December 22, 2014 Former GIPSA Administrator Calls for Secretary Vilsack’s Resignation Open Letter to Secretary Vilsack When I first began working for you in May of 2009, I was informed by some of your senior advisors that it was their job to protect your legacy. I informed them that if you were true to your word, your legacy would take care of itself. It is apparent now that your legacy will be that of a man of grandiose Read More …
By Chris Clayton With Congress blocking USDA from spending any funds to create a second beef checkoff, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he’s happy at least that people within the beef industry could at least find an area of agreement. In a phone interview Thursday, Vilsack said USDA won’t pursue efforts to create another checkoff under the 1996 commodity promotion law. A policy rider in the federal appropriations bill passed over the weekend prevents USDA from continuing to Read More …
Chemical weed killers have become a big part of mainstream, commercial agriculture, saving farmers time and back-breaking labor. But they also come with a cost, as loss of effectiveness forces greater use just to keep up. Now there’s a move afoot to add new patents to some of the old chemicals. When I was a kid, I worked next to my folks pulling weeds from around fences and buildings on the farmstead every Saturday afternoon. Those were the Read More …
By Gilles Stockton If you were not concerned about our loss of national sovereignty before, you should be now, following the World Trade Organization (WTO) recent ruling against the Country of Origin Labeling (COOL). Although the WTO acknowledges that the United States has the right to label, and even though Canada has their own version of COOL, the WTO cites a very minor excuse to deny American consumers from knowing the origin of their meat. The labeling requirement, Read More …
Secretary Vilsack has proposed a new Beef Checkoff Program, which is in addition to the current one which will remain as is. As I understand it, three years after the new program goes into effect there would be a referendum to see if Checkoff payers liked it. In the meantime, the present program would continue and NCBA would presumably continue its lock on the contracting process for the current (mandatory) program and thereby receive more than 80% of Read More …
Tenancy and land speculation constitute a very serious economic menace and should be reduced to a minimum. But there is a more serious economic menace on the horizon which also involves the land, and follows when ownership and tenant systems break down; namely, corporation farming. Although this menace has not progressed very far, yet it is very serious because it is being promoted by the industrialized, urban-minded, mechanized, stock-gambling forces of this generation. The unsound, agricultural technique of Read More …