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’s official. It just turned summer this week. That’s what the calendar says. My corn and soybeans are all planted – just in time.

I picked up the Washington Post newspaper today and on the front page is this long article…

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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—

Here we are again, trying to get a farm bill passed. We have been operating under an  extension of the old bill for the last year. Since I served as Secretary of Agriculture, the  Congress has passed a new farm bill every 5 years. Although…

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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 week, I talked about the farm bill and prospects for passage. This week, I want to focus on a series of current issues. These are my thoughts:

Immigration Reform – We desperately need to get it done. If we don’t, who’s going to milk the…

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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—

For more than a year now, the Congress has worked on a new farm bill, in fits and starts,  but has never been able to get it together. We are farming now under an extension of the old bill.  I think that, at long last, we are positioned to…

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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— 

At long last, the U.S. debt is front and center in the spotlight. We had gone 4 years without the Democratic Senate even passing a budget. In that timeframe, the Republican House did their legal obligation by passing budgets each year. Of…

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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—  

What to talk about today? I don’t know. Let’s start with horse slaughter. Look back to 2007. At that time, horse slaughter was effectively barred when Congress cut off funding for horse meat inspectors. Before that time, we were processing…

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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 celebrated Ag Day this week. Secretary Vilsack did an outstanding job of making the case for our industry at a dinner held in the Atrium of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Barry Nelson (John Deere) provided the welcome, Orion Samuelson…

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Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by the Renewable Fuels Association, 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— 

Do you know where to look for the poster child of government dysfunction? You don’t have to look very hard. Just look down the street in your little town, in your community. I’m talking about the Postal…

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Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by the Renewable Fuels Association, 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— 

EPA cannot bring itself to leave farmers alone. Lois Alt, a West Virginia chicken farmer, has spent months fighting off the demands of EPA that her poultry operation had to have a clean water discharge permit.…

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Hello everybody out there in farm country. This is Rick Frank sitting in for John Block. This radio commentary is brought to you by the Renewable Fuels Association, 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—

Just last week, marking the second anniversary of Congress’s passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act, FDA proposed comprehensive regulations for the growing,…

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