Dan Glickman hasn’t left Washington, even though his last public service office as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture during the Clinton administration (1995-2001) ended in 2001. Glickman has since served as CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America and at several Washington think tanks. He is co-chair of AGree, a recently formed initiative backed by nine of the world’s leading non-profit foundations. Progressive Dairyman Editor Walt Cooley asked him about the initiative’s goal and his perspective on current ag issues.

Catharine Kuber Arlington, Virginia Membership Services Manager Animal Agriculture Alliance

Phillip Tobin Des Moines, Iowa Regional Sales Specialist Balchem Animal Nutrition & Health

Here are some of the new products or updates to previous products that have been announced as of January 19, 2012. Return to this section of the Progressive Dairyman website periodically to find out what new products will be impacting the dairy industry.

Note: The following are opinion commentaries. No: The Dairy Security Act of 2011 and other sideshow plans are just another way for everyone to make money off of milk, except we farmers who produce it. We can all acknowledge there is not enough money in milk for everyone who touches it to be rich, so the popular answer seems to have the farmer buy expensive insurance. Picture a pie chart … Now, in your mind, make the circumference of that pie larger (money from insurance claims). Now cut your piece – bigger piece, right? But at whose expense? Yours! Yes, your piece will be bigger too, but don’t forget to deduct the premium you paid to insure everyone else a bigger piece. You lose again.

Two dairy organizations expressed concerns today about the potential impact on U.S. dairy exports of a proposal to consolidate government agencies. President Obama announced last Friday his proposal to reinstate the Office of the President’s authority to reorganize the government. His first proposed use of that authority would be to consolidate six agencies dealing with trade and commerce into one. The U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) praised the administration’s effort to ensure that agencies involved in efforts related to trade are operating in the smoothest and most coordinated way possible.

From driving tractors to vaccinating calves, farm families worry that changes to federal laws governing what work youths can get paid to do on the farm could change their way of life. Last fall, the U.S. Department of Labor proposed changes to the rules that prevent young workers from being paid to do certain tasks in the agriculture industry. Those laws, known as agricultural hazardous occupations orders, hadn't been updated since 1970. The intent is to bridge the gap between rules for farms and the more stringent rules that youths not working in agricultural settings have to follow.