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Most people who know me, know that I really like to plan things. In fact, most days I can get so caught up in what I’m going to do next that I forget what I am doing in the moment.
However, even with all those plans, I find the secret to successful planning is to be able to throw said plan out the window at a moment’s notice.
Senator Debbie Stabenow, chairwoman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, announced the committee will host four Farm Bill hearings in before April. The hearings will allow the committee to continue examining Farm Bill principles and evaluating policy solutions to develop a 2012 bill.
The first hearing, titled Energy and Economic Growth for Rural America, was held on Feb. 15.
The purpose of this hearing was to evaluate policies that make investments in jobs and opportunities for farmers and rural businesses through new markets, entrepreneurship, regional strategies and energy innovation.
Here are excerpts of testimony presented during and the hearing:
The second of several scheduled Farm Bill hearings, focusing on conservation, was held on Feb. 28.
This hearing explored the Conservation Title’s important investment in America – the nation’s fundamental resources of our water, soils and other natural resource infrastructure – through policies that help farmers maintain soil health, keep our water clean and available, our food abundant and safe and our wildlife plentiful, so as to protect the basic principles of farming and our way of life for future generations.
Here are excerpts of testimony presented during and the hearing:
I did not grow up on a dairy farm. People always ask me, “Did you know what you were getting into?”
They often have concerned looks on their faces. After more than six years of dating before we got married, I kind of had a clue.
In fact, one of our first dates was milking cows. Since then we have spent many major holidays, birthdays and anniversaries in the barn together working side by side.
The Garden of Eden was a glorious place. The grass spread like a carpet under Adam and Eve’s feet. They never encountered a thorn or a weed. The fruit and nuts hung from trees in abundance. Adam and Eve only needed to reach up to have their needs met.
I can’t remember exactly how he had gotten here, which may be a testament to how long he was a common sight on the bank near the barn. Since both my mother and aunt taught life sciences at local schools I can only assume that his origin is from a classroom egg incubation experiment.
Reporting to you from Eastern Equatoria state, South Sudan, Africa …
I am located in Torit, the capital of Eastern Equatoria state, for the third time in three months. I spend nearly every day working with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Cooperatives and Rural Development.
Soon after being named editor of Progressive Dairyman more than five years ago, my first assignment was to travel with a bus tour through the Midwest en route to World Dairy Expo. I remember sitting on the bed in my hotel room the night before the tour started, feeling anxious as to whether I would be able to write something about the tour that would be new and noteworthy.
I wanted our coverage to stand out. But what made me nervous was that this assignment wasn’t the most obviously newsworthy event. It wasn’t the first-ever bus tour dairymen had organized nor was it the first-ever dairy exhibition that I was headed to. This was World Dairy Expo; hundreds of stories have been written about it already.
Editor's note: Penn State dairy student Hannah Wentworth will be providing monthly updates through the Progressive Dairyman Extra e-newsletter about her study abroad experience in New Zealand this spring.
Check back next month for a new column, or visit her blog at www.pafarmgirladventures.blogspot.com.
Classes are underway at Lincoln University. I am excited to be taking:
• Dairy Science: The New Zealand dairy industry!
• Plant Production Systems: Pastures on different New Zealand farms with field trips to sheep, dairy, deer and cropping operations
• Microbiology: As it relates to food
The following excerpt is from “A Family Farm: Life on an Illinois Dairy Farm,” a new book by Robert Switzer, professor emeritus of biochemistry at the University of Illinois.
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