House Agriculture Committee Reviews The State Of The Rural Economy

Feb 12, 2015

Rep. K. Michael Conaway, Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, held a hearing to review the state of the rural economy. The hearing comes just days after the one-year anniversary of the enactment of the 2014 Farm Bill. Implementation of the law was the main topic of discussion as members of the committee asked Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, about progress.

“Right now there is a long list of challenges facing our farmers and ranchers, including rising input costs, volatile commodity prices, regulatory burdens, unpredictable tax policy, and rising foreign subsidies and tariffs, so implementing the farm bill as Congress intended is very important,” Chairman Conaway said. “It is equally important to keep a clear line of communication between the committee and the department, and I appreciated the Secretary taking time to update us on his team’s efforts to put the farm bill in place.”

Members also expressed disappointment in the president’s recently released budget proposal to cut crop insurance – the centerpiece of the farm bill safety net.

“We have a new farm bill on the books that passed with bipartisan support,” Chairman Conaway said. “The President’s proposed cuts to crop insurance, which the Secretary has vocally supported, would undermine the farm bill and make the inherently risky business of growing our nation’s food supply even riskier. We should recognize the contributions agriculture has made to deficit reduction and give the new farm bill time to work.”

Source:senate.gov

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.