On Wednesday, January 10, I was surprised to read in the Washington Times newspaper that on the eve of his retirement as Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman established seven advisory councils to provide "ongoing advice" to USDA employees who are members of protected classes. I thought to myself, "What does all this mean? If these councils were so important, why didn't Secretary Glickman appoint them when he was Secretary? Unless he simply felt that Secretary Veneman needed them worse than he…

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The Congress had a week back home in the country to listen to their constituents. We listened to them just before they headed to the country.

The Senate Ag Committee hearing didn't do very much to clarify what we're looking forward to in terms of farm policy. I was in a meeting with Secretary Veneman last week and she wasn't able to shed much light on this complicated question.

She seemed to be saying that we need policy that takes into consideration the whole food chain -- farmer to consumer --…

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