The Columbus Dispatch
May 14, 2006 Sunday Home Final Edition
Ohio: BUSINESS; Pg. 01G
A legacy without takers
Economic pressures, urban sprawl leave agriculture with too
few future farmers
Monique Curet,
The Columbus Dispatch
kers are choosing farming
as a career.
issues more difficult, Duffy
said.
Jeff Wuebker says he became a farmer by default,
but his wife, Dena, knows
it's because "it's in the
blood."
The reasons are many:
Land and equipment costs
are high, providing steep
hurdles to getting started,
while competition from
much larger farms is rising.
"We'd better be concerned
about it, or we're just going
to lose a whole generation," Duffy said.
His dad and granddad before him were farmers.
When Jeff's father died of a
heart attack eight years
ago, "That made me an
instant hog farmer," the 35year-old says.
To make a living in an industry with low profit margins, the Wuebkers are
growing
crops,
raising
hogs, baling hay, selling
straw and running a small
seed dealership on their
farm in Versailles, northwest of Dayton in Darke
County. This year, Jeff and
his brother, who owns the
farm with him, will spend
more than $1 million to expand their hog operation.
"What keeps us here is
love for doing it," Jeff
Wuebker said.
Increasingly, fewer young
people such as the WuebCompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
In Ohio, the number of
farms operated by 25- to
44-year-olds declined 24
percent from 1992 to 2002,
while the number increased 6.8 percent for
those 45 and older, according to U.S. Department of
Agriculture statistics. That's
among farms with annual
sales of $10,000 or more,
run by farmers who spend
at least half of their work
time farming.
Nationwide, the percentage
of farmers under 35 is the
lowest it's ever been, said
Mike Duffy, director of
the Beginning Farmer
Center at Iowa State University.
That means production is
being concentrated in fewer hands, which deters innovation and makes addressing
environmental
www.clipresearch.com
\ Obstacles
farmers
for
young
The Wuebker brothers inherited their farm when
their parents died. Jeff
Wuebker thinks it would be
"just impossible" for most
young people to get started
in farming without help
from their families or
someone else.
Cost is the biggest barrier
to entry into the industry,
experts say.
Land can be particularly
expensive near metropolitan areas, where competition for property is high. In
Ohio, land values are rising, and there is more "urban pressure," because the
state has numerous metropolitan areas that are close
to rural areas, said David
Drake, farm loan chief for
the Ohio Farm Service
Agency.
Electronic Clipping
"Young farmers are saying,
'We can't make this pay in
Ohio,' " so they're farming
elsewhere or seeking other
employment, Drake said.
Almost every rural area in
the state is a relatively
short drive from a metropolitan area, where more
jobs with steady pay are
available, said Melanie
Wilt, spokeswoman for the
state Department of Agriculture. That's true even in
Ohio's weak economy.
Wilt, 29, grew up on a
farm. Her 30-year-old husband, Chad, now farms
with her father while running his own farm. The
couple bought their land
about five years ago. When
faced with the large investments necessary to
begin a farm, she said,
"The numbers can be
overwhelming," especially
when the profits are small.
It takes good business
sense, a love of the work
and help with capital for
young people to become
farmers, she said.
Industry issues
Even if older farmers have
arranged to transfer their
farms, which can help their
children enter the industry,
there are other challenges.
Dick Dawson, 82, owns a
Delaware County farm that
his 46-year-old son, Doug,
manages. They are concerned about housing exCompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
panding in the area, Dick
Dawson said. A new development
with
1,000
houses and a golf course is
being built about 2 miles
from his farm, and a fourlane highway is in the
works.
"We don't know what the
future will bring. We never
thought it would be like this
20 years ago," he said.
A good deal of farmland is
being lost, Dawson said.
At the same time, farms
are getting bigger, in terms
of the acreage, said Drake,
with the Ohio Farm Service
Agency.
As farms become larger,
disputes often emerge with
the communities that are
expanding in their direction. Dawson is acutely
aware of the intersection of
farms and residential properties.
"They're coming at us," he
said of housing developments.
Because Dawson is only a
few miles from the city of
Delaware, he said, he has
to be particular about environmental issues and how
he treats his neighbors.
Dawson's farm produces
hogs and he said he tries
to be careful with manure,
so he won't make his
neighbors unhappy.
But that kind of awareness
needs to happen on both
sides. Non-farmers living in
www.clipresearch.com
rural areas should remember that a farm that can
support a family is not the
farm they remember from
their parents' or grandparents' day, said Constance
Cullman Jackson, vice
president of agricultural
ecology for the Ohio Farm
Bureau Federation.
