Guest Blog

Game 6 of the 1975 World Series is ranked by many as the greatest baseball game ever. The Big Red Machine of Cincinnati with Bench, Rose and Foster took on the Boston Red Sox with Fisk and Yastrzemski. The Reds led the series by 3 to 2. A win in Fenway Park would mean they would be the world champs.

Both teams made incredible plays on offense and defense, stretching the game into the 12th inning. In the top of the 10th inning, as Pete Rose stepped to the plate, he said to Carlton Fisk, the Boston catcher, “This is some kind of game, isn’t it?”

The game ended two innings later when Fisk hammered one out of the park. The film showing him jumping and waving on his way to first base represents one of the best pieces of sports film ever made.

The recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan is heartwrenching. The enormous power of water is captured in multiple videos and photography.

One telling video shows the power of water overcoming everything in its path on the very limited farmland, the disappearing hoop structures and barns and buildings, now gone.

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.