Growing cotton has rarely been a more risky proposition than it is now, which is precisely why cotton farmer Frank Williams is planning to sow his fields with wheat. Acreage dropped by about 22 percent in Texas, the national leader, and by nearly 20 percent in California, which ranks seventh in domestic production. Cotton also has lost ground for another reason that became apparent last week as the Senate debated the 2007 farm bill: the United States' cotton subsidy program is enmeshed in...

The growing wealth and purchasing power of emerging economies such as China and India, as well as new demand for the production of biofuels, are reasons cited by enthusiasts for the bull run to continue. advertisement ETCs track the performance of an underlying commodity index, including total return indices, based on a single commodity. With the single commodity ETCs, investors can buy a range of commodities such as gold, oil and zinc as well as soft commodities like corn, cotton,...

Some of those, especially corn, are enjoying record prices, yet the five crops alone account for nearly 94 percent of all subsidies under the House bill. Also known as the Lugar-Lautenberg bill, it would phase out the nation's $16 billion a year in traditional subsidies for commodity crops such as corn, cotton, soybeans, wheat and rice. Monday, November 05, 2007 D epression-era farm subsidy programs make no sense in 21st-century America, yet committees in both the House and Senate have...

Department of Agriculture official urged California farmers and industry leaders Friday to back the Bush administration's farm bill plans, even as lawmakers on Capitol Hill debate costlier versions of the multi-billion- dollar legislation. Bush farm policy touted . Santa Rosa Press Democrat // News for California's North Bay and Redwood Empire. But Congress is offering those growers a small slice of a $286 billion measure that would keep subsidizing major crops, including corn, soybeans,...

Like previous farm bills, the legislation passed by the House and now in the Senate includes billions of dollars in subsidies to growers and processors of wheat, corn, sugar, cotton and rice. They reward automaton agriculture instead of the innovative practices of many California growers. Californians now realize that this omnibus bill, like others before, is another big giveaway to wealthy farm interests with only meager nods to reform. Yet both have been cagey about their positions,...