| 1 Bush may not stop farm bill WASHINGTON — Key farm bill negotiators have scheduled a news conference Thursday to release details of a new farm bill amidst signals that President Bush's lack of support for the bill may not stop it from becoming law. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn., and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, both said they hope the bill will come up for a vote in their respective chambers next Wednesday. Joking about how frequently the negotiators have said the bill was finished, only to hold another meeting, Peterson said, "This time it is finished off." After a meeting in the Capitol Wednesday at which the negotiators made changes to the bill to make it fit within CBO scores, House Agriculture Committee ranking member Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., told reporters that President Bush had told him earlier that day he does not support the bill but that House "members need to vote their districts'" interests. "The President did not say anything about vetoing the bill," Goodlatte said. He added that Bush had said he is "still not supportive of the legislation," but had "spoken kindly" of Goodlatte's efforts to include the president's reform priorities in the bill. Bush's statement to Goodlatte essentially frees members of Congress to vote for the bill, making the possibility of a veto-proof majority in the House as well as the Senate very likely. If Bush vetoes the bill, it would take a two-thirds vote in each chamber to override. (Read more.) Return to headlines
2 Actions speak louder than words of gratitude Sometimes there just aren’t enough words to say “thank you.” Farmers and ranchers in Kiowa County, Kan., and surrounding counties and communities have spent the past year trying to find the words, but nothing can describe how grateful they are for the help their friends and neighbors offered in the wake of last May’s tornadoes. On May 4, 2007, the first recorded category EF-5 tornado demolished the town of Greensburg, Kan. For weeks following the storm the people of Kiowa, Stafford, Pratt, and other surrounding communities had to deal with the immediate clean-up of Mother Nature’s wrath. For farmers and ranchers, the cleanup efforts were monumental. Circle pivots were tossed like tinker toys. Fences were ripped apart. Cattle and livestock needed rounding up and veterinary care. Buildings and facilities required repair. And, all of it had to be accomplished before the Kansas wheat harvest. (Read more.)
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3 Meatpacker ban rejected WASHINGTON (AP)—Farm bill negotiators have rejected an attempt to prevent meatpackers from owning cattle more than two weeks before slaughter, a disappointment for ranchers in the Midwest and northern plains who have been pushing for the ban for many years. Many other parts of the massive bill—including increased subsidies for some crops, country of origin labeling for meats and a permanent farm disaster program—are favorable for the farm belt, however. Negotiators are still finalizing details of the five year, almost $300 billion bill, and the White House has signaled that President Bush may veto it. But many of the details are set, and farm groups would get much of what they asked for. “The Senate-House conference committee on the farm bill is now in the final stages of a strong, bipartisan bill that that will bring new funding and better policy in core farm bill initiatives—conservation, energy, nutrition and rural development—while continuing and strengthening farm income protection,” Senate Agriculture Chairman Tom Harkin, D-IA, said May 9. (Read more.) Return to headlines
4 USDA to buy pork for aid programs amid hog market woes WICHITA, Kan. (AP)—When Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer announced the government’s plan to buy up to $50 million of pork products for child nutrition and other domestic food assistance programs, it seemed to be a generous effort to help poor families struggling with high grocery tabs. But what the U.S. Department of Agriculture failed to mention in making the May 1 announcement was that the move was just what the National Pork Producers Council had urged Schafer to do two weeks earlier to reduce sow numbers—ultimately driving up pork prices for all consumers. Hog producers say they are facing an economic crisis caused by soaring livestock feed costs and that they need higher swine prices to survive. They say they have lost $30 to $50 on each hog marketed, amounting to more than $2.1 billion over the past seven months. (Read more.)
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5 South Korea says U.S. beef safe amid protests SEOUL, South Korea (AP)—The South Korean government tried to assuage fears Friday over the safety of U.S. beef, while thousands of people rallied in Seoul against the coming resumption of imports. Agriculture Minister Chung Woon-chun, other officials and medical experts spoke at a nationally televised news conference to head off a spate of sensational reporting since the government agreed last month to resume imports following a lengthy ban over fears of mad cow disease. “I feel it is regrettable that allegations over safety have been raised that lack a concrete scientific basis,” Chung said. “U.S. beef is safe from mad cow disease.” On May 6, a popular TV current affairs program questioned the safety of U.S. beef, even claiming South Koreans are more susceptible than Americans and Europeans to contracting a rare sickness that can result from eating beef infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Medical officials who spoke at the press conference rejected the claim. (Read more.)
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Staying hopeful