Press release from the Senate Finance Committee Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), along with House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) and Ranking Member Jim McCrery (R-La), sent a letter today to President Bush, urging the administration to stand firm in the Doha Round negotiations at the…
WASHINGTON (Dec 1, 2008)—Visit most any university-level journalism class across the country, and you’ll undoubtedly hear a lesson about taking quotes out of context. It is a lesson aspiring reporters are taught early on in the curriculum—be accurate when quoting a source and don’t mischaracterize a source’s quote to fit the story you want to…
WASHINGTON (Nov 20, 2008)—Larry Combest, the former Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, this week penned a policy paper outlining potential pitfalls for farmers if the current World Trade Organization trade talks conclude without serious revisions. “Moving forward with the current direction of the Doha Round would critically injure an important sector of the U.S.…
WASHINGTON (Nov 7, 2008)—If you’re miffed about grocery prices still being high despite price drops in fuel and agricultural commodities, you’re in good company. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) recently penned a letter to the Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA) demanding one of two things: cheaper food on the shelves or an apology for unfairly blaming…
WASHINGTON (Nov 3, 2008)—Since 1973, farm bills have included a Rural Development Title. The 2008 farm bill builds on that tradition, addressing a wide range of policy issues affecting rural communities. Subjects covered by the title include economic planning and development; essential community facilities (such as emergency first responders and healthcare); water, waste disposal, and…
By: National Cotton Council There are many remaining areas of disagreement in the Doha Round trade negotiations. In the months since the Doha Round July mini-ministerial, virtually all of the discussion has centered on the Special Safeguard Mechanism, cotton, and Sectoral Negotiations in the NAMA (non-agricultural market access) negotiations as being among the last remaining…
WASHINGTON (Oct 23, 2008)—While Wall Street crumbled, poison seeped through a crack in the Great Wall of China’s bureaucracy over to our shores. And we barely paid it any notice. It would be almost impossible to see a better example of the importance of food security if it were staged. But there it is—from Vietnam…
About once a year “20/20” reporter John Stossel produces a piece about the evils of farm policy. None of the material is groundbreaking—he uses the same talking points that have been regurgitated by farm opponents for years. And like most professional farm critics, Stossel’s story is full of holes and keeps changing. In his 2007…
WASHINGTON (Oct 2, 2008)—In terms of farm policy, producers are in limbo right now, caught somewhere in between the new 2008 farm act and the old 2002 law. Farm bill implementing regulations have yet to be written, lawmakers and USDA officials continue to tussle over the intent of the law, and farmers are confused. Few…
WASHINGTON (Sep 24, 2008)—Want to take a cooking class from the founder of the Viking Range Corporation? You don’t have to shell out for a trendy culinary school in Manhattan; you simply need to head to a small town of 20,000 in the Mississippi Delta. Fred Carl, Jr., Viking’s founder, has joined the ranks of…
WASHINGTON (Sep 19, 2008)—During the farm bill debate, critics of farm policy were quick to accuse the men and women who feed and clothe the country of preferential treatment. Farm bill opponents pushed for a restrictive cap—based on a farmer’s adjusted gross income or AGI—to limit who can receive benefits from the farm safety net.…
WASHINGTON (Sep 12, 2008)—The “farm bill” might sound like a piece of legislation that deals strictly with agricultural policy, but it is far from narrowly focused. Every month, Farm Policy Facts will dissect a title of the bill to illustrate its breadth and importance to people all over our country – not just farmers. This…