The name “farm bill” can be pretty misleading. Most who do not follow agricultural legislation that closely just assume that all of the funding included in the “farm bill” winds up on the farm. Not even close. Farm programs only represent about 10% of farm bill spending. The bulk of farm bill spending is earmarked…
By: Doug Albin When most people think about challenges farmers face, weather and crop prices likely come to mind. But these days, the uninformed public perception of agriculture worries farmers almost as much as market uncertainty. That’s not just an observation—it’s what 800 Minnesota corn producers told us in a recent survey. Nearly half of…
WASHINGTON (Jan 13, 2009)—The Riverwalk was hopping as farmers from across the country descended on San Antonio for the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 90th annual convention this weekend. The city’s convention center looked like most farm shows. John Deere and Case IH rolled in the big green and red tractors, U.S. automakers showed off the…
By: Reece Langley VP, Government Affairs, USA Rice Federation Imagine a youthful Democrat with rock-star qualities overcoming the odds to capture his party’s nomination and go on to succeed President Bush, whose sky-high popularity had plummeted in an economic downturn. Imagine a Democratic Congress at or near full strength, with 57 Democratic Senators and 258…
WASHINGTON (Dec 9, 2008)—The Washington Post ran a front-page piece in April penned by a fellow of the German Marshall Fund—a well-heeled and outspoken farm critic—about a DC-area bagel shop that was forced to raise prices because of wheat costs. Like many news stories from the time period, the article—which is posted on the German…
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…
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…