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Farm to Fork
with Casey Langan
07/24/12D.C. fiddles while the Midwest burnsNero played the fiddle while Rome burned. This phrase has come to epitomize those who occupy themselves with unimportant matters while neglecting priorities during a crisis. It’s an old story with a painfully real message for the present day. Instead of passing a U.S. farm bill, lawmakers in Washington, D.C., are consumed by election-year politicking and posturing. Meanwhile, the worst drought in decades is gripping the throat of the nation’s breadbasket. Right now, D.C. is fiddling while the Midwest burns. |
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04/26/12China, China, China …It was 10 years ago this month that I traveled to China as a farm reporter and member of the Wisconsin Rural Leadership Program. It’s a fascinating place, but not always for the right reasons. A decade later, not a day goes by when the mammoth nation on the other side of the globe doesn’t come up when I’m discussing agriculture as the spokesman for the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation. |
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03/21/12America’s Veggieland?Home to over 1 million cows, Wisconsin still rightfully deserves its America’s Dairyland moniker, and when it comes to crops, even a casual observer of our countryside can see that corn is king. What I’m not sure of is whether Wisconsinites realize what a player our state is when it comes to growing vegetables. |
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02/16/12Record yield AND record prices!?!That was one of the big headlines that I came away with from last month’s Ag Outlook Forum. The annual event on the UW-Madison campus is held in conjunction with the release of the annual “Status of Wisconsin Agriculture” report. |
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12/13/11Call it the “Food Bill”That would be my first recommendation for those crafting the 2012 U.S. Farm Bill . After all, 76% of the farm bill’s spending goes to nutrition, food stamps, and school lunch programs. It’s a fact that often gets overlooked by the media and the general public when criticisms are leveled against farm subsidies. The legislation is really about feeding our citizens, not just providing a safety net for farmers. Posted at 12:00 AM | Permalink |