Counter trends
Farms traditionally have
been passed from generation to generation, but now
other people are taking an
interest in agriculture, said
Duffy, the Iowa State farm
center official. He's been
encountering more adults
who already pursued one
career and then decided to
take up farming.
Duffy said he's also seeing
more young people, with
no farm background but
with an idealistic notion of
farming, entering sustainable-agriculture programs.
He doesn't think, though,
that the number of people
entering farming in those
ways is offsetting those
leaving.
There appears to be a
steady entry of new small
farmers, said Carl Zulauf,
an agriculture economist at
Ohio State University.
The number of small farms
hasn't declined in the past
25 to 30 years, he said.
And consolidation of farms
mostly has been among
the mid-size and larger operations.
Electronic Clipping
Specialization also is increasing, as farmers try to
meet market demand for
things such as organic
foods, and as they seek
out products with higher
profit margins than the traditional commodities.
As more farmers seek to
serve niche markets, organizations including Farm
Bureau and the Ohio Department of Agriculture
have implemented programs to promote the purchase of local products.
nificantly longer than before. And more mechanization allows them to stay on
the farm longer.
One implication of the parallel trends of aging farmers and fewer young farmers is that "as we go forward, we're going to be
really wrestling with the
transfer of farm assets,"
Jackson said.
As baby boomers leave the
industry, the transition is
important, she said. Ultimately, the trends could
lead to more consolidation.
Other changes
At the same time that fewer
young people are entering
farming, farmers are growing older.
Farmers traditionally have
been older than the population as a whole, experts
say. But the average age
of farmers nationally increased to 55.3 in 2002,
from 53.3 in 1992, according to USDA figures. In
Ohio, the change was a bit
smaller, with an average
age of 53.8 in 2002, up
from 52 in 1992.
Part of the reason is that,
from a health standpoint,
farmers now can work sig-
CompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
The Farm Bureau supports
federal
legislation
that
would eliminate capitalgains taxes when farmland
is sold to a beginning
farmer or rancher, Jackson
said.
Bob Hatfield is a 78-yearold
Pickaway
County
farmer who doesn't have
anyone to whom he can
turn over his farm.
The farm has been in his
family for several generations. But he doesn't have
any children, and his extended family isn't interested in taking over.
his operation, which is between 500 and 600 acres,
remain as farmland after
his lifetime. But he said he
hasn't made any plans for
its transfer.
"I just can't make up my
mind what I want to see
happen to it," he said.
mcuret@dispatch.com
GRAPHIC: Photo, Graphic,
Neal C. LauronDispatch,
Jeff Wuebker pulls a piglet
from his hog farm in Versailles. Wuebker and his
wife, Dena, were named
Outstanding Young Farmers by the Ohio Farm Bureau last year., Neal C.
Lauron,
Jeff
Wuebker
drives a tractor on a field
he just planted on his farm.
Wuebker, 35, says he became "an instant hog
farmer" when his father
died eight years ago.
Wuebker, who farms with
his brother, grows crops,
raises hogs, bales hay and
sells straw and seed., Bob
Hatfield, of Mount Sterling,
fixes a flat on a planter with
the help of Chuck Self.
Hatfield, 78, who doesn't
have children, is unsure
about the future of his
Pickaway County farm.
Hatfield would like to see
www.clipresearch.com
Electronic Clipping
NBC News Transcripts/Meet the Press
May 14, 2006 Sunday
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich discusses government's collection of phone records, Republican Party and how Republican-controlled
government should address current issues
MR. TIM RUSSERT: But
first, joining us now is the
former speaker of the
House, Republican Newt
Gingrich.
Welcome back.
MR. NEWT GINGRICH:
Good to be here.
MR. RUSSERT: Let's go
right to it. This is the headline that greeted our country on Thursday in USA
Today: "The National Security Agency has been
secretly
collecting
the
phone call records of tens
of millions of Americans,
using data provided by
AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct
knowledge of the arrangement told USA Today. ...
This program does not involve the NSA listening to
or recording conversations.
But the spy agency is using
the data to analyze calling
patterns in an effort to detect
terrorist
activity,
sources said in separate
interviews. ... For the customers of these companies, it means that the
government has detailed
records of calls they made
- across town or across the
country - to family memCompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
bers, co-workers, business
contacts and others. ... The
NSA's domestic program,
as described by sources, is
far more expansive than
what the White House has
acknowledged."
And this story, Mr. Speaker, led to this cover in
Newsweek
magazine,
coming out tomorrow, a
huge telephone receiver
over the White House.
Your reaction to this development?
