Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by the Renewable Fuels Association, Wal-Mart Stores, Monsanto, and John Deere. They are all friends, supporters, and allies of a healthy farm economy and prosperous rural America. Thank you.

And now for today’s commentary—

We have a weak national economy with unemployment approaching ten percent but we don’t seem to take the obvious steps to improve the situation. In fact, we do the opposite. We have…

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Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by the Renewable Fuels Association, Wal-Mart Stores, Monsanto, and John Deere. They are all friends, supporters, and allies of a healthy farm economy and prosperous rural America. Thank you.

And now for today’s commentary—

I want to compliment Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack. He has been promoting renewable energy, stressing how that can mean thousands of jobs in rural America. He reminds us that a one…

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Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by the Renewable Fuels Association, Wal-Mart Stores, Monsanto, and John Deere. They are all friends, supporters, and allies of a healthy farm economy and prosperous rural America. Thank you.

And now for today’s commentary—

Let me submit to you a situation, and you can think about whether it is real or something that I just dreamed up.

As I’m sure you are aware, the U.S. is a member of the World Trade…

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Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by the Renewable Fuels Association, Wal-Mart Stores, Monsanto, and John Deere. They are all friends, supporters, and allies of a healthy farm economy and prosperous rural America. Thank you.

And now for today’s commentary—

It was a pleasure to see and talk to the delegation of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters that came to town this week. It is a good thing to come to the nation’s capital and…

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Hello everybody out there in farm country.

Here we are on the anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attack. General Petraeus has reported on the effectiveness of the troop surge in Iraq. Politicians argue and squabble over just about every challenge that our nation faces. If you listen to the national press reporting, you would gather that nothing is going right. We're headed toward certain oblivion. It may be they arc right. We can't seem to stabilize the warring factions in Iraq. We can't win…

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Hello everybody outthere in farm country.

Just back from France.My family and I bicycled in La Loire Valley for a week southwest of Paris. It was beautiful and cool. About 70° -- contrast that with the 90+° here in the U.S.

In talking to a French farmer, I found that they are about as excited about the demand for renewable fuel that has lifted farm prices as we are. We rode along bike paths with wheat fields, grape vineyards, and corn as far as the eye could see. Of course, the wheat…

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What's hot and what's not? That's a good questions. Look at the stock market as a barometer of the nation's economic health and you would have to conclude that we have a mixed bag. Although mostly on the positive side of the ledger. The old line blue chip stand-by stocks are the ones struggling.

Almost all of the food companies -- so basic to our lives -- are languishing at the bottom of the barrel. Take a look. There is IBP, ADM, Kellogg, Philip Morris, John Deere, Ag Co. Up and down the…

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The farm economy appears to be turning around ever so slightly. Farm land values have held up very nicely in the face of low farm prices keeping the U.S. farm balance sheet reasonably sound. The Asian economies are gaining strength which should help boost prices of certain select commodities. Can we put on a happy face? We want to.

Yet I just finished reading the speech that Keith Collins, USDA's Chief Economist, gave to the American farm Bureau Convention. He calls them the way he sees…

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