On July 21, 2010, President Obama signed the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Title VII of the Act, entitled “The Wall Street Transparency and Accountability Act,” amended the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) to establish a comprehensive new regulatory framework for swaps and security-based swaps.The legislation was enacted to reduce risk, increase transparency and promote market integrity within the financial system.

Editor’s note: The following opinion was submitted by the author in response to current dairy reform proposals. The world is running out of food Back in 1954, I was a young hired hand working for Law-nel Farms, a large (for that era), 65-cow dairy farm. The owner, Nelson Smith, was a former county agent and I was a “green” college graduate. After milking the cows, the breakfast table was always a feast of Rella Smith’s delicious breakfast and a treasure of Nelson Smith’s conversation and wisdom.

(Click here to listen to a podcast of this column.) The summer sky after a rain is a glorious sight. The stars shimmer in the velvet blackness of infinity and the feeling of loneliness surrounds me as I realize I am only a speck of nothingness in a vast cosmos of other worlds.

During my first month here in Pakistan, I have drawn certain conclusions about agricultural development. In this article I write about one of them, and make the case that one of our greatest attributes in the U.S. is the Land Grant University Extension System (LGUES).

Flashback one year ago. The sting of 2009’s equity loss inflamed many in the industry who called for dairy reform. Ideas were plentiful, and support groups had formed around a few of them. When Foundation for the Future was first announced early in 2010, it didn’t have its current name, or even its own logo. We started calling it NMPF's plan.

I confess ... the older I get, the more cynical I become. Maybe it’s because I truly care about how our elected officials run the government or because I actively participate in the economy. Graduating from college ten years ago, my friends and I had a carefree, “No Regrets” approach to life. Nothing that happened really seemed to affect us, so we weren’t too concerned with what was going on in the “grown-up world.”

The other day I was mopping my floor with my fancy mop, one that piddles on the floor and I mop it up, cleaning the floor like magic! I smiled as I remembered my childhood and teenage years, when I was floor cleaning Cinderella-style on my knees with a pan of water and a scrub brush.

It’s New Year’s Day. Here is a story of entering the field, which all field scientists do. What we see is but a fraction of what is there. So here is a photo-essay of what I see and what I imagine. I am here at the National Agricultural Research Center. I have visited many such centers all over the world. But here, in a flood of blue and red colors, on inscribed rolls of paper, are the words of a mandate.

I’ve always enjoyed hearing from readers and therefore I was really excited to hear from our newest admirers after the release of Progressive Dairyman’s first Canadian issue in January.

Early this morning I read this blogpost (http://www.ethanolrfa.org/exchange/entry/ethanol-fact-vacuum)from the Renewable Fuels Association: In it, the author claims that "America is still feeding the same amount of corn to livestock it historically has." According to USDA data, feed corn and corn byproduct usage declined from 2008 through 2009. To RFA's credit, total livestock populations on feed during that time were nose-diving and depressed, as was the economy. The latest estimates from last month indicate feed corn use will increase slightly during the current marketing year, spanning Sept. 2010 to Aug. 2011.