MR. GINGRICH: Well, first
of all, the amazing thing is-everything that has been
done is totally legal. You
just look at the, at the specifics of what they're doing,
it is totally legal. The real
problem is the Bush administration refuses to come
up front and explain it in
advance. If you go to the
American people and say,
"We're in a long war with
the irreconcilable wing of
Islam, there are people
who want to kill millions of
us, your government has to
have an ability to track
these people down, in the
electronic age it has to be
real time. Should the Congress guarantee that the
United States government
www.clipresearch.com
is capable of stopping terrorists, detecting terrorists
and, if necessary, going
back out and finding out
who the terrorists worked
with, once you know who
the terrorists are? I bet this
country's 90 percent in favor of that, as long as there
are protections against you
as an innocent person having a U.S. attorney use that
information for any purpose
other than national security.
So, I think this administration, if they would come
straight out on this, go right
at the, the Senator Leahys
of the world and say, "This
is the choice. We're going
to have a nuclear weapon
some day or a biological
weapon that could kill millions of Americans. We
have the technical ability to
stop it. Now do you want
us to be able to stop it or
not?"
MR. RUSSERT: On Thursday night you said--told
"Hannity & Colmes" it was
defending the indefensible.
MR.
they
front
long
GINGRICH: Because
refuse to come out
and talk about it. As
as this stuff leaks out
Electronic Clipping
and then they're on defense, then you get these
kind of absurd magazine
covers and then you're going to have Senator Specter saying he's going to
threaten American companies. Think about what it
does to any company in
the United States who
would like to cooperate
with the U.S. government
to be told, "And by the way,
you could be subpoenaed
by the U.S. Senate and
then, by the way, you can
have a lawsuit filed," as
they--apparently two lawyers
have
announced
they're going to file lawsuits. Do you want this
country to--and I'm a constitutional
conservative.
The Congress has to have
oversight. Things have to
be done in a legal way. But
for example, I would split
the FBI into two agencies.
I'd have a very aggressive
anti-terrorist agency and I'd
be clear with the entire
country and the world.
MR. RUSSERT: But you're
not troubled with the government gathering data on
phone calls made in this
country by American citizens?
MR. GINGRICH: Look, if
you find out one morning
that we now have five terrorists in the U.S. who are
part of an active network
who want to destroy New
York City or Buffalo or Atlanta, and the government
says, "You know, we
could've tracked every call
they made for the last 10
CompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
years, but that would've
been wrong, Tim. So we
don't know who they've
been working with. We
don't know what their network is and we can't stop
it," you're then going to
have a totally new set of
congressional hearings by
the same people who will
then reverse their side, totally. I do think your civil
liberties
ought
to
be...(unintelligible). Nobody
who's not involved in terrorism should be at risk. Nobody who's making normal
phone calls should be at
risk. But the idea that we're
going to say to the United
States government, for libertarian reasons, "We'd
rather lose a city than have
you gather data," I think is
totally out of touch with the
danger of the modern
world.
MR. RUSSERT: Back in
March you said something
that caught my attention on
the 2006 election. "What
[the Democrats] should do,
is say nothing except `Had
enough?'" Had enough of
what?
MR. GINGRICH: Well, first
of all, I said that in part because of something that
was illustrated on your
show last Sunday, which is
that if you represent a party
whose contract is with San
Francisco and Vermont,
you can hardly explain
what your future is. I mean,
Congresswoman
Pelosi
cannot explain what her
speakership would be because it would be so far to
www.clipresearch.com
the left they would guarantee the Republicans reelection. So I was saying
partly they can't possibly
put together a contract with
America because Howard
Dean and Nancy Pelosi
and, and, and their allies
are so far to the left. They
can't be clear what they
would do--raise taxes, create more big bureaucracy,
have a much weaker system of defending America.
I mean, just go down the
list.
Second, I think that it's
clear, whether you look at
gasoline prices or you look
at the issue of immigration
and controlling the borders
or you look at the size of
spending, that people are-the very people who created the Republican majority
are not happy right now
with the majority because
they really want the values
that are essentially conservative. And I think in
that sense, Republicans
have an obligation to significantly change what they've
been doing in Congress.
And by the way, I think
when Speaker Hastert said
the other day that the big
spending Senate bill that
was $20 billion dollars
above the president's request is dead on arrival
and there's no point on
even going to a conference
until the Senate passes a
new much smaller spending bill, that was a good
step towards understanding where the American
people want the RepubliElectronic Clipping
cans to be.
MR. RUSSERT: Let me
share with our viewers
something from the Philadelphia Inquirer from Newt
Gingrich. "A dozen years
after he engineered his
party's takeover of Congress,
former
House
Speaker Newt Gingrich
warned that his fellow Republicans could be swept
out of power this year.
