"Cow-Tax" Bill Introduced - In Support of Producers

I found this wonderful blog yesterday, sponsored by a couple in South Dakota. To me they are wonderful to keep me politically informed about Agriculture. I love talking about Agriculture and telling my stories. They are about the triumphs and despair one experiences devoting so much energy and emotion to what I love. Yes, it is a part of our family income. Yet who in their right mind would invest over 1/2 a million dollars in structures, equipment, and animals or seed & chemicals to do what they love. A farmer and ranch would. What is our return for that investment, NONE. There isn't a corporation in America that would do what the American Farmer and Rancher does just because they love what they are doing. So I'm sure there will be plenty of double posts in a day. I hope so!


Time and again I find the citizens of this country have no idea where their food really comes from or how much we contribute as a nation to the hunger in this world. We crave certain fruits and vegetables year round, we want specialty items like gourmet coffee, cocoa, etc. These items can and do cause Agriculture production to be limited to meet the needs of a developed nation. Staples like rice and corn are put aside to grow the things we consume.

On January 13th I wrote a post about the proposed EPA tax on cows (beef & dairy) as well as pigs. I'll let you go back and read it instead of writing it over. I'm happy to say Frank Lucas from Oklahoma introduced the House Bill 1426 to amend the Clean Air Act to not allow the EPA to tax or charge a fee for emissions on cattle and pigs. In the Senate, Senator John Thume (SD-R) and Senator Charles Schumer (NY-D) introduced their version of the bill. As you can see there is bi-partisian support for this bill. New York has is a large dairy producing state and of course South Dakota is a large beef production state. These bills are ultimately to keep our food available to the US consumer at an inexpensive cost. It keeps fast food chains from going outside the country and importing beef for you to eat from South America and Australia. This keeps both the American Farmer and Rancher in business. The farmer producing grain the pigs and cattle eat. It would greatly please me if you would be so kind to take a moment to ask your congressman(woman) and Senators to support this bill.

Let's work together to keep American Farmers and Ranchers in business to help feed the rest of the world. Let's not be part of the problems of demanding of other countries for our food when we can grow our own. Let's keep our food products inexpensive so our population in the lower end of the economic scale can afford to eat. Remember you enjoy your lifestyle because of the American Farmer and Rancher!

Kim