I have so many things that I want to talk about today that I don't know where to start.

First, the 3 biggest food or ag stories of 2003. I rate obesity first -- above Mad Cow coming in second. We watched fat people run to big money grabbing trial lawyers trying to blame the food industry. As if the food industry made the guy eat all those Big Macs. Peter Jennings in a one hour documentary in December jumped on the American farmers for growing too…

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Let me try to understand this picture. More than 40 years ago President Kennedy had a very scary stand-off with Fidel Castro. Soviet missiles in Cuba threatened the U.S. Communism was on the march around the globe. In the 60's we lost thousands of our brave troops in the jungles of Vietnam fighting communism. At that time the brutal communist dictator Mao Tse Tung of China was pushing his brand of communism throughout Asia. Those were tense times.

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Newspapers and television are trumpeting the loss of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. President Bush plans to launch a new job creation program.

I think this whole issue needs to be put in perspective. We are struggling to come out of a stubborn recession -- although not a deep recession. The unemployment rate is 6.1 % -- not a very high rate in historic terms. I was in Europe three weeks ago where unemployment from Germany, to France, to Spain is 10%…

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We are not alone. It is so comforting to know that so many other people have the same problem as we do. Misery just loves company. As a society, we are getting fat, but we have company. Germany is right there with us -eating and drinking, drinking and eating. One third of all German teenagers are overweight. While they may be eating potatoes and gray in Germany, in Greece they're chowing down on the Mediterranean diet and find that 70% of men and women are…

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I can look out of my office window here in Washington, DC and see the White House. Looking south and reaching toward the sky is the Washington Monument. Decisions are made here that affect the lives of people all across the country -and even in other countries. Ask Saddam Hussein.

I f you stand and watch the process of democracy in action, you realize how messy it can be. The Congress is in constant conflict. Republicans versus Democrats.…

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At this time of year, all I can think about is, "Will I get the rain at the right time to make this crop?" Oh, yes, I am also a cheerleader for the hog market. While our focus is on the growing crops and livestock, there are some other very strange and significant things happening a little further down the food chain.

The blame that the food industry is getting for the so called obesity epidemic is deafening. Law suits have been flying all around,…

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It's time we made the elimination of the death tax permanent. We shouldn't have to die in year 2010 to avoid the tax. The tax is unfair and, by a nine to one margin, American voters agree. One third of small businesses today will have to sell outright or liquidate a part of their business to pay the tax. Seventy percent of family businesses do not survive to the second generation. Eighty-seven percent do not survive the third generation.

If there…

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Sitting beside the Chairman ofthe House Ag Committee is a good

place to get the latest information of what the U.S. Congress may have in

mind for American agriculture. Chairman Bob Goodlatte was very direct in

speaking to our small luncheon group this week. Here is what he said:

(1) Acknowledging that the farm bill is not perfect, he still said a high priority for him and the Ag Committee is to protect the bill from those that…

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Let the food fight begin! After patiently waiting until the war in Iraq was concluded, the U.S. finally filed suit challenging the legality of the European Unions five year blockade of genetically modified food products. Five years ago Europe closed the door on genetically modified crops arguing that their safety was suspect. The ban was illegal then and it is today.

Hiding behind an unjustified safety claim, Europe spent six years studying the safety of genetically modified crops.…

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Mad Cow Disease in Canada. Beef importers around the world, including the U.S., have closed their borders to Canadian beef After Europe went through a devastating costly slaughter of thousands of cattle, and felt their farming economy take a "body blow," costing billions-just hearing the words "Mad Cow" creates hysteria.

Let's take a more rational look at this disease. Mad Cow is more accurately called BSE which stands for three words that I am not even going to try and pronounce. To begin,…

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