`They are seen by the
country as being in charge
of the government that
can't function. ... We could
lose control this fall.' He
said there had been a series of blunders under Republican rule, from failure
in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to mismanagement of the war in Iraq.
He said the immigration bill
passed by the House was
unrealistic and too harsh
toward undocumented immigrants. He called congressional efforts to regulate lobbying `much too
weak,' and said the government had squandered
billions of dollars in Iraq."
That is very condemning of
your party.
MR. GINGRICH: Well, I
think, I think we have to
confront the fact that on a
variety of fronts we're not
getting the performance we
want. I don't think--look, the
people who are in charge
have an obligation to deliver. The United States is a
very tough-minded country,
and we actually want the
people we put in charge to
get the job done. When
CompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
you, when you're told this
morning by the person
who--from 2003 to 2005
was the head of the border
for the United States government, that the border is
essentially an invitation to
illegal entry, you know
something has to change.
When you learn that maybe as much as 16 of the
$18 billion dollars that we
sent to Baghdad for economic purposes wasn't
spent effectively, you know
something has to change.
When you look at Katrina
and you realize that we,
we--the United States government paid $1.75 to a
general contractor who
paid 75 cents to a contractor who paid 35 cents to a
subcontractor who paid 10
cents to put the blue tarp
on that was the temporary
roofing, you know something has to change.
My argument with my own
party is simple: I want a
Republican majority, I want
a Republican presidency. I
think that means we have
to recognize when things
aren't working and we have
to fix them and not wait for
the American people to get
so upset that they decide
to replace us. So I'm advocating in behalf of retaining
our majority, that we have
to be more aggressive
about spending, we have
to be more aggressive
about energy. And, you
know, I, I wish the president would call a renewable fuel summit at Iowa
State and, and, and have
all the major players, and
www.clipresearch.com
propose in the next 30
days a very substantial renewable fuels bill that
could significantly reduce
our, our reliance on Saudi
Arabia and our reliance on
Venezuela.
But I think the country
wants us to lead. The
country would love for Republicans to be solid on
this, the country does not
want to go back to a leftwing Democratic majority,
that they do want the Republicans to recognize
things need to change.
MR. RUSSERT: They don't
want more of the same.
MR. GINGRICH: Right.
They don't want more of
the--they'd rather have a
conservative change than
a liberal change, but
they're not going to tolerate
being told it's OK for the
border to be uncontrolled,
it's OK for 11 million people
to be here illegally, it's OK
to have a Senate bill which
sets up a very strange
three-layer tier of how long
you've been breaking the
law, for example, on immigration.
MR. RUSSERT: But let's,
let's accept that everyone
wants to toughen the border, the president talking
about moving National
Guard in there, both parties
seem convinced to do that.
What do you do, specifically, with the 11 million undocumented workers in the
country? Do you send
them back?…
Electronic Clipping
Omaha World-Herald
May 13, 2006 Saturday Midlands; Nebraska; Sunrise
Nebraska: NEWS; Pg. 01B
Mystery shrouds woman's remains
Kristin Zagurski and Elizabeth Ahlin,
World-Herald Staff Writers
COUNCIL BLUFFS -- Two
men hunting for morel
mushrooms in wetlands
north of Council Bluffs last
week
saw
something
through a hole rusted in the
side of a 55-gallon drum
that raised their suspicions,
so they called police.
Inside, investigators found
a woman's remains that
had sat undiscovered for
years.
They worked for a week to
learn details about the
woman with the help of a
forensic
anthropologist
from Kansas State University:
She was between 24 and
32 years old and stood
about 5 feet 8 inches tall.
She had short, straight
brown hair and may have
had a physically demanding job or exercised regularly.
She probably was white
but may have had some
black ancestry as well.
CompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
What investigators still do
not know is who the woman was, who killed her and
why.
"There's no question. It's a
mystery,"
said
Pottawattamie County Attorney
Matt Wilber. "We're going
to put the best puzzle solvers on it that we can."
The Friday announcement
of the body's discovery coincided with an announcement by Omaha police that
they were investigating
possible human remains
found Thursday in Hummel
Park, 11808 John J. Pershing Drive.
Wilber ruled out that the
remains found near the
Bluffs were either of two
local missing females -Tracy Tribble, 35, of Council Bluffs, or Amber Harris,
12, of Omaha.
No specifics were being
released Friday about the
remains found in Omaha.
Those working to identify
the woman whose remains
were found near Council
Bluffs include a forensic
dentist being called in by
the Iowa State Medical Exwww.clipresearch.com
aminer's Office to get a
narrower estimate of the
woman's age.
"Right now, we've got 24 to
32. That's a pretty broad
range of people," Wilber
said. "My first hope is that
we're going to be able to
nail it down a little closer."
