Things are happening on the farm and food front. A furious and confusing farm bill debate rages in the Senate. A completed bill for the President to sign still seems unlikely this year. When will Congress complete the appropriations bill for the President to sign? That is one thing they have to finish before adjourning. I think they'll still be here working into December.

Trade promotion authority according to House Speaker Denny Hastert is coming to a vote. We have an ongoing debate about…

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The Chairman made his case! At a luncheon yesterday I was with House Agriculture Committee Chairman Larry Combest and he laid it on the line. He acknowledged that the farm bill that he crafted, that passed the House, has been the target of critical analysis coming from not only some in the Senate but also the Bush administration.

Here is what the Chairman said: if they didn't like it, they had plenty of time to offer their ideas. They didn't. USDA could have been engaged. USDA was invited but…

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The words of Dr. Norman Borlaug -- "Here in the U. S. if we tried to product the harvest of 1999 with the technology of 1940, we would have had to cultivate 470 million more acres ofland." So you see, technology saved the forests, saved the wetlands and fed the people. In this new century, technology will once again save the day with Biotechnology. Visit the at www.whybiotech.com.

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. One year ago who would have imagined we would be at war today --…

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Hello everybody out there in farm country. The John Block Radio

Commentary is brought to you by the Council for BioTech Information.

Public opinion in Europe needs to take a new look. The European

Union's office evaluating genetically modified foods is now saying that

genetically modified foods may even be safer than regular food.

For more information, visit the Council's web site at www.whybiotech.com. And now for today's commentary ....

The Farm Bill debate becomes more interesting and confusing…

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Down on the farm. That's where I am. We're getting close to wrapping up this harvest. I was drafted into trucking corn to our grain storage facility, rode the combine with my son, checked the new litters of baby pigs, and ate more than my share of pork at our annual pig roast. All the neighbors, friends and business associates with their families bring their side dish specialties. The band plays as the children dance. We sit on straw bales around the big bonfires with flames leaping toward the…

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It's hard to recall but two months ago the President was talking tough about holding next year's government spending increase to 4%. The Congress was promising to protect the Social Security surplus -- a silly fictitious statement about putting the money in a lock box. That was all talk. There never has been a lock box. The surplus has been used to pay down the government debt.

All of that is behind us. With the terrorist attack, the floodgates have opened. The industries, the employee groups,…

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After weeks of focusing on terrorism, a war effort and a warm and fuzzy

bipartisan legislative process, we just might see something happen on the

farm front.

Chairman of the House Ag Committee Larry Combest is making a big push to pass a farm bill through the House. But that's only half of the process. The Senate hasn't even written a bill. But you can bet that if we get a House bill, the heat will be on the Chairman of the Senate Ag Committee, Senator Harkin, to pass a Senate bill. Failure on his…

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Just under the surface of prayer, determination and unity following the recent shocking terrorist attack, we see emerging a round of finger pointing. The blame game is beginning. I think there is plenty of blame to spread around, but I don't think you can heap it all on one agency, one department, and one person.

For more than a quarter century, the U. S. has been backing away from the dirty work of old fashioned spying. I recall clearly when I was Secretary of Agriculture and our Marine…

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This is just not the time to debate farm programs. This is a time to mourn, a time for anger, a time to unite, a time for each of us to put our priorities into perspective.

It is hard to understand how anyone, no mater how unhappy, how fanatical, how bitter at the U.S. could cut the throat of an innocent woman on an airplane, as President Bush pointed out, or could murder so many women and children. What kind of evil force do we face?

But fact it we must. U.S. flags are flying everywhere. You…

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The Council of Biotechnology brings today's commentary to you. Biotechnology Information. Right now -as I prepare these remarks I am in a hotel in Toronto, Canada. The news on TV is about a genetically modified rice just developed in Canada. It protects the rice plant against an insect that does serious damage to rice through out Asia where rice is far and away

their staple of life. Biotechnology may look risky to some, but to the hungry of Asia, they can't wait. For more information visit the…

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