In a legal opinion released on Monday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “violated publicity or propaganda and anti-lobbying provisions contained in appropriations acts with its use of certain social media platforms in association with its Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rulemaking.” According to the GAO: Specifically, EPA violated the publicity or propaganda …
Supreme Court Urged to Review EPA Clean Water Overreach
A group including members of Congress, state government members, businesses, and ag interests, including the American Farm Bureau Federation, is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review what they see as an overreach by the federal government. This news release from Farm Bureau says the issue is the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) plan to micromanage state land-use and development decisions …
WTO Announces $1.01 Billion in COOL Retaliation
We anticipated this and now it’s here. The World Trade Organization (WTO) announced $1.01 billion retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods authorized in the country-of-origin labeling (COOL) with Canada and Mexico. The WTO has upheld multiple times our neighboring country’s claim that the label creates an unfair advantage to U.S. products. U.S. Senator Pat Roberts, R-Kan., Chairman of the Senate Committee …
Farm Bureau Connects Students with Food Science Fun
A new resource looks to connect students to the science of food and food production. This news release from the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture says its My American Farm educational site offers “Food Science Fun” that was student tested and approved. “Food Science Fun” is a new guide that contains 10 activities related to food science. The guide …
#Ag Industry Reacts to @EPA #RFS Final Rules
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the much anticipated final volumetric rules today under the Renewable Fuels Standard for 2014, 2015 and 2016. While the RVOs (renewable volume obligations) were an improvement over the proposed rules released in May of this year, the #Ag industry is calling on the EPA to further strengthen the legislation and further increase all four …
Farm Bureau Offers Election Information Website
Farm Bureau believes a well-informed electorate will vote the right ways on issues dear to the organization. That’s why it has launched election16.fb.org, a site the group’s director of advocacy and political affairs Cody Lyon says will keep farmers and ranchers informed. “We wanted to create a website that served three key purposes. First, news that was going on related …
AFBF 97th Annual Meeting Coming up Soon
The American Farm Bureau Federation 97th Annual Convention and IDEAg Trade Show is just around the corner now in Orlando, Florida, on January 11, 2016. With the simple theme “The Future of Agriculture,” the 2016 meeting will feature “Shark Tank” investor Barbara Corcoran giving the keynote address. There will also be many educational workshops as well as the full trade …
Coalition Urges Congress to Maintain Farm Safety Net
Nearly 50 organizations representing agricultural interests sent a letter last week to Congressional leaders urging them not cut crop insurance or other farm programs through the omnibus appropriations act. “The crop insurance program is the lynchpin of the farm safety net and is crucial to the economic security of rural America,” reads the coalition’s letter to Congress. “The crop insurance …
Thanksgiving Dinner Just $5 Per Person
Where in the world can a person get a sumptuous meal of turkey, bread stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls with butter, peas, cranberries, a relish tray of carrots and celery, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, and beverages of coffee and milk all for about five dollars? Only in the good ol’ US of A, thanks to the great productivity of our …
#NAFB15 Last Trade Talk for AFBF President
It’s been 16 years that Bob Stallman has represented the American Farm Bureau Federation as president and he’s been at NAFB Trade Talk for most, if not all, of those years. But this year was his last as president since he announced in July that he will be retiring from the post – to do whatever he wants. “I told …