Archive for the 'Ag & GF&P' Category
Obama on ethanol
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.
4 comments
Animal Farm 2.0
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.
No commentsDrought aid a mirage?
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?
No commentsIf 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.
Holy drought aid, Batman!
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.
2 commentsBiting off the biofuels debate
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.
Of crops, secrets and industrial development at Aberdeen
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.
2 commentsBear Butte easement bill, not dead yet?
By Denise Ross
The subject of Bear Butte and development around the state park / religiously significant landmark north of Sturgis lit up Saturday morning’s crackerbarrel meeting in Rapid City.
Most of the talk was philosophical - private property rights vs. protecting a natural treasure, but one bit of news emerged. House Bill 1275 might not be dead yet, said Rep. David Lust, R-Rapid City.
(Photos by Denise)
Lust called himself “one of the few who was not viscerally opposed to the governor’s approach.”
No commentsI think the concept will be revisited, if not this session, another session. I give credit to the governor for trying to find a resolve to this situation. … This will continue to be an issue.
I think it’s incumbent upon us to address it, either through easements, outright purchase, private purchase, private easements. I think there’s a whole host of options out there. And I think they’re all being explored.
Thune blasts Dems over Farm Bill conference committee
By Denise Ross
On his conference call Wednesday morning, Sen. John Thune, R-SD, gave his Democratic colleagues no benefit of the doubt when it comes to forming a Farm Bill conference committee.
We should be talking about how to get this done and how to get it done now.
Thune told reporters that “squabbling” between Democratic leaders of the House and Senate is causing an unnecessary delay in an already delayed “2007″ Farm Bill. In the 6 weeks since the Senate passed its version of the bill, Thune said that the chairmen of the respective House and Senate agriculture committees (both Dems) have been negotiating, and House leaders have been negotiating directly with the White House. That will only serve to delay passage of a new farm bill, he said.
1 commentThey need to announce and name conferees and do it immediately.
