In 2002, Congress passed a Farm Billcontaining draconian restrictions on the planting of fruits and vegetables, measures that threaten the livelihood of many farmers and hard working Hoosiers that process these products. TheFarming Flexibility Act of 2007 would remedy these restrictions by allowing farmers to opt out of the federal farm program on a yearly basis to raise produce. Thisbill not only would help save farmers and the jobs of workers inIndiana, but it also would save taxpayer...

Louis-based Monsanto Company is moving aggressively against a group of dairies to halt the use of the "hormone free" label on milk cartons sold nation-wide. Federal Trade Commission, Monsanto protests that milk labels touting the fact that cows did not receive the hormone have unfairly damaged its business, as well as that of dairy farmers who use the drug on their cows. With a follow up to my original article, in recent news Monsanto is challenging a growing trend among dairies to label...

What does growing corn and other crops have anything to do with natural gas? It takes about 33,000 cubic feet of natural gas to produce one ton of nitrogen fertilizer. We talked with an Ohio farmer who told us, Even though we farmers are complaining about the additional cost of fertilizer, we can not afford to not apply adequate amounts for corn production. Citigroup analyst Gil Yang estimated 28 billion cubic feet of natural gas would be consumed for every one billion gallons of ethanol...

Wearing a suit and with the hair on top of his head lying over like wheat in the high wind of his home state, Monson looks exactly like what he is a family farmer, school administrator, leader in his church and assistant majority leader in a state legislature dominated by Republican lawmakers. Wearing a suit and with the hair on top of his head lying over like wheat in the high wind of his home state, Monson looks exactly like what he is a family farmer, school administrator, leader in his...

More than one-fourth of the corn and oat crops were planted, and sugarbeet and green pea plantings also advanced as warmer temperatures improved field conditions. Subsoil frost and cool soil temperatures remained in some isolated areas in the northern part of the state, but the average temperature for the week was 54. Planting of corn and small grains began in earnest last week, but progress was still behind average, according to the U. As of Sunday, an estimated 28 percent of corn acreage...