| The President’s Column A weekly feature provided by your Parish Farm Bureau For use in local newspapers, week of 6/16/2008 Farmers and ranchers attending the upcoming Louisiana Farm Bureau convention will hear updates on the status of rising food costs, agriculture’s role in the renewable fuels debate and what the newly enacted 2008 farm bill will mean to their finances. Members of the state’s largest general farm organization will gather at the New Orleans Marriott Hotel June 26-29 for the 86th annual convention. More than 1,000 farmers and their families are expected to attend the event. “Like everybody else right now, farmers want to know about high fuel prices and high retail food prices,” said Farm Bureau President Ronnie Anderson. “Farmers are consumers too and despite what you might be hearing out there, farmers are not getting rich off higher food prices.” Anderson said farmers don’t control the prices of the commodities they produce. “The commodity markets and the Chicago Board of Trade tell us what price we’ll receive,” he said. During the four-day convention farmers will hear about how agriculture can play a role in the country’s increasing demand for alternative fuels. In 2007 more than six billion gallons of ethanol was produced in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Louisiana currently has plants in Southwest Louisiana producing ethanol from ag products like bagasse from sugarcane. Dr. Barbara Fecso, with the USDA’s sugar and sweetener analysis division in Washington, D.C., will update producers on the sugar portion of the new farm bill. Louisiana is the nation’s No. 1 sugarcane producing state, surpassing Florida in 2005. Willie Cooper, Louisiana state director of the Farm Service Agency, will address the new farm bill approved by Congress earlier this month. The bill will now regulate federal farm programs for the next five years. The meteoric rise in grain price has Louisiana cotton acreage at an all-time low. Craig Brown, executive vice president for producer affairs for the National Cotton Council, will address the future of the U.S. cotton industry, while providing an outlook for U.S. cotton exports for 2008-2009. “Louisiana once led the nation in cotton production,” said Brian Breaux, a cotton specialist with the Farm Bureau. “But there are still a lot of cotton producers out there who want to know how the new farm bill will impact them. We hope Mr. Brown will give us some good news for exports for the remainder of the marketing year.” Securing farm labor has become more difficult in a post-9-11 world. Since most farm workers come from Mexico, and with border security tightening, farmers have had difficulty finding enough workers to plant and harvest their crops. Dan Bremer, a farm labor specialist with AgWorks, Inc, of Lake Park, Ga., will update producers on the status of farm labor and the congressional battles likely to be waged as the issue is taken up by lawmakers this fall. I would encourage all farmers and ranchers to attend our upcoming convention. It’s a great place to get valuable information and to interact with other producers. More information about the 86th annual convention can be found here |
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The Voice of Louisiana Agriculture
Welcome to the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation
| Directions l American Farm Bureau l Farm Bureau Bank l Privacy Policy l Contact Us l Help l Site Map |
Welcome to the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation
Welcome to the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation
The Voice of Louisiana Agriculture
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