After I got embryos in my recip cows and everything out to grass I blinked and summer was gone.  If I sit back and reflect on, where did summer of 09 go, there really are only two things that stand out to me.  I played golf for the first time and, our political climate.

My golf game is nothing to write about.  So I guess a highlight of my summer would be the opportunity to go lobbying in D.C. and town hall meetings.  At only thirty-two years of age I know I haven’t seen a lot, but this political climate is unreal.  I just can’t seem to comprehend how we can have so many bills that seem to be anti agriculture.  Two that really bother me are Cap and Trade, and the Food Safety Act.

I’m sure by now most everyone is familiar with Cap and Tax.  Notice that I referred to it as a tax.  When this bill was first introduced into the House it was called Cap and Tax.  Then they decided they had “sexy” up  the name of it and it eventually became the Climate Change bill.  We all know that this bill will raise energy costs in this country.  I heard recently that there is an amendment that will be added to this bill in the Senate that will enact a tariff  on goods from countries that don’t follow our lead on this.  The only reason that I can think of that they would do this is because they know the cost of goods will go up domestically and they need to level the playing field for goods coming from India and China.  So if tires are made in China, just imagine the cost of the next set you’ll have to buy for your truck.

Now living in southeast Nebraska I am right in the middle of farmer country.  Some folks here actually believe that Cap and Tax will make them wealthier.  They think that their carbon credits will be worth more, and the cost of their commodities will go up.  Now there are a few words in the bill that may make some ineligible to participate in the Cap side.  If you already are using best management practices , what can you do that is “additional” to that?  Is there really anything that we do in agriculture that is “permanent”?  And as far as commodities going up because your input cost going up, forget it.  One thing I learned years ago is that our markets will do what they want, when they want, because they can.  I can illustrate this point by looking back a few years.  Corn was under three dollars, and diesel was under two dollars, and we had dollar thirty dressed bids.  Last year corn went over six dollars and diesel over four.  So if the concept of the price of our product going up were true we should have had dressed bids of two sixty, instead of one fifty.

The Food Safety Act , in my opinion is probably one of the worst bills ever written.  I read the full text of the House version and it is by no means a food safety bill.  The very first thing that stood out to me was the language.  In this bill they refer to food as being manufactured, not produced.  This bill also would suggest that they would like to combine USDA’s and FDA’s food safety activities into one department under the Department of Health and Human Services.  We’ve seen mergers such as this have all kinds of problems in the past. This bill also sets a very dangerous precedent on issues such as on-farm inspection, criminal penalties, fees for service, mandatory recall, and quarantine. It mentions standards for manure use, employee hygiene, sanitation and animal control. Last thing guys,  there was a spot in there where it talked about limiting or restricting the movement of food.  That’s a lot of ground to cover.

After one of our Senator’s town hall meeting I stuck around to discuss these issues with his staff.  When every one else was there to discuss health care reform, I’m certain that I made an impression.  I told them my story and how these two bills will have a huge impact on my operation, and possibly make it impossible to bring the next generation into the operation.  I would urge all of you to take just a few minutes and call or email you senators and tell them how these bills will affect you.  Really the bottom line could be this, to control Carbon and food, is to control life.