The DG for the WTO is getting more serious about trying to push countries into a cooperative mode so something will be accomplished in Hong Kong. Can you do that with trade negotiators?

Okay. Since you’re going to hear about this from everybody you may as well hear it here too. The House passed CAFTA-DR last night. Vote was 217-215. Does that not tell you how divided people are on this issue? Most ag groups seem to be for it so you’ll see and hear a lot of “congratulations” stories from them. Not all in ag are happy though and certainly not all politicians. For example, take the House Democrat Ag Committee. Here’s an excerpt from Collin Peterson: “Tonight’s House vote on the Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA, was a tragedy for American agriculture and rural communities.”

World Food Day is scheduled for October 16 and the theme is “Agriculture and intercultural dialogue.” This event is organized the the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. “It will highlight biodiversity’s role in ensuring that people have sustainable access to enough high-quality food to lead active and healthy lives.”

I’m not sure what a “new collaboration with states . . . ” means. I’d kind of like to think that these folks have all been working together already but maybe this announcements means to reassure us.

I actively promote NewsGator as “the” news aggregator program you should use. For one thing it integrates right into Outlook and although the RSS feeds you subscribe to aren’t email, it allows you to view and handle them like email, including being able to forward a feed to someone as an email!

It has been a hot and dry month in Missouri. With a few exceptions we need rain and we’re hoping to get it this week. At 4am this morning it was 81 degrees here in Holts Summit!

I missed this story from a couple months ago by Wayne Hurlbert about the comparisons between blogging and farming in which he points to the musings on this subject by the Pro Blogger, Darren Rowse. Wayne also links to comments on this subject at Return Customer.

This is a conference with a price you can’t complain about since it’s free. You can get full registration information here.

President Bush spoke to a forum organized by the Organization of American States on CAFTA-DR today.

Every once in a while you just have to take a break from the computer and “get on your bikes and ride.”