Since May is both World Trade Month and National Beef Month, it was appropriate for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) to host a news conference on Capitol Hill today urging the Obama administration to send pending free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea to Congress immediately. NCBA was joined by the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), American …
Farm Bureau Estimates Flooded Farm Acres at Over 3.5 Million
The American Farm Bureau Federation is estimating that nearly 3.6 million acres of farmland in the southern United States have been impacted by flooding, including about 40 percent of the rice crop. AFBF received flood damage estimates from individual state Farm Bureaus in the affected areas. Arkansas topped the list with a million acres affected, including 300,000 acres of rice …
Lots of Trade Talking This Week
Since May is World Trade Month, you would think it would be a great time for Congress to pass those pesky pending Free Trade Agreements with Korea, Colombia and Panama that have been awaiting approval for years. Several of the nation’s largest agricultural organizations who testified before the House Agriculture Committee this week on why it is so important to …
Communicating With A Non-Farm Audience
What is the perception of farmers and ranchers? That’s the broader question that was being addressed by participants at the Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Summit according to Mary Kay Thatcher, American Farm Bureau Federation. She was one of the many people I had the pleasure to speak with. One of the things she got out of Frank Luntz’s presentation had …
Agriculture Excited About Colombia Free Trade News
It’s taken over four years to get to this point, but some action is finally happening on the Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA) and U.S. agriculture interests are thrilled. President Obama announced today that an agreement has been reached on the deal that was signed by the U.S. Trade Representative and the Colombian trade minister on Nov. 22, 2006. The …
Congress Repeals Stupid 1099 Provision
Put this in the “who thought this was a good idea in the first place?” file. By a vote of 87-12, the U.S. Senate voted Tuesday to repeal the idiotic health care reform provision that would have required businesses to file a 1099 form with the IRS any time they spend more than $600 a year with another business, sending …
Effort Launched to Repeal Death Tax
A bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Congressmen Kevin Brady (R-TX) and Mike Ross (D-Ark) have reintroduced legislation to permanently repeal the “death” tax. “The Death Tax is still the #1 reason family farms and businesses in America aren’t passed down to the next generation,” Brady says. “It’s the wrong tax at the wrong time and hurts the wrong people.” …
Food Check-Out Week Focuses on Healthy, Nutrition Food
Farmer and rancher members of many local Farm Bureaus are reaching out to consumers in their communities during Food Check-Out Week (Feb. 20-26) by offering information and cost-saving tips on putting nutritious meals on the table. “Stretching Your Grocery Dollar With Healthy, Nutritious Food,” the official theme of Farm Bureau’s Food Check-Out Week, reflects the fact that Americans from all …
Another Record Breaking Harvest for All
Farm Bureau families helped to feed even more hungry Americans in 2010. American Farm Bureau reports that farm and ranch families of the organization raised more than $273,000 last year and donated more than 18 million pounds of food to hungry Americans as part of Farm Bureau’s “Harvest for All” program through Feeding America. That is the combined equivalent of …
Farmers Engaging Farmers and Non-Farmers
I’m glad I could get farmers in the title three times. The reason for this post is the excellent response in comments to a recent story post Cindy did about Farm Bureau members engaging in social media. I really appreciate one AgWired reader who posted a comment with her observation after looking at some of the Twitter accounts of the …