By Lee Pitts, Livestock Market Digest Sometimes you have to really dig to find a story. And then sometimes it finds you. In the past few weeks I’ve received several phone calls from people associated with the beef checkoff. This alone is a minor miracle because I haven’t exactly been on speaking terms with these folks. Suffice it to say, I’m not on the Christmas card list of the NCBA or the Beef Board. At first I was Read More …
-by John K. Hansen | Posted: Wednesday, April 29, 2015 1:00 am The writer is president of the Nebraska Farmers Union and served as a U.S. Trade Representative trade adviser for three administrations for 14 years starting in 1994. The House and Senate have sent Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) proposals out of their respective committees to the floor for consideration, so the issue is now before us. TPA, also known as Fast Track Authority, provides the administration with Read More …
– by Chris Petersen There is frustration in rural Iowa! How would you city folks like it if there was very little regulation of siting or oversight of any industry locating or operating in your neighborhoods? At a moment’s notice industry could swoop in unexpectedly and set up shop with little say what so ever, I assume a vast majority of people would immediately be up in arms and try to stop it! In rural Iowa this Read More …
– by Lee Pitts, Livestock Market Digest Sometimes you have to really dig to find a story. And then sometimes it finds you. In the past few weeks I’ve received several phone calls from people associated with the beef checkoff. This alone is a minor miracle because I haven’t exactly been on speaking terms with these folks. Suffice it to say, I’m not on the Christmas card list of the NCBA or the Beef Board. At first I Read More …
While farmers chase the next crop, the agriculture game has changed. International corporations have reduced their own risk by passing it along to farmers. “Free” trade (like the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership), seed patents, and contract farming for hogs and chickens are some of the ways Big Ag has standardized a once-diverse industry. Photo by Nate Kauffman Playing fetch at Wisconsin’s Kettle Moraine State Forest. Playing fetch with a Labrador is a little like farming. I throw the Read More …