Issues of concern to Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation,

Decision 2010 – Statewide Debate Series with online viewing

kclark@wyfb.org (Kerin Clark) — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:44:31 GMT

The primary election debates for statewide elected offices will be held at Wyoming PBS on the campus of Central Wyoming College, August 9-11 and broadcast live (the debates will also be re-broadcast before the election). Click for more inforamtion on online viewing and additional debate information.

Censorship Threatens to Jam the Social Media Highway

kclark@wyfb.org (Kerin Clark) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 23:46:43 GMT

By Chris Chinn

Farmers and ranchers are telling their stories far and wide, from face-to-face meetings to harnessing the popular power of social media. Communications tools such as YouTube, a video hosting site, have helped us put our faces on American food production. As a result, more Americans are learning about modern family farms, including the values and ethics that guide us in providing exemplary care for our animals and the environment.

Kitchen Contents Bear ‘USA’ Labels

kclark@wyfb.org (Kerin Clark) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 23:46:26 GMT

By Dal Grooms

U.S. manufacturers feel much-maligned by the business press, which consistently points out technology advances and productivity increases in developing markets such as China and India. Yet the National Association of Manufacturers just released a letter it wrote to the U.S. House of Representatives noting, “The United States remains the No. 1 manufacturing economy in the world, producing 21 percent of all manufactured products” in the world.

What Congress can do for Mother Nature

kclark@wyfb.org (Kerin Clark) — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:06:34 GMT

By Lynne Finnerty

Another Earth Day has come and gone. The observance each year on April 22 is an opportunity to recognize our environmental achievements and discuss what more we should do.

The “doing more” discussion usually centers on things like intricate carbon trading schemes and federal permitting processes. Meanwhile, a simple and non-punitive means of environmental protection is staring us in the face.

When farmers and ranchers die, they typically want their children to be able to continue the farming business they have worked hard to establish. These surviving family members have grown up doing farm chores, essentially apprenticing to carry on farming and good stewardship of the land when they start their solo careers. The tradition of passing farms from one generation to the next keeps the farm in the family and sustains agricultural production.

Ag Groups Unify in Call for Immediate Estate Tax Reform

kclark@wyfb.org (Kerin Clark) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 16:14:27 GMT

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 13, 2010 – The American Farm Bureau Federation has joined with other agricultural groups in a unified call for permanent and meaningful estate tax relief for America’s farm and ranch families.

In a letter to Senate leaders, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), AFBF and 27 other organizations stated that inaction on fixing the looming estate tax challenge would be disastrous for agriculture.

AFBF Calls on Congress to Nullify EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Scheme

kclark@wyfb.org (Kerin Clark) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 19:43:33 GMT

WASHINGTON, D.C. March 31, 2010—Now is the time for Congress to nullify greenhouse gas permit requirements that were announced this week by the Environmental Protection Agency. According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, efforts under way in Congress and legal challenges undertaken by state governments are offering corrective paths to undo a very real disaster headed toward farm and ranch families.

“We believe the EPA’s greenhouse gas requirements will lead to costly and ineffective regulations on America’s farmers and ranchers,” said AFBF President Bob Stallman. “We vehemently oppose regulating carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act because we believe it will require livestock producers and other agricultural operations to obtain costly and time-consuming permits as conditions to continue farming.”

Fighting for the Wyoming Wolf Management Plan

kclark@wyfb.org (Kerin Clark) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:16:51 GMT

CHEYENNE, WY January 29, 2010- Oral argument took place today on the Wyoming wolf litigation. Attorneys for the State of Wyoming, Park County and the Wyoming Wolf Coalition upheld the validity and adequacy of the Wyoming Wolf Management Plan that was approved, and then rejected by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). A group of sportsmen and women marched to the capitol just before the hearing to demonstrate support for Wyoming's Wolf Management Plan. (The introduction to the brief filed by the Wolf Coalition prior to the hearing can be found at the end of this release.)

The Wyoming Wolf Coalition, an intervenor in the litigation, includes state and local sportsmen, outfitter and agricultural organizations, county governments and county predatory animal boards. The Coalition’s attorney is Harriet Hageman of Hageman and Brighton Law Office in Cheyenne.

WyAG On-Line Extra! Editorial: Taxpayers pay attorney fees

kclark@wyfb.org (Kerin Clark) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:58:09 GMT

ATTORNEY FEES TAX DOLLARS HAVE ALREADY DECIDED U.S. IS GLOBALLY WARMING

By Karen Budd-Falen

Although the world’s leaders may have been in Copenhagen to save the planet from global warming, the United States federal government has paid millions in tax dollars to environmental groups to litigate over global warming already. These cases are NOT about whether global warming is or is not a scientific fact, but over timelines and procedures which seem to be impossible for the federal agencies to comply with. There will never be a scientific answer from the courts that definitively determines if global warming is a well designed hoax to slow the U.S. economy or take private property rights. Rather environmental groups are filing suits over procedural failures in considering whether global warming/climate change exists, and getting paid handsomely to do it.

Misguided Meatless Campaigns

kclark@wyfb.org (Kerin Clark) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:46:49 GMT

By Stewart Truelsen

Throughout the course of history there have been attempts to get people to stop eating meat. An early advocate of a meatless diet was Priscillian, the bishop of Avila. Priscillian urged followers to renounce their marriages, stop drinking wine and avoid eating meat.

The reason he is remembered at all today, however, has little to do with the ascetic lifestyle he advocated. Priscillian also was a mystic, and he has the unfortunate distinction of being the first Christian condemned to death for heresy in the year 385 AD.

In the 19^th Century, a Protestant minister advocated a somewhat similar lifestyle. Sylvester Graham promoted a strict dietary regimen that he thought would eliminate impure thoughts. Graham’s lectures about temperance, vegetarianism and lust were ridiculed by the media of his day, but he created something you’ll find on supermarket shelves -- graham crackers.