On March 23, Chairman Frank Lucas continued the House Agriculture Committee’s field hearing series in Galesburg, Illinois. It was the second of four hearings to be held across the country throughout March and April to gather input in advance of writing the 2012 Farm Bill. Members took testimony from Midwest producers of corn, rice, soybeans, wheat, sorghum, specialty crops and beef. Witnesses expressed the importance of developing policy that appreciates and recognizes the risks involved with growing food and fiber. They stressed the need for an effective safety net and a choice of risk management tools so farmers can continue to produce a stable food supply and compete in the global marketplace.

Are you prepared for an emergency or a rescue situation on your farm? A better question is: Are the first responders in your area prepared and knowledgeable about your farm and the potential hazards on it?

Friday night I watched Superman the Movie. Superman sailed across the dark sky with the city glittering far below him. He swooped down when he saw a crime and, with precision, he solved the problem. I couldn’t help but wonder how he could solve all the problems around the world.

“Hello, this is the Galway Dating Service. Sarah speaking.” “What’s the craic? Looking for a bird for meself,” Tristan, my Irish friend, said into the receiver, swapping his Dublin accent for a gruff, rural enunciation that probably didn’t exist. We saw the phone number in the newspaper that morning.

Reporting to you from Yambio, Western Equatoria state, South Sudan, Africa … On a hot Thursday afternoon, we drove east from the capital city of Yambio, Western Equatoria state in South Sudan. I sat with two officials of the state Ministry of Agriculture, an official from the state Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and two persons from one of our U.S. government implementing partners. The road, a bed of red sandy soil and gravel, wound through the bush. We were in the Greenbelt, so called because of the rainfall here for seven to eight months of the year and the relative productivity of the land to grow nearly any kind of crop. However, most of the landscape was native vegetation, an amazing collection of trees, undergrowth and grass. This was truly the bush.

Earlier this month, the Pennsylvania Senate Agricultural and Rural Affairs Committee held an informational session to educate Ag Committee members and their staffers on the role that dairy plays in Pennsylvania. Center for Dairy Excellence staff joined Jay Howes from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, Tim Moyer from the Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Board and Justin Risser, a dairy producer from Bainbridge, Pennsylvania, to provide those in attendance with a 90-minute introduction to Pennsylvania’s dairy industry, the role it plays in Pennsylvania’s economy and in rural communities across the commonwealth, and the opportunities and threats that exist for today’s dairy farm owners. This month’s Center for Dairy Excellence column includes an abbreviated version of the comments Justin Risser provided before the Senate Ag Committee. All dairy farm families should consider sharing their story with key leaders in their communities and on the state and national level.

I recently met with one of our new online contributors, Karma Fitzgerald. You’ll get to know Karma a bit more later this year. She is the wife of an Idaho dairyman and will be contributing to the print magazine in our new column “HERd management” in the near future.