Metallurgists from Iowa
State University will study
the barrel to estimate how
long it had been exposed
to the elements.
In addition, investigators
got a patent number and
brand name from a seal on
the barrel and are trying to
track that.
They also will contact the
makers of Lee jeans -- the
kind the woman was wearing -- in an attempt to find
out when the jeans were
made and where they were
sold.
"That obviously would give
us a beginning date," Wilber said.
In addition to the jeans,
which were size 11 and
possibly had a greenish
tint, the woman was wearing a turquoise and white
Electronic Clipping
sweater
socks.
and
knee-high
Investigators are seeking
tips from the public about
missing people whose description may match the
characteristics of the remains, which currently are
at the state crime lab in
Ankeny, Iowa, Wilber said.
The woman's teeth are in
"very good" shape and
could be used to identify
her, Wilber said. But, he
said, "it's worthless unless
you have something to
compare it to."
Officials said they aren't
aware of any missing
woman who matches the
characteristics.
Finding the woman's identity and giving her family
closure is investigators' No.
1 priority, Wilber said.
"Somewhere, somebody is
missing a daughter or a
sister or a wife," he said.
Once an identification is
made, investigators will
start to focus on what happened to the woman and
CompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
why, Wilber said.
They already have a good
idea of how she died but
are not releasing that information, he said. But, he
said, "there is no doubt
we're dealing with a homicide."
Investigators said they believe the woman was "folded up" and placed inside
the barrel after she was
killed.
The barrel was found May
6 north of the Pottawattamie County Jail on
land that is under water at
times, depending on the
weather, Wilber said. For
example, he said, when the
barrel was removed, there
was water standing underneath it but not covering it.
Investigators know the barrel had been there for
years because it was rusted through in spots, Wilber
said. There also was no
soft tissue left on the remains, he said.
Other items were found
inside the barrel with the
woman, but investigators
www.clipresearch.com
are not disclosing what
they were.
"There's a lot of details I
have that I'm not releasing," Wilber said. That, he
said, is because he does
not want to taint the investigation.
"You'd be surprised how
many people falsely confess to these types of
crimes," Wilber said.
He said investigators only
released information they
thought would be helpful in
identifying the woman.
They also are withholding
the names of the mushroom hunters until they can
be interviewed and the site
where the barrel was found
fully mapped.
"There's real reasons for us
not to turn this (information) over," Wilber said.
Anyone with information
relevant to the case should
call Investigator Leland
Bennett at the Pottawattamie County Sheriff's
Office at (712) 890-2222.
Electronic Clipping
Star Tribune
May 12, 2006 Friday Metro Edition
Minneapolis: SCENE; Pg. 4F
dining
THE HOT FIVE
Rick Nelson, Staff Writer
Celebrate spring by reacquainting yourself
with your favorite local ice cream purveyor.
make a dizzyingly good coffee ice cream,
along with several dozen other wonderfully
old-fashioned flavors. A real treat are the
Izzy Pops, a small scoop of ice cream
dipped in chocolate and served on a lollipop stick. 2034 Marshall Av., St. Paul,
651-603-1458
BLUE SKY CREAMERY
PUMPHOUSE CREAMERY
A flash-freeze process (invented by
students at Iowa State University) yields
supple, beyond-rich ice cream in a pleasing medley of flavors. 17671 Glasgow Av.,
Lakeville, 952-953-9953; Rosedale Shopping Center, Roseville, 651-633-6036
GLACIERS CUSTARD AND COFFEE
One of the most tempting places to ruin
your diet in the western `burbs, specializing in frozen custard (chocolate, vanilla,
low-fat chocolate or vanilla and a daily flavor) made fresh daily. The handy drivethrough window is particularly perilous.
888 Superior Blvd., Wayzata, 952-4738518
Owner Barb Zapzalka crafts her extraluscious ice creams (the butter pecan is a
little scoop of heaven) in the back room of
her cheery shop using milk from a Wisconsin organic dairy farm. Don't miss the
Kulfi, a deliriously delicious blend of pistachios, rosewater and cardamom. 4754
Chicago Av. S., Mpls., 612-825-2021
SEBASTIAN JOE'S
The granddaddy of Twin Cities' premium
ice cream makers still cranks out a superior product, and the baked goods (just what
exactly are in those incredible chocolatechip cookies?) are equally fine. 4321 Upton Av. S., Mpls., 612-926-7916; 1007 W.
