Ethanol boom continues to advance
In his opening address to the 11th National Ethanol Conference Feb. 21, Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen declared loudly and proudly that “ethanol has arrived.
Farm and Food File
Animal ID compelling, not convincing
When the USDA announced the discovery of the nation’s first mad cow in late December 2003, consumers and ranchers were met by a government search-and-destroy blitz worthy of war.
A knucklehead trade strategy
Lawyers are fond of noting there are only three courtroom strategies to pursue in any legal case. First, if the facts favor your client, argue the facts.
More food labeling, not less, is needed
Given the sad state of affairs in today’s affairs of state – record federal budget deficits, record trade deficits, illegal domestic eavesdropping, the sale of key U.
Numbers predict an up-and-down year
When March arrives like a lamb, the old saying goes, it roars out like a lion. How then will the 2006 growing season finish if current numbers, courtesy of the USDA, show it hobbling out of the gate on weak knees and a bent back? Six months, of course, will tell the tale, but February USDA figures begin it with some opening lines that are grim – Brothers Grimm grim.
Evidence of AWB selling U.S. grain to corrupt nations is too much to ignore
A month ago this space outlined the ongoing Australian probe of AWB Ltd., that nation’s single-desk wheat exporter, and the nearly $215 million in kickbacks and bribes it paid to Iraqi officials to keep Aussie wheat flowing into Iraq between 1999 and the U.
Looking for answers to old problems
On any other day, the Jan. 23 confirmation that another BSE-carrying cow had been discovered in Canada would have rocked that nation and its Canadian beef-importing neighbor to the south.
White House proposes to slice USDA
The federal government’s annual game of fact or fiction – once known as the budget process – kicked off its nine-month season Feb.
February brought butcherin’ weather
If the weather forecast for the southern Illinois farm of my youth promised three or four cold and clear days in early February, the work forecast promised three or four days of hot and heavy hog butchering.
Sleeping dog ignores market faults
For nearly a decade, the Packers and Stockyards Administration, the USDA watchdog to ensure competitive, fair livestock markets, has been little more than a sleeping dog, according to a devastating, 36-page report released by USDA’s Office of Inspector General Jan.
