Letters to the Editor

Soldier credits 4-H for building leadership skills

Editor: My days in 4-H seem so long ago, yet they are with me every day. At the time, my 4-H projects were activities I enjoyed and wanted to learn more about. Today, those lessons are exactly what I hold onto to protect myself and my country. When I started in 4-H, I didn’t really [...]

0 Comments

Keep 4-H in Morrow County

Editor: I couldn’t believe it when I was told by my mom that Morrow County was in serious jeopardy of losing its 4-H program. I was in 4-H for 10 years. As a parent, I have looked forward to the day when my daughters would get the amazing experience 4-H offers. This is how I [...]

0 Comments

Our values have consequences

Editor: In his book titled The Great Awakening, Jim Wallis relates the importance of integrity and accountability in doing what’s right and proper in finding solutions to our greatest challenges in life. Unfortunately, wrong decisions have caused chaotic proportions from our depressed economy, scandals of pork-barrel spending, the ability of special interest money channeled to [...]

1 Comment

There is no answer to your question

Editor: In his commentary, “Can’t feed the hungry without farmers,” in the March 26 issue, Denny Banister makes some very valid points. His common sense reasons for continuing direct payments to farmers with one half million dollars in annual sales include: 1. Those farms produce 75 percent of the entire U.S. food supply and we [...]

2 Comments

Americans should spend more wisely

Editor: The AIG outrage is only an extension of the outrage that has been foisted on the American taxpayer for years and years by our elected officials who use the money we send them to buy our votes — only on a larger and more visible scale. In 1967, an acquaintance of mine who lived [...]

1 Comment

Facts about the soybean checkoff

Editor: I’m writing today in regard to a recent Alan Guebert column regarding the soybean checkoff. As a long-time volunteer farmer involved with the soybean checkoff I want to provide some actual facts about the checkoff. Mr. Guebert said chekoffs are mandatory. Not quite true. Every five years soybean farmers have the opportunity to request [...]

0 Comments

Animal ID and animal welfare: Strange bedfellows

Editor: We are opposed to a mandatory National Animal Identification System, NAIS, because it will be financially devastating to the small farmer and rancher. Such a mandatory system will also further erode the rights of the small farmer/rancher guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. It is because of these concerns that we are continuing to monitor [...]

2 Comments

Where should I direct my anger?

Editor: Forgive me if I sound angry — but as I read your article, “Farmers face uphill climb in D.C.,” I have a hard time figuring out where to direct my anger. Let’s start by directing some at the political hacks at the EPA who have decided that they need to now expand their control [...]

1 Comment

Stop working, buying and selling on the Lord’s day

Editor: The question arises as to what the ordinary citizen can do regarding the economy, etc., realizing that the majority cannot comprehend the billions involved in the so-called bailout. I would suggest as ordinary citizens we could affect a tremendous difference if we would just stop working, buying and selling on the Lord’s day. One [...]

0 Comments

Are we inefficient or more conscientious?

Editor: In reference to the article titled “Obama: Cut direct farm payments” published in the March 5 issue of Farm and Dairy, I know a lot of family farmers in our area of Western Pennsylvania and just a handful make over $250,000 in annual products sold. Does that mean we are inefficient, as the article [...]

0 Comments

U.S. needs to produce, not just consume

Editor: More credit is not the answer to America’s economic problem. Consuming beyond our means is what created our dilemma. Thirty years ago, I worked part-time in a foundry in a non-union Columbiana County for $8.50 hour plus production bonus. Despite three decades of inflation, people are still working at all sorts of jobs for [...]

0 Comments

Prisons are overcrowded, not efficient

Editor, I am a Farm and Dairy subscriber and an inmate in federal prison. There was an article in your Jan. 22 issue titled “Millions behind bars at end of 2007.” One of the most telling statistics in that story read, “federal prisons operated at 136 percent capacity.” That may sound efficient but a more [...]

12 Comments

Conditions of the heart

Editor: When we stop and think about it, the conditions of our heart are determined by the experiences we encounter throughout our life span. Songs, poems, love stories reflect the joy and happiness we feel in our hearts. What blessings we receive when we finish schooling, obtain a job, meet and marry our true love, [...]

0 Comments

People need jobs

Editor: A federally funded work program is needed to put unemployed to work. Employers should register employees needed with job descriptions and skills required with the unemployment office. The unemployed would be matched to suitable jobs and sent to employers for interviews. Hired workers would be paid by federal funds for a designated period of [...]

0 Comments

Milk pricing system needs to change

Editor: In these times of plunging milk prices, it must be remembered that traders on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange who are driving down milk prices to dairy farmers nationwide are real people with real names and real motivations. There is more involved here than just the economy. This reminds me of a quote by Kenneth [...]

5 Comments

Delegates were smart to vote down Premises ID

Editor: In the Jan. 8 Farm and Dairy Letters to the Editor, Mr. McKarns recapped part of the 90th annual Farm Bureau meeting of 2008. He noted the proposal to encourage all livestock producers to register their premises in the NAIS database was voted down. I for one have to cheer the wisdom of the [...]

12 Comments

Ethanol article misses the mark

Editor: Your article on the ethanol blending barrier (Blending wall hinders ethanol industry growth, Jan. 8, 2009) was misleading on two counts. It is true that the federal government has established a 10 percent blending limit. However, Minnesota has passed a 20 percent blending rule and is applying for a federal waiver. The article also [...]

5 Comments

Reader sees glimpses of Lincoln in Obama

Editor: On Jan. 20, Inauguration Day will go down as a milestone in history. We will put into office our 44th President, Barack Obama, as our first elected African-American in the 2008 electoral landslide. Can you imagine the elation Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King would have expressed had they been here to witness this [...]

0 Comments

Livestock producers should embrace premise ID

Why is Ohio so afraid of a premise identification program?

19 Comments

Support your local Humane Society

Editor: No doubt if you watch television, this holiday season you have seen the commercial for abandoned shelter animals featuring Sarah McLaughlin on behalf of the ASPCA (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). The message is heartwrenching and compelling. Certainly, the ASPCA is a worthy cause and their efforts in the [...]

0 Comments

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