Franklin Av., Mpls., 612-870-0065
IZZY'S ICE CREAM CAFE
GRAPHIC: PHOTO
Owners Jeff Sommers and Lara Hamill
CompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
www.clipresearch.com
Electronic Clipping
TECHNOLOGY DAILY
May 11, 2006 Thursday PM EDITION
Vol. 10 No. 9
EDUCATION
EXPERTS SAY ONLINE EDUCATION HELPS U.S. COMPETITION
The increase in the enrollment of U.S. students in
online education is enhancing the nation's global
competitiveness, according
to experts.
"Online education and other types of nontraditional
education have proven
themselves
increasingly
important in enhancing our
workforce's ability to compete globally," said Steve
Forde, a spokesman for
the House Education and
the Workforce Committee.
"The fact that online education is growing while other
more traditional forms of
education may not be at
such a rapid pace demonstrates that students who
may not have thought
about continuing education
are now considering it," he
said. "Those who are
choosing this more nontraditional type of education
should not have it held
against them when applying for federal funds."
Online education could receive a big boost from the
recent repeal of a federal
rule requiring colleges to
provide no less than half of
their instruction on camCompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
pus. President Bush signed
the provision into law Feb.
8 as part of a deficitreduction act.
Distance learning and "using communications technology [has] increasingly
become part of the graduate education landscape,"
said Stuart Heiser of the
Council
of
Graduate
Schools. Dawn Anderson,
a project coordinator at
Kansas State University,
said online education and
degrees "allow us to expand into emerging technologies and new areas of
knowledge more rapidly
than the traditional classroom can meet those
needs." John Mayfield, a
graduate dean at Iowa
State University, said he
believes that any kind of
education improves competitiveness. Mayfield said
employers weigh an online
versus traditional education
from the same school similarly. Online learning will
not cause a drop in what is
learned, compared to traditional schooling, he said.
However, purely online
universities tend to pay
faculty less, he noted.
www.clipresearch.com
Experts agree that online
education enables more
students to expand their
knowledge and improve
their workforce potential in
the economy. Rather than
replacing those students
who might otherwise seek
traditional schooling, online
education allows adults to
adapt their skills to the
changing world and attracts those who are disabled or not physically near
a university. Rhett Dawson,
president of the Information
Technology Industry Council, said: "Distance learning
and other tools will help
make our students and
workforce smarter, and we
support their effective use."
"Although there are many
questions
surrounding
what the best vehicle will
be for improving our education system, one of our
highest priorities should be
ensuring that the opportunities like distance learning
are available," Dawson
said. Mayfield also noted
that online courses on average cost more for
schools to offer -- and
therefore more for the students -- at public universiElectronic Clipping
ties than traditional classes. Kay Kohl, executive
director at the University
Continuing Education Association, noted that the
largest future demand for
online education will come
CompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
from students in developing countries.
The question will be who
can provide the education
that will be sought in the
most cost-effective man-
www.clipresearch.com
ner, Kohl said. "It is not a
given that North America
and Europe are going to be
the biggest provider," she
said, adding that India may
well become the leader.
- By Winter Casey
Electronic Clipping
THE SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
May 09, 2006 Tuesday
EDITORIAL; Pg. B6
21ST-CENTURY ENERGY: BUYING LOCALLY
As Washingtonians look for energy questions, some of the answers may be as
close as their own kitchens, neighborhood
farmers markets or a farm just across the
Cascades.
During a recent lunch arranged by Seattle's environmental-minded Bullitt Foundation, writer Michael Pollan said the United
States could make quicker gains in its energy use for food than in transportation.
He's on to something. The Worldwatch
Institute estimated in a 2002 report that 17
percent of U.S. fossil fuel consumption
goes to producing, packing and transporting food.
That impacts everything from food prices
to air quality and global warming, which is
one reason Washington State University
operates a Climate Friendly Farming program. Its research efforts include work on
an anaerobic digester to produce methane
and usable byproducts from manure. In
Washington and nationally, a variety of
initiatives encourage better use of energy
in food production, and more are needed.
al agriculture systems have largely given
way to specialized production here and,
increasingly, abroad. So, trucks, ships and
planes deliver food over huge distances.
Researchers at Iowa State University's
Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture
found that for their state alone, just a 10
percent increase in consumption of locally
produced food would lead to measurable
reductions in oil use and greenhouse gas
emissions.
Some, including Pollan, say stopping or
limiting expansion of free trade into agriculture would have economic, social and
national security benefits as well as environmental and energy advantages. Short
of that, though, there is much consumers
can do to support food produced nearby.
Farmers markets have exploded in popularity. That kind of consumer awareness
combined with public programs to encourage energy-efficient farming can be part of
the solution to energy problems now and
in the future.
