and uh sometimes you know you like to hunt flooded timber.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes you like to, you know, go over Ricefield or in any number of locations that there's just really there's really good it's and for me it's mostly about the camaraderie.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's about you know getting up and spend time with your friends and and um hearing people tell stories and you know I might go a whole daggum day and never pull a trigger.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, just because it's just fun to be out there.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_03: Uh yeah, there's that that's the whole you know, the whole ball of wax with with ducks and why it differs from all other hunting, because I'm not a deer hunter.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_03: I don't I don't want to sit in a in a tree stand by myself.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not a big deer hunter, but I mean I have, but it's not I I enjoy the the social aspect of duck hunting probably as much as anything.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_02: And that's you know, it's it's not just you know, like my son and I go and and it's fun, but we go with our friends and it's generational.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_02: And so you'll have a you'll have a grandfather in there with his grandkids and the you know and and his son and his and the grandson and that kind of thing.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_02: It's that's the cool part about it.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_02: That's maybe what sets it apart, makes it a little bit different from other um hunting activities.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I I don't know, I just enjoy it.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's just it's just a it's it's a lot of fun.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_02: I've never had a bad day in a duck blind.
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• 36:10
  SPEAKER_03: No, those are those are hard to have once you kind of get over the hump of you know, you just got to kill, kill, kill and realize there's there's much more to it than that.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_03: It's hard to have a bad day.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_03: Uh you know, equipment can break and get pretty frustrating and gun jams or something like that, but uh you're still out there duck hunting.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_03: But uh how how often are you able to get back?
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, between bouncing around back and forth to PC, how often?
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_02: I I think I got out like maybe three times last year.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_02: And I and I I hope that I will get to go a little more often this time.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but you know, like my son, he he goes gangbusters, but um, you know, his friends will go and whatnot.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I don't get to go as often as he does, but you know, he he's on a little bit different schedule than I am.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I would think so.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_03: I would at least you'll be uh yeah, you'll be past the the election and all that.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_03: So if that maybe that'll free up a little time for you.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I hope so.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_03: Well, uh, you know, we want to be respectful of your time and and and with you jumping on here today, because uh we were really excited when when your staff reached out and and wanted to come on the show and and kind of visit some of these topics because we talk about them quite a bit.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_03: We we're able to connect that ag side with what's going on there and how it ties back to waterfowling and and vice versa.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_03: And it's it's kind of uh really helpful to connect all those dots because so much of this is relying on what goes on on Capitol Hill.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_02: Uh one one thing I'll leave you with, and you you probably know this.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_02: People know that you know, first district of Arkansas, and they'll they'll say to some people in Washington, oh, is that is is uh is Stuttgart in your district?
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_02: Now here's where you know when you're talking to somebody from out of state and they say Stuttgart, you know that they know what they're talking about.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_02: So they want to talk about duck hunting and they say Stuttgart, they know they've been there, they understand.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um I get people that that show up to duck hunt here all the time and they'll say, Hey, I was just in your district, where'd you go?
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_02: I was down by Stuttgart, you know, like okay, I mean they get it.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_02: But when somebody starts asking me about Stuttgart.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's right.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_03: Well, it's uh yeah, it is pretty telltale, and and it it is amazing how much it comes up in conversation when you travel around and people figure out you're from Arkansas and and how many people have actually it not only heard about, they've actually been here.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_03: I mean it's oh yeah, it's it's a it's something to cross off the list if you uh you like to chase dogs.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, it's fun.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_02: I just like I said, I I enjoy the camaraderie as much as anything.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, no, that's a big, big piece of it.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_03: No, no doubt about it.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_03: Well, like I said, go be respectful of your time and and uh appreciate you jumping on and and good luck with this election season uh coming up.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_03: I know that that that's uh hurling towards us pretty fast.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah midterm.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_02: It'll be here before we know it.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_03: Well, thanks, Congressman Crawford, for coming on.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_03: We appreciate your time.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_03: As always, you can check us out at the standard sportsman, and we'll catch you next time.