Free Republic

The public choice school of economics describes how the government and special interests collude against the public good, and it's hard to think of a better model than the ethanol industry. Despite opposition from an emerging left-right anti-boondoggle coalition, the Senate version of the White House-GOP tax deal preserves the corn fuel's multiple subsidies. One measure of ethanol's political clout is that reformers merely hoped to cut the tax credit for blending ethanol into gasoline to 36 cents per gallon from the current 45 cents that was due to expire at the end of the year. Instead, the deal keeps...

This past Tuesday, Nov 30th, the Democratically-controlled lame-duck House passed the $1.2 billion Black Farmer’s Settlement funding known as Pigford II. The previous week the bill had passed the Senate with assurances of strict measures to protect the taxpayers against the rampant fraud that has been widely documented from multiple sources in both the media and government. The bill passed the House 256-152, and is now headed to President Obama to sign: the man who single-handedly introduced the Pigford II legislation in 2007 to curry favor with rural black Southern voters, to which he was trailing significantly to then front-runner...

"It is not a good policy to have these massive subsidies for (U.S.) first generation ethanol," said Gore, speaking at a green energy business conference in Athens sponsored by Marfin Popular Bank. "First generation ethanol I think was a mistake. The energy conversion ratios are at best very small. Gore: "It's hard once such a programme is put in place to deal with the lobbies that keep it going. One of the reasons I made that mistake is that I paid particular attention to the farmers in my home state of Tennessee, and I had a certain fondness for the...

Between 950 and 1,000 dead pigs were found Monday on a Fulton County farm where they had apparently been abandoned months ago to die of starvation.M Humane Society Police Officer Dennis Bumbaugh said he has never seen anything like it before. He said the incident may be the largest of its kind in Pennsylvania's history. "I was horrified when I opened the door and saw what I saw," he said during a phone interview Tuesday. Bumbaugh was on his way to the Union Township farm of Daniel and Kerron Clark to begin counting the carcasses and assessing the evidence. The...

PULASKI COUNTY, Mo. (Oct. 26, 2010) — Staff members for Vicky Hartzler’s congressional campaign to unseat U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton announced Monday that they’ve appointed three Fourth District residents, including Dixon rancher Charles Bassett, to serve as leaders of the campaign’s “Farmers and Ranchers Coalition.” Other members are Brent Heid of Hartzler’s hometown of Harrisonville and Dwayne Schad of Versailles. Bassett, who is the father-in-law of State Rep. David Day of Dixon and a relative of incoming county clerk Brent Bassett, has run a cow-calf operation for nearly 50 years, has known Hartzler for nearly a decade, and was an...

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering a crackdown on farm dust, so senators have signed a letter addressing their concerns on the possible regulations. Many in the Oklahoma farming industry are opposed to the EPA's consideration. One farmer said the possible regulations are ridiculous. Roberts, a fourth generation farmer and rancher in Arcadia, said regulating dust in rural areas will hurt farmers' harvest, cultivation and livelihood. "Anytime you work ground, you're going to have dust. I don't know how they'll regulate it," Roberts said. "The regulations are going to put us down and keep us from...

If there are only 39,697 African-American farmers grand total in the entire country, then how can over 86,000 of them claim discrimination at the hands of the USDA? Where did the other 46,303 come from? Now, if you’re confused over what the heck I’m even talking about, let’s go back to the beginning of the story: Pigford v. Glickman In 1997, 400 African-American farmers sued the United States Department of Agriculture, alleging that they had been unfairly denied USDA loans due to racial discrimination during the period 1983 to 1997. The farmers won the case, known as Pigford v. Glickman,...

Here's the video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_xCeItxbQY And here's the link to what Andrew Breitbart had to say about it - http://biggovernment.com/abreitbart/2010/07/19/video-proof-the-naacp-awards-racism2010/ In a nutshell, a US Gov appointed official is on tape saying “The first time I was faced with having to help a white farmer save his farm, he took a long time talking but he was trying to show me he was superior to me. I know what he was doing, but he had come to me for help. What he didn't know while he was taking all that time trying to show me he was superior to me...

Algae. "Bio-fuel." After your latest prayer for God's solution to the Gulf catastrophe, please get comfortable in your chair and peruse this. You may wish to read this more than once and to read the linked documentation. And lest you think JoAnne and her friends are nutty, I have spoken with her and, for example, asked her if she believes the Deepwater Horzon gusher was started intentionally. And what did she say? "I don't know." Do you? I.O. does not suggest that the grand plan is to make one vast algae farm of the Gulf of Mexico, but mega-manipulators, mega-racketeers,...