NOTES: P-I EDITORIALS
In recent decades, comprehensive region-
CompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
www.clipresearch.com
Electronic Clipping
Telegraph Herald
May 9, 2006 Tuesday
ACROSS; Pg. c8
Baldwin
Vineyard seminar targets new growers
by experts from Iowa State University
and a state viticulture technician.
Baldwin
A beginning grape production and vineyard management workshop will be held 9
a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 20 at Tabor
Home Vineyards & Winery, two miles
northwest of Baldwin.
The workshop is targeted at newer commercial grape growers and will focus on
the entire process. It will be conducted
CompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
Registration is $60 per person and is limited to the first 50 participants.
To
register,
visit
http://www.iowawinegrowers.com/events
or
http://viticulture.hort.iastate.edu/events/ev
ents.html or call 563/557-3727.
www.clipresearch.com
Electronic Clipping
Congressional Quarterly Today
April 24, 2006
Senate Hearing Set to Examine Viability of Ramping Up Biofuel Production
Adam Satariano, CQ Staff
Producers of biofuels such
as ethanol see the next
farm bill as a vehicle for
financial assistance that
could help their products
become commercially viable alternatives to standard
gasoline.
Industry leaders and biofuel supporters are scheduled to testify Wednesday
at a Senate Agriculture
Committee hearing. The
2002 farm law (PL 107171) expires in September
2007, and the biofuel industry has a big stake in its
next iteration.
With volatility in the world
oil market pushing gasoline
prices over $3 per gallon in
some areas, President
Bush and lawmakers have
touted biofuels as a domestic resource that could
eventually reduce oil imports. Meanwhile, Microsoft
Corp. founder Bill Gates
has signaled the investment potential of alternative fuels by committing
$84 million to help a California company construct
five ethanol refineries.
Biofuel
producers
are
seeking tax breaks, loan
guarantees, production inCompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
centives, additional research dollars and financial
enticements for farmers to
produce crops that can be
used to produce alternative
fuels. The 2002 law included some subsidies for the
industry.
"We are not self-supportive
right now," said Joe Jobe,
the chief executive officer
of the National Biodiesel
Board. "That is why we are
saying that the government
policy that has begun to
stimulate this growth needs
to continue."
Ernie Shea, national coordinator for a coalition of
renewable energy advocates called 25 x '25, said
the farm bill was just one of
many legislative avenues
being pursued. Shea's
group wants the United
States to produce 25 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2025.
Congress has played a key
role in the recent boom for
biofuels, especially cornbased ethanol. The 2002
law provided loan guarantees, production incentives
and research funding. The
2005 energy law ( PL 10958) mandated that 7.5 billion gallons of ethanol be
produced
annually
by
www.clipresearch.com
2012. It also authorized
grants and loan guarantees
to encourage the development of alternative fuels
from biomass and sugarcane.
The energy law also has
caused refiners to use ethanol as a replacement for
the clean air oxygenate
methyl tertiary butyl ether.
Because Congress did not
grant MTBE manufacturers
legal
protections
from
product liability lawsuits,
refiners say they are stopping production to avoid
expensive court battles that
have resulted from contaminated groundwater supplies.
In recent weeks, the ethanol industry has come under fire from refiners who
say limited ethanol supplies have contributed to
higher gasoline prices. The
Energy Information Administration also has cited ethanol constraints but only as
a minor contributor to cost
increases at the pump.
Robert C. Brown of the
Center for Sustainable
Environmental Technologies at Iowa State University said the government needs to careful
about "picking winners" in
Electronic Clipping
developing
fuels.
alternative
"A goal is not to turn corn
into ethanol," said Brown,
who will testify this week.
"A more appropriate goal is
to reduce our dependence
on imported petroleum.
Ethanol from corn is just
the starting point and it will
eventually be superseded
by other [technologies]."
Brown said the government
should focus on funding
research into new biofuels,
such as those that can
CompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
come from switchgrass or
plant fiber.
Manufacturers of biodiesel,
now made primarily from
soybeans, are looking to
emulate the success of
corn-based ethanol. Jobe,
who also will testify at the
Senate hearing, said biodiesel is still 10 years behind ethanol. Government
support in the form of tax
breaks and production incentives have been key to
the increase in biodiesel
production, he said, and
will be needed moving for-
www.clipresearch.com
ward.
In 2004, biodiesel sales
were 25 million gallons. In
2006, the industry is projecting sales of 150 million
gallons.
A version of this story first
appeared in CQ Green
Sheets.
Source:
CQ
Today
Round-the-clock coverage of news from Capitol
Hill.
