CFRA Opinion Editorials
- 11/24/08Barack Obama launched his campaign in Iowa with a promise to change farm and rural policy to create genuine opportunity for rural people and a better future for their communities.
- 10/20/08
Every day we pick up the newspaper and read about the deepening financial crisis. We read about businesses closing because they can not find the credit they need to meet payroll, we read about major businesses and massive layoffs and we read about historic swings in the stock market and their affects on families across the nation.
What we do not read about is that part of the economy which is working, the local economic heroes in all of our communities – the microentrepreneurs and small businesses.
- 07/20/2008A few weeks ago my family and I attended a banquet to honor cattlemen and the cattle industry in our area. As members of the Nebraska Cattlemen we were encouraged to attend the Cattlemen's Midyear Meeting in Lincoln where the keynote speaker was Wesley Batista, President and CEO of JBS Swift & Company. We were not able to attend, but I hope that my fellow Nebraska Cattlemen asked some of the tough questions of Mr. Batista that I wanted to ask.
- 07/01/2008Over the past two years, it has become abundantly clear that the biofuels revolution will have dramatic and lasting impacts. No matter the issue- agriculture, climate change, rural economics- biofuels are shaping the future. But the so-called "invisible hand" of market economics is not behind the rise in biofuels production. Instead, it is Congress and the political process that have created a new reality for agriculture, rural America and all of America.
- 05/02/2007Democratic congressional candidates scour the countryside for votes by proclaiming themselves the champion of the family farmer and little guy. Now they control both houses of Congress. It’s time for them to put up or shut up by addressing the long-festering need for limiting farm subsidies to mega farms in the 2007 farm bill.
- 12/01/2006Now that we have moved beyond the 2006 elections, our representatives will head to Washington. Chief among their duties is to pass laws, and one of the most important tasks of this Congress will be to pass a piece of legislation known as the 2007 farm bill.
- 10/29/2006
So far this summer, there have been twenty Congressional farm bill field hearings, sixteen held by the House of Representatives Agriculture Committee and four held by their counterparts in the Senate. The primary focus of the testimony and discussion at these hearings has focused on commodity subsidies and major farm program payments.
