Guest Blog

Committee on Agriculture Chairman Frank D. Lucas delivered the following in an opening statement at a March 10 hearing to review the impact of EPA regulations on agriculture:

“There is a reason the top issue for nearly every member of the Agriculture Committee is related to the regulatory agenda of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The reason is simple: Many members of this committee believe over the past two years the EPA has pursued an agenda seemingly absent of consideration for the consequences it would have on rural America and production agriculture.

There is much in the news today about unrest and revolution in the world. The “common man” rising up and asking: “Why do we live like this, when we have seen how others live?” The connectivity of our communication systems brings every corner of the world to our computer screens, our BlackBerrys, and our social media.

Last year, the world dairy market came back strong. U.S. suppliers enjoyed record export volumes, continuing a long-term trend that’s added up to 14 percent compound annual growth since 2003.

The importance of the export market to the health of the U.S. dairy industry is undeniable; one of every eight tankers of milk that rolls out of your driveway is turned into a dairy product that’s consumed overseas.

When I travel around the world, customers from Guadalajara to Guangzhou tell me they want to buy from the United States. I travel around America’s farm country and most folks here “get it” too.

On July 21, 2010, President Obama signed the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Title VII of the Act, entitled “The Wall Street Transparency and Accountability Act,” amended the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) to establish a comprehensive new regulatory framework for swaps and security-based swaps.The legislation was enacted to reduce risk, increase transparency and promote market integrity within the financial system.

Editor’s note: The following opinion was submitted by the author in response to current dairy reform proposals.

The world is running out of food
Back in 1954, I was a young hired hand working for Law-nel Farms, a large (for that era), 65-cow dairy farm. The owner, Nelson Smith, was a former county agent and I was a “green” college graduate.

After milking the cows, the breakfast table was always a feast of Rella Smith’s delicious breakfast and a treasure of Nelson Smith’s conversation and wisdom.

During my first month here in Pakistan, I have drawn certain conclusions about agricultural development. In this article I write about one of them, and make the case that one of our greatest attributes in the U.S. is the Land Grant University Extension System (LGUES).