WASHINGTON (August 17, 2007)—Much to the delight of farmers and ranchers in rural America, members of the Senate Agriculture Committee have repeatedly praised the agricultural provisions of the House farm bill during Congress’ August recess. “It’s pretty hard to argue against the House-passed farm bill,” Republican Sen. Norm Coleman (Minn.) said via conference call last…
CALIFORNIA (August 8, 2007)—At the American Sugar Alliance’s 24th International Sweetener Symposium, farmers from across the country came together to pledge a common goal of supporting a strong 2007 farm bill. The bill passed the House of Representatives on July 27. With the Senate slated to take up the legislation in September, key agriculture groups…
Nowadays, everybody seems to be hopping on the ethanol bandwagon. It’s a centerpiece for aspiring presidents’ energy stump speeches. Wall Street is looking to Main Street for investment opportunities. And even one-time opponents of the clean burning fuel admit it will be vital to weaning America off its foreign oil dependence. But for farmers like…
If you’ve eaten rice one night this week for dinner, there’s a 50-50 chance it came from Arkansas, and there’s a high likelihood it passed through a small town you’ve probably never heard of…unless you’re an avid hunter. Stuttgart, Arkansas, is commonly called “the duck and rice capital of the world” because the town produces…
WASHINGTON (July 31, 2007)—In a victorious moment for America’s farmers, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly rejected the Kind-Flake amendment last Thursday night by an astonishing vote of 309 to 117. Thanks to the support and persistence of the House Agriculture Committee and Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), as well as various coalitions and associations representing America’s…
WASHINGTON (July 27, 2007)—After an intense buildup to what most Washington insiders thought would be a bloody battle, the much-anticipated Kind-Flake farm bill hit the House floor with a thud late last night. The plan offered by Reps. Ron Kind (D-Wis.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) was swiftly and soundly defeated by a vote of 309…
WASHINGTON (July 25, 2007)—In a Dear Colleague letter to Members of Congress today, Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY) joined the growing voices of legislators supporting a strong farm bill and called upon her colleagues to “Please oppose any attempts to weaken this important measure…and support H.R. 2419.” In her letter, Velázquez—who serves as Chairwoman of…
WASHINGTON (July 24, 2007)—Farmers from across the United States are descending upon Capitol Hill in anticipation this week’s floor vote on H.R. 2419 in the U.S. House of Representatives. Those farmers are actively working to have their voices heard. In a letter sent to all members of Congress today, major national, regional, and state agriculture…
WASHINGTON (July 23, 2007)—The farm bill plan introduced by two extremist members of the House of Representatives, Ron Kind (D-Wis.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), would devastate rural economies and farms across the country, according to a study released today by the Agriculture and Food Policy Center at Texas A&M. All crop farms and nearly all…
By now, the opponents of farm policy sound like broken records. The Senate Agriculture Committee had not even completed its markup of the farm bill, and these naysayers were already attacking the bill and Committee members for not making reforms. It seems like no matter how many concessions the agricultural community makes, they will never…
All too often we hear from self-anointed advocates who claim that U.S. farm policies contribute to poverty around the world. Yet they consistently ignore the real experts on global issues calling for the very same policies those naysayers are predisposed to reject. Moreover, rarely, if ever, does the media focus attention on the international organizations…
The last vote had barely been cast on the House farm bill when the spin machines for groups from the far right and far left started whining in overdrive. Oxfam America—a group that invested considerable resources promoting the Kind-Flake farm bill that was swiftly and soundly defeated by a bipartisan vote—issued a press release entitled…
WASHINGTON (July 18, 2007)—U.S. agriculture is under siege and the farm policies on which so many depend are close to being gutted. Rural America must stand up and be heard. That is the startling message being delivered to growers across the country by their leaders in Washington. “An amendment or series of amendments to eliminate…
