In just a few hours with almost no changes, the Senate Agriculture Committee voted 15-5 today to approve the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2013. “This bill reflects agriculture’s cuts from the sequester and goes beyond that in spending reductions by making tough decisions and setting priorities that make sense for farmers, families, and taxpayers,” said Committee Chairwoman …
Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack Meets with NAFB
This morning U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack met with attendees of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting Washington Watch. As is a “tradition” now, he posed with us in the USDA office building. He then spent quite a while talking with us and answering questions. You can find more photos in my online photo album. Of course the focus …
Farmers Trial Monsanto FieldScripts
We first told you about Monsanto’s FieldScripts last fall at Farm Progress Show. Now we will be hearing much more from farmers using it on a trial basis in the field. This planting season, more than 150 farmers in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Minnesota are trialing the first offering from Monsanto’s Integrated Farming SystemsSM (IFS) research platform – FieldScriptsSM. With …
Taking on Activists in the Courtroom
Unfortunately, when dealing with the threat of activist groups it is hard to avoid the courtroom. During the Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit we heard from those who have seen first hand the legal ramifications of activist tactics. John Simpson, partner at Fulbright and Jaworski LLP, shared how he fought back for his client for 13 years and tips for …
Senate Farm Bill Markup Today
The Senate Agriculture Committee meets this morning to consider the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2013, their version of a “Farm Bill.” Yesterday, farm broadcasters meeting in Washington D.C. had the chance to interview a number of representatives from various agricultural and renewable fuels organizations and most of them had something to say about what the House and …
Farm Bill Top Issue at NAFB Washington Watch
As both the House and Senate Agriculture committees are marking up their versions of a farm bill this week, that was the number one issue for farm broadcasters meeting in the nation’s capitol for their annual Washington Watch. Mary Kay Thatcher with the American Farm Bureau Federation sees few major differences between the two committee drafts released last week. “If …
Zimfo Bytes
The Farm Journal Foundation’s Farmers Feeding the World initiative recently co-hosted an international agriculture and food security briefing with the Senate Hunger Caucus on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. The Organic Trade Association has formally established a Farmers Advisory Council to provide input from small- to medium-sized organic farmers, ranchers and growers to the trade association on matters geared to …
Interview with NAFB Mike & Andy Show
This year’s coordinators of the NAFB Washington Watch program are Mike Hergert, Red River Farm Network (left) and Andy Vance, Feedstuffs. NAFB just held a business meeting for members and our event organizers gave us an overview of the program. I got Mike & Andy outside the room after the meeting to talk about this year’s agenda which you can …
Agri-Pulse Open Mic with Collin Peterson
With the Senate Agriculture Committee set to start writing a new farm bill on Tuesday and the House Agriculture Committee ready to follow a day later, Congressman Collin Peterson offers his views on how a new farm bill can hopefully get passed by both chambers this year. As the ranking Democrat, he talks about the compromises he’s worked out with …
Supreme Court Rules for Monsanto
The Supreme Court today ruled unanimously to protect the intellectual property rights of Monsanto‘s genetically modified soybean seed. The U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Bowman v. Monsanto, a case regarding an Indiana farmer who planted saved Roundup Ready soybean seed, ruling that “patent exhaustion does not permit a farmer to reproduce patented seeds through planting and harvesting …