I just love it! It makes me feels so good. No, I'm not talking about the farm bill -- although I want to review that next week. I am talking about the exciting, inspiring, beautiful experience of being down on the farm when the seed goes in the ground. I just returned from smelling the fresh spring air, the newly worked soil. It has a special smell to it. Watch the planter go back and forth, back and forth across the blanket of black land.

Maybe someone that doesn't appreciate the whole…

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After weeks, in fact months, when it seemed as if nothing would get done in the Halls of Government that would help agriculture -- suddenly the logjam is broken. We have a farm bill that I'm sure the President will sign. The Senate passed an energy bill that must be conferenced with the House. The differences are big, but in a lunch with Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel, he is optimistic that the differences can be bridged.

Senator Daschle had said earlier "only over my dead body will I allow the…

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I am back from Ukraine, a rural nation struggling to recover from the hangover from communism. It does have great agriculture potential but before you become concerned that we are talking about another Brazil, I don't think so. They have so much pent-up demand for meat -- pork, beef and poultry -- that they can crank up their grain production quite a bit before it would start to spill over into the world market. Time will tell, but it is a lot better to have them as a friend and not paI1 of the…

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Today's commentary may be from Washington, DC but next week I will be talking to you from the Ukraine. The Annual Convention of the Citizens Network for Foreign Affairs will be held in Kiev, the Capitol City.

The Citizens Network is a non-profit organization that I have been a part of for over 10 years. Our objective is to encourage U.S. investment and trade in the former Soviet states, introducing Democracy and free market principles.

I will be moderating one of the panels, hoping to enlighten…

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It seems like once a week the liberal Washington Post paper editorializes, arguing for the Congress to roll back the tax relief that the Congress passed last year. The liberals that want to spend your money just keep whining. The center piece of that tax relief is the elimination of the death taxes. It is the cruelest tax that we Impose.

Imagine this: Farmer Brown suddenly arrives in the Promised Land. He is sitting on a cloud watching the greedy government prepare to confiscate the farming…

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I didn't think it would ever happen. Red Cavaney, President of the American Petroleum Institute, spoke at the National Ethanol Conference. Here is what he said: "The new commitment we've made to understanding each other will not only benefit both our industries but the American consumer as well. We have embarked on a new era together -- an era of great promise."

It's historic. The petroleum industry and the renewable fuels industry -- shoulder to shoulder. Over the last 20 years, the two have…

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We have been struggling with low farm prices for several

years now. We simply need more demand. You increase demand

by opening markets.

In spite of the fact that China continues to be criticized for human rights violations, despite the fact that china held our military personnel prisoners last year after our plane went down on their soil, we still trade with China. We worked hard to bring China into the World Trade Organization. Engagement with China is the correct policy. And then, of course, you…

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We've spent a lot of time and energy on trade disputes with Europe, including hormone beef and biotech crops. But we have a big problem now much closer to home.

On January 1 the Mexican government imposed a 20% tax on corn sweetener used in soft drinks. Mexico is our third largest agricultural export market and expected to surpass Canada in a couple of years. The Mexican action is costing u.S. corn farmers in two ways. Corn that is exported to Mexico to be processed into com sweetener and com…

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The Washington Post lead editorial calls it the "Mother of All Pork." I'm talking about the farm bill. The Post draws no distinction between the House Bill or Senate -- it's all pork. The negative publicity that this farm bill has received makes farmers look like a bunch of beggars crying for government handouts. It is publicity like this that can really hurt farmers' image. The public likes us, but the public could change its mind too.'

A quick farm bill -- smooth sailing -- bi-partisan would…

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My farm in Illinois is a centennial farm. It has been in the family for more than 100 years. There are thousands of family farms in the United Stated and all over the world, in fact, that have been built through blood, sweat and tears over many generations.

What would you think if you got up some morning and down on the south forty, where your grandfather plowed with horses and picked corn by hand, you saw hundreds of squatters talking over your family farm? They have built junk shelters. They…

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