By Farmer X WASHINGTON (July 17, 2007)—According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), my operation received about $110,000 in farm program payments in the 2005 program year—a lot of money by many standards. The insinuation of this is that we are rich farmers, rolling in the dough provided by hardworking American taxpayers. Nothing could be…
By: Jeff Nunley Recently, one of my neighbors in town was complaining about our U.S. farm program. He made the statement that he wished the government would subsidize his income, like it did for farmers. My response was that our farm program did subsidize his income. How? By keeping food costs low. This frees up…
WASHINGTON (July 11, 2007)—The German Marshall Fund put out a press release on May 3 that proudly proclaimed, “Dan Morgan, former staff writer for the Washington Post, has joined the organization as a Transatlantic Fellow.”1 Morgan was quickly listed on the German Marshall Fund’s website as an ag policy expert2; he started writing a column…
The Vietnam veteran from Erath, Louisiana, and his father were slowly increasing the size of the 100-acre farm that Charles’ grandfather started. Jerome, Charles’ young son quickly fell in love with farm life. The Guidry team was good about keeping costs low, and the prices they received for their crop seemed fair. Their world was…
Many Americans wrongly think that farmers are uneducated and not tech-savvy. When it comes to Barry Evans, a cotton farmer from Kress, Texas, nothing could be further from the truth. Barry is an early adopter of the latest farming technology, such as remote sensing, and he reads any article or study he can get his…
For more than 200 years, sugar production has been a way of life in southern Louisiana. Locals say pure sugarcane pumps through the heart of the region, and tales of great-grandfathers working in dew-glistened cane fields have filled coffee shops for generations. For proof that sugar is interwoven into the very fabric of the state,…
Theresia Gillie is sick of the stereotypes of women on the farm. She doesn’t wear an apron all day, or can her own jams, or spend hours on end jotting down recipes. Theresia runs a 2,600-acre wheat, soybean, and sunflower farm with her husband, Keith, and her son, Bryce. She’s responsible for the farm’s budgeting,…
WASHINGTON (June 19, 2007)—An investigation by FarmPolicyFacts.org into the new Environmental Working Group (EWG) farm subsidy database has uncovered a dirty little secret that radical environmental groups likely hoped would never surface. Former Chicago Bulls star Scottie Pippen, mega-lobbyist Gerald Cassidy, and many other wealthy subsidy recipients in EWG’s database are only there because they…
By: USA Rice Federation Every day we see a steady stream of propaganda about U.S. farm subsidies being responsible for the myriad ills associated with world poverty. With the farm bill on the Senate floor, we’ve seen editorials in newspapers and magazines—even church newsletters—addressed to members of Congress, declaring that farmers be stripped of the…
ST. LOUIS, MO – While Brazilian officials were in Geneva arguing that U.S. subsidies were depressing world cotton prices, the Brazilian government was busy selling government-held cotton stocks on the Brazilian market in order to lower internal Brazilian cotton prices according to USDA reports. “The actions of Brazil’s own government in April and May of…
WASHINGTON (June 7, 2007)—Every member of the U.S. Senate today received a handbook highlighting the billions of dollars in subsidies foreign agricultural producers receive around the world. The research, compiled in the Guide to Foreign Crop Subsidies and Tariffs, shows that compared to other major global producers—developing and developed alike—the U.S. ranks near the bottom…
By: Bryan Hest, Steve Williams, Jerry Demmer Farming does a lot more than just put food in our bellies and clothes on our backs. It literally is an economic engine that drives America. Most people are shocked when they learn that the food and fiber industry employs 20% of the country’s workforce and contributes $3.5…
By: Norm Knochel I recently saw a clever bumper sticker in farm country that read, “If you like foreign oil, you’ll love foreign food.” It’s brilliant because it makes you think about something most people take for granted—feeding ourselves. Unlike Americans, Europeans don’t take dinner for granted because they knew starvation and food shortages after…
A recent New York Times article, “Catfish With a Side of Scombroid,” informed readers that: “…the salmonella frequently detected in Asia-farmed fish came from fecal bacteria in the grow-out ponds. The fish, in other words, were bathing in human and animal feces.” Given the influx of negative newspaper headlines like this, it’s no surprise that…