By Denise Ross

This topic was all the rage for a few days about a month ago, when I wrote this installment of my newspaper column. Under this president, however, hot topics are ever-changing.

But to the farmers of the Dakotas, there’s never a bad time to talk about expanding trade opportunities. (Read the full column on the jump.)

South Dakota’s three members of Congress all favor lifting the trade embargo that currently limits how much wheat, corn, beef and pork can be sold to our Caribbean Communist neighbors. … our delegation has long wanted to further open up Cuba’s agricultural markets to American farmers and ranchers.

…

What members of Congress want to do matters because the Helms-Burton Act of 1996 requires the trade embargo to be lifted by an act of Congress rather than by decree of the president. …

If the trade embargo were lifted, however, U.S. exports would likely double, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission.

Yeah, even though there’s an embargo, the U.S. is still Cuba’s largest supplier of food. Go figure.

To read more about that situation and the statements of SD’s 3 congressionals, click “CLICK HERE” below.

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By Denise Ross

Ethanol is never far from the front pages of South Dakota news. And the plucky little fuel that could (so far) pops up rather frequently on the national news scene, too. A few weeks ago, I wrote a newspaper column about what South Dakota’s congressional delegation is doing to advance ethanol’s cause.

When it comes to ethanol’s future, anyone who’s been paying attention knows that cellulosic ethanol - the stuff made from wood waste and grass and corn stalks rather than corn itself - is the sought-after elixir. But ethanol’s best friend is neither a promising future technology nor a letter from a member of Congress.

Ethanol’s best friend is the Renewable Fuels Standard, part of the 2007 energy bill, that requires the use of 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022.

Under that schedule, ethanol will hit a “blend wall” by 2010, ethanol production is expected to exceed demand. That is unless South Dakota’s congressional delegation finds success in its current ethanol endeavors.

(Read the full column by clicking “CLICK HERE” below.)

Since I wrote the column, ethanol has made some news nationally. Here are two examples.

First, Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., is mad at the EPA for saying that ethanol might not be so environmentally friendly.

(Peterson) said the EPA plan is prompting him to oppose any climate-change legislation that Congress may consider.

“You can’t trust them,” the Minnesota Democrat (and House Ag Committee chairman) said of the agency, which would write rules under any bill that would be passed. “I no longer have any confidence in the EPA.”

Second, a new university study has concluded that it would be more far more efficient to burn plants to create electricity than it is to turn plants into ethanol to supplant gasoline.

(A) new study shows that it would be more energy-wise and better for the environment to burn biomass in boilers and make electricity - then use the electricity to power cars.

Meanwhile, you can read about the ethanol efforts of our congressionals on the jump.

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By Denise Ross

The drama over the new Farm Bill isn’t over despite Congress passing - and re-passing - the bill this summer.

Now it appears that Congress is set to scale back funding levels laid out in the bill for conservation programs - think CRP, EQIP and the like.

My most recent newspaper column touches on an expansive list of complaints from the Environmental Working Group and re-enforced by South Dakota’s own conservationist/sportsman Tony Dean - whose media savvy quite frankly pulled a recent conference call with national ag reporters back from the brink of “Yeah, so?”

This from the column:

“Within weeks of the Farm Bill’s passage, the Senate appropriations committee sent to the Senate floor a spending bill (S.3289) that would slash conservation measures,” the EWG said in a press release.

AND …

“Most taxpayers don’t share in the benefits of the Farm Bill, but they sure are picking up the costs for cleaning up areas like the dead zone in the Gulf (of Mexico),” Dean said. “Conservation in the Farm Bill is one thing the average taxpayer gets back — good water quality, reasonably good wildlife habitat, good hunting and fishing.” 

To read more about ag-caused pollution and what Dean thinks about corn, click CLICK HERE below.

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By Denise Ross

For those of you who don’t live in Mitchell, Rapid City or the northern Black Hills, you might be blissfully unaware of the weekly newspaper column I write. (See the link in the righthand column for more details.)

I’m going to start posting them here after they’ve appeared in the Mitchell Daily Republic, the Rapid City Weekly News and the Black Hills Pioneer.

Last week, I wrote about South Dakota’s congressional delegation warning that the 17-month simulation of hell that was Congress’s work on the 2007 — make that the 2008 farm bill — is only a taste of what’s likely ahead of us. The three-member delegation appeared at the SD State Fair along with SD Ag Secretary Bill Even and Steve Cutler, the Farm Services Agency director for our state.

“It is getting increasingly difficult to pass farm bills,” Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., told the crowd. “A lot of people around the country say, ‘I hate the farm bill because it just helps subsidize agriculture.”

Yes, all you urban sophisticates, let’s plow under our nation’s food security just as we have our energy security. Gah! I will grant that the nation’s ag policy has grown dysfunctional, subsidizing much of what’s fueling our obesity problem and hardly any of what’s good for us. But to argue that ag subsidies are wrong in and of themselves is taking a blade to your own throat.

But wait, there’s more. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin warns that - as with President Bush’s infamous signing statements - the executive branch can’t be trusted to follow the laws passed by the legislative branch.

“Now that we are in implementation mode and work with all of the agencies, it’s just as important to hear from you now as when we were crafting this farm bill. We need to make sure it is implemented effectively by USDA,” she said.

Sen. Tim Johnson knows a thing or two about that.

Johnson said he is confident that, under the new farm bill, COOL will finally become a reality in the United States.

“We’re the only country in the western world that does not have COOL. … While my speech may be a bit slower, it is still faster than the USDA,” Johnson said.

To read the entire column, click “CLICK HERE” below.

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By Denise Ross

John Thune isn’t the only prominent South Dakotan backing a presidential candidate who does not love ethanol.