"It's a perverse use of eminent domain," says Brian Rainville. “There is no public good here." He stood on a green field, filled with alfalfa and grass, on the gentle rolling hills of his family's Franklin, Vermont farm… just steps from the Canadian border. He says the barn dates back to 1800, and the land is on the national registry of historic places. But Brian’s family, who have been dairy farmers here since 1946, may not have the land much longer. The United States Government says it needs 4.9 acres of the family’s property to help protect national security. The...

My brother found this deer alone and malnourished when it was a tiny baby. My family bottle fed the baby, named Theen until he was eating grass. Several months later he's very socialized with people, our black lab, and our cats. He is free to wander if he likes and we've seen him with several herds of whitetail and axis deer. Apparently he fits in just fine with them. He frequently comes back to the house to eat some catfood and play with our dog, Buddy. He doesn't care much for deer corn.

The next time you're at a grocery store, let the cashier ring up the sale. Then try to bargain for a better deal. Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? After all, just a handful of retailers sell more than half of all the groceries in the United States, and an individual shopper has very little power to negotiate. That same imbalance of power is a real problem for farmers and ranchers in the United States. Farmers are proud of their independence, but having millions of growers bartering separately puts them at a real disadvantage in the marketplace. That is why they banded...

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/February/10-at-182.html NOTE: The following text SNIPPET is a quote: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, February 23, 2010 Department of Justice and USDA Workshops to Explore Competition and Regulatory Issues in the Agriculture Industry to Begin March 12 in Iowa Initial Workshop to Be Held in Ankeny, Iowa, at Des Moines Area Community College, FFA Enrichment Center WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today the agenda and panelists for the first joint public workshop, which will be held on March 12, 2010, in Ankeny, Iowa, to explore competition and regulatory issues in the agriculture...

WESTON, Fla. -- Authorities are investigating a traffic crash in which a truck full of goats, pigs and chickens crashed into another vehicle, killing one person and several animals.The Florida Highway Patrol said the crash happened Monday night in Broward County, about 15 miles north of Weston, when a flatbed truck jackknifed and was struck by another vehicle. The driver of the second truck was killed, and dozens of animals thrown onto the road. Some of the livestock escaped into the Everglades, and investigators fear they could become a road hazard. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

Spc. Courtney Brown, Delta Troop, 3/73 Cav., 1st BCT, 82nd Airborne Div., drives one of the tractors delivered to Iraqi farmers, Dec. 22, in Sununi. Photo by Spc. Crystal Witherspoon, 3rd Infantry Division. FOB MAREZ — To help them reap a bountiful harvest next season, U.S. Soldiers here recently delivered two large tractors and two mid-size combines to local farmers in Sununi. Because farming, a very essential contributor to Sununi's economic success, has been rather hard for the workers due to a lack of farming supplies, the U.S. State Department’s Provincial Reconstruction Team here has been making plans since September...

LOS BANOS, Philippines (AFP) – Asian rice farmers typically do not fly around the world on holidays or own big-engine cars but scientists say they have an important role to play in helping cut the world's output of greenhouse gases. While much of the globe's focus in the climate change fight is on the burning of fossil fuels and the logging of rainforests, water-logged rice paddies are also a major source of global warming-causing methane. > About 10 percent of the methane comes from rice farming, while other sources include the flatulence of cows and decomposing landfill garbage dumps. Wassmann...

Most businesses in Indiana applaud the new tax caps. However, there is one industry in the state that has said no to their elected officials. The farmers of Indiana are rallying against the proposed caps. They say the caps, as listed in the bill, are unfair...

After soaring in 2007 and again in 2008, farm income has plunged in 2009 with little improvement expected in the next few years. A 30% drop in 2009 farm income is projected by the US Agriculture Department. Except for recession in 2002, this will drop the constant dollar value of farm income back to the level of the early 1980s when the farm crisis was headline news. The relatively strong economies and construction markets in the plains states in the last few years were due largely to soaring farm income. But these states are at a high risk of lagging...

It's no secret that many times the federal government can spend your tax dollars in ways that might leave you scratching your head or even make you angry. But wait until you hear what I-Team Investigator Stephen Stock dug up and who is getting your money now. William Roderick Kent was 87-years-old when he died. He now rests in a mausoleum at Woodlawn Park Cemetery North along Miami's 8th Street. Kent lived in a nice home in Coconut Grove. He owned property throughout South Florida, including a place in multi-story building in Coral Gables. So why -- even two years...

The crispness is in the air and frost has already been on the pumpkin this fall. It's harvest time in Indiana. But for farmers, this has not been a good year. A shortened planting season because of rain is now mixed with a late harvest because of rain. Some reports have the moisture content as high as 35 percent in some areas. This has posed a problem for the wheat industry in Indiana.