They're called "hearings," but in political parlance they're really not much more that jaw-boning sessions and photo opportunities. These are little more than gab fests put together by the Obama administration to bad mouth "Big Ag."
First, let's get one thing straight. There are plenty of agric ...
Thursday, March 18, 2010 9:09 AM
Editorial
Sugar beet growers in the Northwest and California are breathing a little easier now that U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White has refused to issue a temporary injunction banning planting of genetically modified seeds this season.
A little easier for this season, at least.
In 2 ...
Thursday, March 18, 2010 8:57 AM
The president's 2010 budget proposal calls for canceling NASA's Constellation program to return astronauts to the moon by 2020. In these tough economic times it is harder to justify sending astronauts into space.
Agriculture is earthbound for the foreseeable future. There's no need to wor ...
Thursday, March 18, 2010 9:00 AM
Most Oregonians believe we are blessed with a clean and abundant water supply because of our world-renowned rainfall and snowpack. The reality is this luxury is not enjoyed by all Oregonians. It is time for Oregon to develop and adopt an integrated water strategy that secures Oregon's water fu ...
Thursday, March 18, 2010 9:01 AM
Climate change not yet proven
Hopefully, we have reached a point where an honest, nationally televised debate about global warming -- recently renamed climate change -- will be held. Many Americans have realized that the concept initially thrust upon us as proven or settled science is far from ...
Thursday, March 18, 2010 9:08 AM
Editorial
The most frustrating thing about the Endangered Species Act is that it precludes bureaucrats and judges from taking into account hardships that efforts to protect species can impose on humans.
But don't take our word for it.
U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger probably knows ...
Saturday, March 13, 2010 9:10 AM
The status of the sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act is officially confusing.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's "warranted but precluded" finding seems contradictory: The sage grouse deserves to be on the list of threatened or endangered species -- but it's not in enough dang ...
Saturday, March 13, 2010 9:10 AM
Editorial
Good economic news is sparse these days. While farm bankruptcies jumped and the Farm Credit System charged off about $500 million in bad debt last year, Jamie Stewart, president and CEO of the Federal Farm Credit Banks Funding Corp. said, "We're not seeing an accelerating problem."
...
Saturday, March 13, 2010 9:10 AM
Editorial
There are times when just saying "no" isn't enough. We hope that's where the House Agriculture Committee is coming from.
Last week the committee rejected a package of cost-saving policy changes proposed in the Obama administration budget. The changes would have modified the cur ...
Saturday, March 13, 2010 9:10 AM
By now it is obvious to almost everyone that food politics has captured center stage.
Invite best-selling author Michael Pollan to a university campus and it stirs enormous controversy.
A student writes a column in the school newspaper about the influence a corporate donor has on h ...
Saturday, March 13, 2010 9:10 AM
Editorial
We await today two decisions that could have major consequences for agriculture in the West.
In California, a federal judge is hearing arguments from plaintiffs who want a temporary order barring farmers from planting Roundup Ready sugar beet seeds and sugar companies from proces ...
Saturday, March 06, 2010 9:08 AM
that growers need assurances of at least 30 percent to get bank financing.
In the wake of the bureau's announcement, Feinstein said she would hold off attaching to a federal jobs bill an amendment that would require the allotments be increased. The wording of that amendment has never been rele ...
Saturday, March 06, 2010 9:08 AM
Put import puzzle together
I recently heard that the Northwest dairy industry is trying to develop a supply-management program. This idea is older than most of the farmers. Might I suggest they look at the possibility that this industry, like textiles, steel, shoes, automobiles and others, has ...
Saturday, March 06, 2010 9:08 AM
Editorial
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the former mayor of San Francisco and California's senior U.S. senator, is taking a pounding. On Feb. 12 she proposed to legislatively increase the amount of Central Valley Project water delivered south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in time of drought.
...
Saturday, February 27, 2010 10:09 AM
The stagnant economy provides fertile ground for sowing discontent. Conservatives blame the liberals, who blame the conservatives; the haves and the have-nots blame each other; and talk radio and blogs grow ever more heated in their discourse.
When the Washington State Farm Bureau gathere ...
Saturday, February 27, 2010 9:09 AM
Editorial
Growers of Roundup Ready sugar beets, whose crop is tied up in a lawsuit over how the government approved it, can find some solace halfway around the world.
In India, the government first approved a biotech eggplant. Then, last week, it put the decision on an indefinite hold and ...
Saturday, February 27, 2010 10:09 AM
Editorial
We're all for the federal government adopting policies that will boost domestic employment. But recent changes the administration announced in the H-2A guest worker program will do nothing to put more American citizens to work, and will do a lot to complicate the lives of farmers who ...
Saturday, February 27, 2010 10:09 AM
' guest contributor Bruce Colbert in his piece titled "Klamath farmers take heed of Metropolitan" (Feb. 12).
He made many extremely valid and important points, which really hit home with us. We are heeding his warnings, as are many of our neighbors.
However, we have a real uphill battle ...
Saturday, February 27, 2010 10:09 AM
has bought into the anti-Michael Pollan, us-them rhetoric. By doing this you are encouraging farmers and ranchers to keep their heads firmly buried in the sand.
Big Ag wants to kill the messenger because they do not like the message. But if that message did not resonate with everyday Americans - ...
Sunday, February 21, 2010 12:09 AM
Editorial
The good news is the federal government has abandoned its plan to impose a mandatory National Animal Identification System on every farm and ranch in the nation.
The bad news is the USDA could ultimately hand off the political hot potato to the states.
The goal of having an ...
Saturday, February 20, 2010 10:09 AM
Editorial
Don't look for San Luis Reservoir to fill this winter, regardless of how much rain El NiƱo-driven storms dump on Northern California. San Luis, with 2 million acre-feet of storage capacity, is the balancing reservoir near Los Banos built to even out southbound flows on the California ...
Saturday, February 20, 2010 10:09 AM
Editorial
It would be nearly impossible to tally the total value to the agricultural industry of research conducted over the years at publicly funded universities.
The product of this research runs the gamut and has provided the basis for much of what modern production farming and ranchin ...
Saturday, February 20, 2010 10:09 AM
My grandpa was a dairyman, and around the turn of the last century he bought a 160-acre farm in western Indiana.
It was typical of a lot of small farms in those days. He grew corn and forage crops on several fields, all worked with draft horses. He had hogs, and raised chickens for both t ...
Saturday, February 20, 2010 10:09 AM
By HOWARD RICHLiberty Features Syndicate
A year after it was passed, it has become painfully obvious to anyone with open eyes that the massive federal "stimulus" -- along with several other trillion-dollar government interventions in the free market -- has utterly failed to turn around Ame ...
Saturday, February 20, 2010 10:09 AM
Agreement assures future of basin
I am writing in response to an op-ed than was published on Jan. 28 regarding the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement. As a representative of the irrigation districts in the Klamath Reclamation Project and someone who has been very involved in KBRA negotiations, I ...
Sunday, March 14, 2010 12:18 AM
By making benefits to water users contingent on high water allocations, the 2010 Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement is similar to the 1994 Interim Agricultural Water Program by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Klamath Basin landowners ought to avoid repeating the process t ...
Sunday, March 14, 2010 12:18 AM