Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by 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 disappointing this week to see the Senate Democrats reject Trade Promotion Authority (TPA). Only one Democrat voted for it. Only one Republican voted against it. (How is this for strange bedfellows?) President Obama was on the side…

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Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by 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—

There is no shortage of serious issues that need to be addressed. To me, the most important one that the Congress is teeing up is Trade Promotion Authority (TPA). Last week, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hatch (Utah) and ranking Democrat…

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Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by 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—

Seven former Secretaries of Agriculture (including yours truly) (Republicans and Democrats) signed a letter supporting Trade Promotion Authority (TPA). President Obama’s Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack and the U.S. Trade…

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Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by 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—

Last year in January, I presented my wish list for 2014. Let’s take a look at how that worked out.

Wish No. 1: “Get a farm bill passed.” To my surprise, we did.

Wish No. 2: “Deal with our immigration problem.” Well, the Congress didn’t, but…

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Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by 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—

Gary Baise, Illinois farmer and trial attorney at Olsson Frank Weeda Terman Matz PC, writes: “California judge dismisses case that could devastate ag in every state.” Devastate ag in every state.” What is this all about?

California…

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Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by 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—

Country of origin labeling (COOL) violates the trade rules of the World Trade Organization. WTO has ruled, for the second time, that the legislation which became law in 2002 as part of our farm bill is illegal and discriminates against Mexico…

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Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by 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—

Turn back the clock to year 2002 and, that year, the farm bill added COOL (country of origin labeling) for meat. That has been a problem for the last 12 years. Consumer groups argue that they have a right to know where their meat comes from…

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Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by 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—

The August crop report confirms what we already knew. We are going to harvest a very big corn crop and soy beans are not far behind.

Not surprising, the price of corn is bouncing around at a level that could result in government safety net…

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Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by 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 started planting corn this week on our Illinois farm. It is always exciting to begin a new season. A lot of people depend on the U.S. farmer; not only our own citizens, but we export almost 30% of what we produce, feeding people all over…

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Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by 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’m starting to get excited about planting season – maybe 10 days or 2 weeks away. This has been a tough winter. Makes it hard to get very much done. As I’m sure you are aware, they haven’t been getting much done out here in Washington…

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