Stories

Dead people are receiving farm-subsidy checks long after they’ve bought the farm.

That news created a stir this week as the 2007 Farm Bill goes up for a critical vote on Thursday amid intense scrutiny of farm-program payments.

The Government Accountability Office recently released a report showing that during a six-year period, nearly $1.1 billion was distributed [...]

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said Tuesday that the fate of the 2007 farm bill may rest in the hands of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Grassley, a Republican in the minority in the Senate, told reporters during a weekly conference call that Speaker Pelosi wants major reforms in the way that farm payments are structured, [...]

Concentration and vertical integration in agriculture have long been named as reasons the number of family farms in Iowa continue to dwindle and large corporate agribusinesses continue to merge and dominate the marketplace.

The problem may soon receive some attention, as Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley introduced a bill today aimed at addressing the problems of concentration [...]

There's a battle being waged right now in a far-off place, and just who will win the battle is difficult to predict. The outcome of this fight is likely to affect the lives of many Iowans.
No, we're not talking about Iraq. This fight is being waged in the halls of Congress, and the end result [...]

Sunday was a big day for Iowa supporters of renewable fuels with the first-ever Iowa Corn Indy 250 held at the Iowa Speedway in Newton. An estimated crowd of more than 35,000 attended the race, and a nationwide television audience watched on ABC.
Lead sponsors of the event were the Iowa Corn Growers Association and the [...]

The U.S. Senate gave the green light to a major increase in renewable fuels standards Thursday night with the passage of the CLEAN Energy Act of 2007.
The bill requires that the U.S. produce 36 billion gallons of fuel per year from renewable sources by 2022. It would also require that 15 billion gallons of [...]

That tomato you ate last week – do you know if it was grown in the United States?
Ever wonder why meat at the grocery store doesn't always have a label to tell you where the animal was raised?
Such details are expected next year, when mandatory country-of-origin labeling is implemented by the U.S. Department of Agriculture [...]

Agricultural commodity groups and food manufacturers are balking at a proposal to increase renewable fuels standards.
News reports surfaced this week about the opposition of livestock groups and manufacturers who use corn-based products to an energy bill provision being debated in Congress.A Brownfield Network article reported on Tuesday that the National Pork Producers Association and [...]

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley sent a letter Tuesday to Iowa's other senator, Tom Harkin, urging him to include a provision in the 2007 farm bill that would put a cap on federal payments to farmers.
Harkin a Democrat, is chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, which is in the midst of writing the 2007 farm [...]

U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell, D-Iowa, won approval in the House Livestock, Dairy and Poultry Subcommittee last week for an amendment that would limit the power of large agribusinesses to force arbitration in contract disputes.
The amendment is similar to legislation introduced in the Senate by Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin. Boswell [...]