Sunday on Meet the Press, Barack Obama said:

(T)here’re a whole host of reasons why we’re seeing problems with food supply.  There’s no doubt that biofuels may be contributing to it.  And what I’ve said is, my top priority is making sure that people are able to get enough to eat.  And if it turns out that we’ve got to make changes in our ethanol policy to help people get something to eat, then that’s got to be the step we take.

Obama is not nearly as hostile as John McCain is, but given that Tom Daschle, early promoter of gas-ohol, is practically the architect of the nation’s ethanol policy, one must wonder how those conversations go. Daschle has strong pragmatist tendancies, so I’m guessing he would bend if it made political sense.

Read the transcript section in question on the jump, where Obama also calls ethanol “an important tool” in America’s energy policy and where you also can see video of Obama talking about suspending the gas tax.

Read the full transcript here.

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By Denise Ross

A report out this week from the National Commission on Industrial Animal Farm Production seems to be yet another reason to eye your plate with suspicion.

A panel of experts … is recommending that the United States ban the routine use of antibiotics in farm animal feed.

The Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production also proposes better tracking of diseases among farm animals, to help prevent the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria to humans.

That is from a story in the Baltimore Sun. Banning antibiotics for anything other than curing illness in animals (ie, to make them grow faster) is the commission’s No. 1 recommendation, as commissioners concluded that putting those antibiotics into the human food supply makes the human population more vulnerable to disease, as it makes the antibiotics less effective for humans and animals alike.

1. Ban the non-therapeutic use of antimicrobials in food animal production to reduce the risk of antimicrobial resistance to medically important antibiotics and other microbials.

The Hoghouse recommends reading the news reports that came out this week - the Washinton Post, the Des Moines Register, the Kansas City Star, the AP, Reuters, USA Today, Feedstuffs - if not reading the entire report itself, as this is not only the Hoghouse, this is South Dakota, where industrial animal farming is never far from the front page. (Witness the recent blockades of a tribal road in southeast SD to prevent construction of a large-scale hog operation.)

There’s more in the report about how large-scale animal operations affect rural folks like us.

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By Denise Ross

In my most recent newspaper column I wrote about the prospects for permanent drought aid, or a Disaster Title, becoming a reality. My take is that were it not for the entire Farm Bill being on the ropes, a Disaster Title would be moderately controversial but would pass.

But the entire Farm Bill is on the ropes, and, therefore, a Disaster Title is unlikely to materialize. And if not now, will there be a next time?

If the farm bill weren’t teetering on the brink, a disaster title might be one of those compromises that would pass with grumbles from those who don’t like spending the money. But with the whole farm bill more than six months behind schedule, The Washington Post reports that the House, Senate and White House have started squabbling over how to extend the 2002 farm bill provisions, making a return to 1949 farm policy more of a possibility than anyone cares to contemplate. 

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By Denise Ross

I’m putting together my weekly newspaper column (Mitchell, Spearfish, RC Weekly) about the Farm Bill, and more specifically about the would-be Disaster Title (guaranteed drought aid) that Sen. John Thune is working hard to get passed.

Writing a guarantee of those disaster payments into the Farm Bill isn’t terribly popular outside of a few enclaves. This map from the Environmental Working Group might explain why.

This map shows where disaster checks are sent almost as a matter of course - like every other year. It’s us here in SD and ND in a dramatic fashion. And now I have the Gear Daddies song African Killer Bees Are Coming running through my head. (If you squint, you can see Frank Kloucek’s dot on the map.)

The disasters waiting to happen (but not waiting long) are the Dakotas, west Texas, Oklahoma, to a slightly lesser extent Georgia and Alabama and then something’s going on in northern Arkansas.

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By Denise Ross

Is it just me, or is there a major disconnect in this new line that increased ethanol production is driving up food prices worldwide? My BS detector goes off like a 6 am alarm clock every time I hear this. Am I missing something?

Yes, corn prices are at a lofty $4 per bushel, and farmers are smiling. But guess what? We don’t eat all that corn we grow. No one eats that corn. It’s inedible. And we’ve grown enough of it in my Gen X memory that huge piles of it sit on the ground because the grain elevators are full and there’s nowhere to ship it.

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By Denise Ross

This “crop secret” report from the Chicago Tribune today reminded me of some photos Mr. Hoghouse took a few weeks ago when we visited his family in Aberdeen. And it reminded me of the farm bill hearing Sen. John Thune held in Brookings a year ago.

Crops matter. A lot.

At 3 a.m. Monday, federal officials will review intelligence so sensitive they must first surrender their laptops and cell phones to a security guard, severing all access to a curious world outside their sealed room.

Are they tracking terrorists? No. Do they know about nuclear weapons in North Korea? Definitely not. These officials work for the Agriculture Department. They will finalize their estimates of how many acres of corn, wheat, cotton, oats, barley and soybeans farmers will plant this year. …

The extreme secrecy surrounding agricultural reports dates back to 1905, when the agency discovered that one of its statisticians revealed the cotton acreage by raising and lowering window blinds …

There’s a reason corn leads the list in the second paragraph. The ethanol plant pictured below is just west of Aberdeen, and there’s a new one being finished, about a 10-minute drive west of this one, at the end of Wetonka Road. They are but two in a sea of ethanol plants in a tide that’s been doing nothing but rising during the past decade.

(Photos by David Larson)

Here’s a view of the existing plant, that’s been operating for years, and of the railyard that gave the Hub City it’s nickname way back in the day.

Below is a series of nighttime views of the plant, which is operating at night without any visible workers. I wish I had an audio recording to go with this. Imagine a lot of clanging over a bed of hissing.

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