There’s a new ag policy group in town. Welcome to AGree. Today eight of the world’s leading foundations launched AGree, a new initiative that will tackle long-term food and agriculture policy issues confronting the nation and the world as the population continues to grow and resources become ever-more constrained. AGree is launching at a pivotal moment for food and agriculture …
Republican Budget Would Cut Farm Spending
The FY 2012 Budget Resolution unveiled by House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan (R-Wis) includes reforming current farm programs. The Republican budget plan would cut farm program spending by $30 billion over the next decade to “reflect the economic reality of record-high farm income by restructuring farm programs, saving taxpayers money and increasing farmer independence.” Net farm income this year …
FAPRI: Farm Incomes Up But Not Biggest Driver in Consumer Price Rise
The amount consumers will be paying for food at the grocery store could jump this year, but rising farm incomes won’t be the biggest factor in that increase. The latest report from the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) at the University of Missouri shows there will be good farm incomes in the U.S. this year … a record …
American Farm Bureau Sets Policy
The votes are in, the delegates have spoken and the American Farm Bureau Annual Meeting has concluded with a new set of policies. AFBF President, Bob Stallman, held a closing press conference to point out a few highlights from today’s decision making. He said that even with the adverse weather conditions that happened here in Atlanta the program ran smoothly …
Grassroots Farm Policy Making
One of the most important parts of the Annual Meeting of the American Farm Bureau Federation is the annual meeting of the voting delegates. These folks got down to business early this morning and will hopefully conclude this afternoon with a new policy book. This is grassroots policy making in action! The leadership is at the head table with all …
Death Tax and the White House
It looks like the death tax is going to be really hard for Washington legislators to ignore. There are 31 ag groups making sure of it. They sent a letter to President Obama today “urging immediate, permanent and meaningful estate tax reform.” Anyone with a lick of common sense would know that if estate taxes are allowed to be reinstated …
Thanksgiving and Farmer Priorities
This week is the time to give thanks to America’s farmers and ranchers for producing the most affordable and abundant food supply in the world. If you’d like to help do that using your social media channels then please visit #foodthanks. In this week’s program I’m featuring a couple of interviews from Trade Talk at the NAFB convention. Here’s your …
Farm Policy Outlook For 2011
Straight from the NAMA Trends in Agriculture conference is a video with one of the presenters produced by Paulsen Marketing. The 2010 Trends in Agriculture conference wrapped up with a Washington update: what to expect in 2011. Jim Wiesemeyer, senior vice president of policy and trade issues for Informa Economics Inc.’s Washington office, says the next few years could be …
Book Review – The Food Wars
This week I read a book about the ongoing discussions regarding the causes of the food crisis. It should come as no surprise that several of the main reasons the globe is in the midst of a food crisis, according to a The Food Wars author Walden Bello, are commodity speculation, biofuels, increased demand for food in Asia brought on …
Urban Wheat Field
If you can’t take policy makers to the field then take the field to the policy makers. On Thursday, September 23rd and Friday, September 24th a live wheat field, approximately one quarter of an acre in size, will sprout from the streets of the nation’s capital in an effort to promote food literacy via farm-to-fork wheat education. The North Dakota …