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.

Isn't it a little hard now to blame the higher food prices on com-based ethanol? All spring and summer, the food manufacturing companies pointed their finger at corn going to fule and used that as an excuse to jack up their…

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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.

This week, I was driving our combine back and forth harvesting 8 rows and watching that golden grain flow into the hopper. What fun! It was especially fun to read the monitor -- 230 bushels per acre, 24 percent moisture.…

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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.

We have too much on our plate. Everything cannot be a priority. We have a war in Iraq, a war in Afghanistan, security concerns in Asia, nuclear threat from Iran and N. Korea, a huge budget deficit, a weakened economy, energy…

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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.

How could this happen? It started with Congress pushing our lending agencies to make home loans to people with little or no money down. Their financial history was not carefully checked. Without any thought of the risk,…

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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.

Last week, I told you about the Global Financial Leadership Conference. I reviewed the points made by former Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Paul Volcker.

I was on the program following…

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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.

This week, I spoke to the Global Financial Leadership Conference presented by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The featured speakers on the program were Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of Great Britain, and Paul Volcker,…

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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.

For a long time, we have been hearing the screams of anguish from consumer organizations and politicians (especially the politicians) demanding that the goverrunent fix the food safety problem.

I am here to say, yes, we can…

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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.

As great as our country is and as effective as our system of government has been, I begin to wonder sometimes -- can it be sustained?

Candidates for the House, candidates for the Senate, and for President -- they promise…

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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.

Last week, I was in the "heartland," on the farm in Illinois, walking in the corn fields, checking population and ear size. I was also in Western Iowa where the corn and soybeans could make a record yield. I don't know if…

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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.

Back from Europe. I was in Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxemburg, and Germany the last 10 days, riding a bicycle through the picturesque countryside. Beautiful, manicured fields of wheat, corn,…

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