Ag is the Foundation of our Society

Ag aiding economy


By: Jerry Hagstrom, Special to Agweek

WASHINGTON — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, in a Dec. 1 news conference, highlighted recently released trade and income statistics showing agriculture leading the country out of the recession.

Vilsack said USDA forecasts that U.S. farm exports in fiscal year 2011 will set a record high $126.5 billion, exceeding the fiscal year 2008, formerly the highest level on record at $114.9 billion.

Agriculture continues to be one of the only major sectors of the American economy with a trade surplus — which is expected to be $41 billion in this fiscal year, Vilsack noted. He said the forecast “demonstrates that the demand for U.S. food and agriculture around the world is stronger than ever,” with sales surging in China, Southeast Asia, North America and the Middle East.    Read More

Agriculture truly is the foundation for our society, and that includes our economy.  All wealth comes from the ground which is why a domestically raised food supply is so critical.  The instant we start relying on someone else to grow our food our country will be in grave danger. 

Cap & Trade Would Cap Economy

Cap-and-Trade Would Slow Economy, CBO Chief Says
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 15, 2009

A House-passed bill that targets climate change through a cap-and-trade system of pollution credits would slow the nation's economic growth slightly over the next few decades and would create "significant" job losses from fossil fuel industries as the country shifts to renewable energy, the head of the Congressional Budget Office told a Senate energy panel Wednesday.

CBO Director Douglas W. Elmendorf emphasized that his estimates contained significant uncertainties and "do not include any benefits from averting climate change," but his message nevertheless contrasted sharply with those of President Obama and congressional Democratic leaders, who have suggested that a cap on carbon emissions would help revive the U.S. economy.
Elmendorf testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that the cap-and-trade provisions of the House bill -- in which emitters of greenhouse gases would be able to buy and sell pollution credits -- would cut the nation's gross domestic product by 0.25 to 0.75 percent in 2020 compared with "what it would otherwise have been," and by 1 to 3.5 percent in 2050. Read More

Beyond the scope of agriculture, cap and trade will cost our country jobs and money. It will make it more difficult for families to afford the basic necessities of food and shelter with heat and electricity. Is that the type of future we want to leave for our kids? Our forefathers worked too hard to grow this country and make it continually better for the next generation to go backwards in time.

The Cowboy Way

Cowboy Ethics and Cowboy Values
By Patrick Dorinson Political Commentator

When it comes to analyzing America’s current economic woes and how we got here, I have heard just about all the whining, navel-gazing, excuses, television talk show psychobabble, hand wringing and pundit puffery I can stomach. This is not just about lost home value or diminished 401(K)s.

In all my born days I have never witnessed a spectacle quite as ridiculous as this. America is on the psychiatrist’s couch looking for a cure to a self-inflicted problem.

The cure for this disease is not more group therapy. It is as simple and as old as America itself and it still lives in the hearts and minds of the most iconic figure in our history-the American cowboy.

For all you tenderfoots and high buttoned shoe Easterners let me try to explain.

Unlike politicians and our current crop of business “leaders”, a cowboy still makes a deal with a handshake and his word is his bond. A cowboy does not make rash decisions because the wrong decision can be the difference between life and death for him, his horse and those he works with.

And a cowboy lives by a code-a set of unwritten principles that no one has to teach him because it is instilled in him at birth. Cowboys don’t whine and stomp their feet like spoiled children as some people seem to do when the going gets tough. Read More

I saw this article posted in a couple different places late last week and I wanted to continue passing it along. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that when the nation’s ethics and values become corrupted that people look to the cowboy, agriculture, and rural America for the solution. You see, we didn’t have to read a book to learn these, it was taught to us at a very young age with the expectation that we would live our lives this way. This is what made America great in the first place. If the cowboy was every kids role model instead of athletes and celebrities, we could probably eliminate several of the problems we are seeing today.