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Due to corporate pressure to ?get big or get out,? we have lost nearly 67% of our farms since 1920. There are now more prisoners in the US than full-time farmers.

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Issue #129 - Fri, Jan 7, 2005

USDA?s Mad Cow Circus Reopens for 2005

The US Dept. of Agriculture?s Dec. 29 proposal to reopen the long-closed US border to imports of live Canadian cattle and a wider range of Canadian boxed beef ran headlong into consumer, rancher and export market concern when Canada?s Food Inspection Agency confirmed Sunday, Jan. 2 that nation?s second case of mad cow disease.

The animal, an 8-year-old Holstein dairy cow in Alberta, was suspected of the disease before USDA released its border-opening rule last Wednesday. According to Canadian government officials, USDA knew about the suspected positive prior to Dec. 29.

Despite the Canadian confirmation, USDA said it would proceed with its new rule, which could open the US market to Canadian live fat and feeder cattle under 30 months of age by March 7.

Trade, Not Safety, Behind Rule to Import Canadian Cattle, Meat

In the 90-page cost/benefits analysis that accompanied USDA?s Dec. 29 rule to expand imports of Canadian beef into the US, the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service gave three reasons for the change now.

First, noted APHIS, ?This rule ensures the continued protection of the U.S. food and feed supply from BSE.?

Second, the rule ?remove(s) unnecessary prohibitions on the importation of certain commodities from minimal-risk regions.?

And third, ?By establishing criteria for minimal-risk regions, the United States has taken a leadership role in fostering trade of low-risk products with countries that have a low incidence of BSE and historically strong risk mitigation measures.?

We?re not making this up.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye: Johanns Says Little at Confirmation

If there?s one rule Presidential appointees need to follow when testifying before Senate committees during confirmation hearings it?s this: As long as you don?t stand on the witness table, get naked and bark like a mad dog it?s 99% certain you?ll be confirmed.

Ag secretary-nominee Michael Johanns followed the rule Thursday, Jan. 6, in his confirmation hearing before the Senate Ag Committee and the Committee actually confirmed him to run USDA while the three-hour hearing continued.

Love, not luck, was in the air at the hearing. Senators from both parties parried more with each other--in tossing bouquets and kudos to Nebraska governor--than with the nominee. To hear them talk Thursday, US farmers and ranchers should canonize the corporate farming supporter Johanns immediately. ...read full article

  



Archives Jump to page:  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Issue Date Description
Issue 128 2004-12-30 Ringing Out the Old, Bracing for the New; News from 2004 Will Make More News in 2005
Issue 127 2004-12-24 The Best of Times, the Worst of Times; Food Aid, CCC Stocks Down; Way Down
Issue 126 2004-12-17 Politicizing CRP, Forget their Lips, Watch their Hips, Other News and Views
Issue 125 2004-12-11 Checkoffs at the Supreme Court, The Politics behind Johanns getting USDA, Other News and Views
Issue 124 2004-12-03 Nebraska Governor to Take Over at USDA, Board of Trade to offer Brazilian Soy Contract, News
Issue 123 2004-11-21 Veneman Out; Who?s In?, News from (and for) the Red States
Issue 122 2004-11-14 Rust and Rust Panic, Veneman Coy about Future at USDA, Words from the Still-Blue East Coast
Issue 121 2004-11-05 US Senate Race Results Show No Ag Policy Help, Nov. 2 and Agriculture, Words From The Wise and Not-So Wise
Issue 120 2004-10-29 Around the Horn: US Senate Races to Influence Tuesday?s Vote, The Curse is Cured
Issue 119 2004-10-24 What?s Good for the Goose is Good for the Gander, Views,The Next 10 Days
Issue 118 2004-10-10 The Upside Down Congress, A Season of Hope
Issue 117 2004-10-02 Week?s Biggest Harvest was Bad Politics, America, that Bright, Shining City on the Hill
Issue 116 2004-09-24 Who is Tom Hofeller?, Now Quickly, the Other News of the Week
Issue 115 2004-09-17 Bush widens lead among rural, swing voters, Other news of the week, It?s just a game
Jump to page:  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
A. Guebert

Alan Guebert is an award-winning free-lance agricultural journalist who was raised on an 800-acre, 100-cow southern Illinois dairy farm. After graduation from the University of Illinois in Dec. 1980, he worked as a writer and senior editor at Professional Farmers of America and Successful Farming magazine.

In 1984, Guebert returned to Illinois to establish his free-lance writing business and to serve as a contributing editor to Farm Journal magazine.

He began his syndicated ag column, The Farm and Food File, in June, 1993, and it now appears weekly in more than 70 newspapers throughout the US and Canada. Guebert also writes a second column, called ''Letter from America,'' which appears monthly in magazines and newspapers in a dozen countries throughout Europe and Asia.

Throughout his career, Guebert has won numerous awards for his magazine and newspaper work. In 1997, the American Agricultural Editors' Association honored him with its highest awards, "Writer of the Year" and "Master Writer."

Alan resides with his wife and two children in Delavan, IL.

Alan Guebert
The Farm and Food File
502 W. 4th P.O. Box 648
Delavan, IL 61734
309/ 244-7134--voice
309/ 244-7050--fax

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