©2006 Congressional
Quarterly Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
Electronic Clipping
Top Producer
April 8, 2006
Outlook
A quicker start in 2006
Although the advisers we
follow always are cautious
about pricing this early in
the season, they are more
aggressive this year than
last, with several locking in
almost $2.50 for corn and
$6.20-$6.40 on soybeans
on up to 40% of the 2006
crop (Total market value of
cash sales, futures and options as of March 1; for
specific
amounts,
at
www.ToProducer.com,
click Track Records).
With the University of
Illinoiss AgMAS no longer
tracking advisers, Top Producer is pleased to add
several to our monthly report and yearly wrap up.
Doane Outlook Hedger is
biased to conservative futures and options hedges
based on analysts outlook;
Doane Systematic Hedger
follows an aggressive but
disciplined technical system; Progressive Ag Marketing seeks to add 10¢ to
20¢ to producers prices
while reducing risk.
The
prices and sales we report
are based on actual trades
made on behalf of farmers
enrolled in Prudential Securities Ag-Hedge proCompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
gram. Sales positions are
updated on our Web site,
usually the first week of the
month.Linda H. Smith
come. What we do know is
that at this stage, weather
is the single most important
determining factor.
Summer Outlook
The CornBean Battle
Tune in via the Internet for
special audio outlook and
advice sessions following
USDAs crop reports on
May 12, June 9 and July
12. For details regarding
times and speakers, check
www.ToProducer.com
and/or
e-mail
LSmith@farmjournal.com
to receive an e-mail reminder the day before the
reports.
Join us in person when Top Producer
Seminars go on summer
tour:
Aug. 8Richmond,
Ind.; Aug. 9Champaign, Ill.;
Aug. 10Bettendorf, Iowa;
and Aug. 11Des Moines,
Iowa. Click the button at
our Web site for more information.
USDAs March Planting Intentions report will be a
news highlight for corn and
soybeans. On the one
hand, higher production
costs this year have traders expecting a shift out of
corn. On the other, ethanols soaring demand for
corn means we will need
ever-growing supplies of
it.
Dont expect a major
move one way or the other
soon, however. The economics strongly favor rotation, and while a few producers say they are reducing corn acres modestly,
the reason is not profitability.
Will acreage happen?
Such a dramatic surprise in prospective plantings has never occurred in
the history of the market,
says Jim Bower of Bower
Trading in Chicago. So history is no guide as to how
close actual acreage may
www.clipresearch.com
A recent analysis by Iowa
State
University
ag
economists Josh Roe,
Bob Jolly and Robert
Wisner shows soybean
production currently is
more profitable by about
$17/acre than corn after
beans. Theres an $80/acre
disadvantage to corn after
corn versus a 50/50 rotation. The economists cite
Electronic Clipping
the following factors to
consider in going to more
corn:
Corn yield loss of 10% to
13% following corn
Higher
energy-related costs (fertilizer,
trucking,
drying)
Machinery
and
equipment changes
More
on-farm grain storage and
drying facilities
More labor
Possible loss of timeliness
Loss of risk diversification benefits
More disease and pest management
For assumptions,
full discussion and the minimum corn price needed at
various corn and bean
yields to prompt a different
rotation,
visit
www.ToProducer.com Web
Extra.
Heres what farmers say they are doing:
>>David Ward of Mapleton,
Minn., is making no change
in his 50/50 corn soybean
rotation despite high fuel
and fertilizer costs for corn.
CompetitivEdge 1-888-881-EDGE
He applied fall anhydrous.
We also used a lot of manure. Across southern
Minnesota I would expect
thats the same pattern.
>>Gary Niemeyer of Glenarm, Ill., is planting 100
acres more soybeans than
last year but its minor and
is more of a rotational concern.
>>Hayden Eicher of Warrenton, Va.: Im not changing rotation but I am changing crop management. He
applied no phosphorus and
no potassium with the hope
that the decline in natural
gas prices will translate to
lower fertilizer prices this
fall.
>>Bill Chase of Wolsey,
S.D., is injecting wheat into
his rotation on 20% of his
acres because he can
raise it profitably, corn
costs are high and he can
use the straw in his cattle
www.clipresearch.com
operation. Wheat prices
are strong and it has lower
input costs, he says.
>>Julius Schaef of Randolph, Iowa, is making no
change, especially because his storage is set up
for his existing rotation.
>>Gordon Wassenaar of
Prairie City, Iowa, was 2/3
corn and 1/3 soybeans last
year and will switch back to
60% corn and 40% soybeans this year, but his
main reason for planting
more soybeans in 2006 is
that were extremely dry
now. Drought is moving
north. Ill take my chances
with soybeans.
>>David
Roehm
of
Leesburg, Ohio: Were cutting back on corn acres
about 33%. In southern
Ohio, soybeans are more
consistent than corn.Sonja
Hillgren
TOP
PRODUCER SPRING 2006
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