Food, Farm and Financial News From Washington DC

Archive for May, 2008

Washington DC -May 27- USDA Secretary Ed Schafer has announced that USDA has authorized certain acreage enrolled under the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to be available for hay and forage after the primary nesting season ends for grass-nesting birds.

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Washington DC -May 26- U.S. Representative Nick J. Rahall (D-West Virginia) spoke at the City Club of Cleveland where he declared the rush to food-based ethanol a faulty energy policy that is contributing to worldwide hunger and dangerous international unrest.

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Washington DC -May 26- Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) continued to encourage Iowans to fight back against a D.C.-hatched attack on ethanol.

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Washington DC -May 14- The U.S. House of Representatives has approved the conference report for the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, a groundbreaking bill that invests in improved nutrition, conservation, renewable energy and farm programs and includes significant reforms.

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Washington DC -May 14- Following is a statement from USDA Secretary Ed Schafer regarding House passage of the Farm Bill Conference Report.

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Washington DC -May 13- NACD President John Redding , a cotton, peanut and pine tree producer from Monroe, Georgia, today issued the following statement as Congress considers the 2008 Farm Bill Conference Report:

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Washington DC -May 13- The House Agriculture Committee has released an extensively detailed Farm Bill report that Conference Committee members agreed to last week.

The Farm Bill report can be viewed at:

http://agriculture.house.gov/inside/2007FarmBill.html

Washington DC -May 13- Tight supplies and strong demand mean prices for corn and soybeans are likely to remain high for the foreseeable future, according to American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) economic analysis of two recent government reports.

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Washington DC -May 13- The U.S. Cattlemen’s Association (USCA) said Monday that while the House and Senate Farm Bill Conference Committee voted down key provisions that included meaningful competition reform, language remains intact that supports the full implementation of mandatory country of origin labeling (COOL) and interstate meat commerce by state-inspected processing plants.

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Washington DC -May 9- Following is a statement from USDA Secretary Ed Schafer regarding new Farm Bill legislation being put to the vote next week in Congress: 

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Washington -May 9- Following is a statement from American Farm Bureau President Bob Stallman regarding the bipartisan farm bill package agreed to by House and Senate negotiators:

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Washington DC - May 8 - Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry and of the Senate-House conference committee on the new farm bill, today announced a final farm bill conference agreement with principal negotiators at a press conference on Capitol Hill.  The agreement will lead to a formal conference report, which will then be passed by the Senate and House before being sent to the White House.

Following are excerpts of Harkin’s remarks at the press conference followed by a detailed summary of the Farm Bill.

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Washington DC -May 8- Members of the U.S. House-Senate Farm Bill Conference Committee today moved one step closer to approving a farm bill. Principle negotiators announced they have reached an agreement on the new farm bill.

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Washington DC -May 6- The mandate by Congress to utilize a key food ingredient as the dominant input for biofuels has inextricably coupled food to fuel prices, driving up costs for consumers and affecting the economy, said AMI President and CEO J. Patrick Boyle in testimony submitted to the House Energy and Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality.

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Washington DC -May 6- National Farmers Union was part of a coalition of 13 organizations in a letter sent to Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer and Ranking Member James Inhofe outlining a number of principle priorities within federal climate change legislation.

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