Farm and Food File for the week beginning Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023 By Alan Guebert It’s been years since this weekly effort has used any time, muscle or brain cells to write, or, frankly, even care about any of the 21 costly, largely ineffective, and virtually bulletproof federal commodity checkoff programs. The reason is simple:…

I will be explaining how next Wednesday September 6th at 10:30 in Torrington, Wyoming at https://wyomingfarmranchandhempexpo.com/ Hope to see you there.

R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard Phone: 406-252-2516; r-calfusa View and share this week’s update on Facebook here,, Twitter here or view the web version here. Please find below R-CALF USA’s weekly opinion/commentary that discusses how producers are harmed when the government-run beef checkoff program increases competition against them. It is in three formats: written, audio…

As a lifelong rancher, I want to speak up for the Nebraskan cowboy — while we still exist. There is a runaway government program that’s taking our money and handing it off to corporate forces that work against us. Cattle producers, like every producer of 21 other commodities, have to pay a mandatory tax called…

Who Regulates the Food We Eat? Producers and Politicians Scrap Over Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall’s EATS Act Cami Koonsckoons@flatlandkc.org Above image credit: The EATS Act and California’s Proposition 12 are mostly focused on the pork industry, but cattle producers also have their opinions on the issue. (Contributed | Callicrate Cattle) There’s a fight brewing over…

Opinion: Farmers demand accountability and efficiency in government checkoff programs 08/24/23 2:40 PM By Angela Huffman In his July 25th op ed, “Once again big government comes for farmers and ranchers,” CEO of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Colin Woodall shares his fear that “big government” will muck up commodity checkoff programs if lawmakers…

Beginning her career as a teaching academic, Emelie K. Peine found that her students, much like people she studied with herself “were just as earnest and well-meaning, and just as clueless about Appalachia in particular, the south in general, and rural America at large.” by Emelie K. Peine / University of Puget Sound August 22,…

‘Got Milk’ has got to go, left and right agree By Saul Elbein, 8/16/23 Got Milk. The other white meat. Beef: It’s what’s for dinner. The libertarian right and progressive left don’t agree on much, but they are in lockstep regarding “checkoff” programs — the public-private partnerships that churned out all those familiar marketing slogans….

Judge sides with young activists in first-of-its-kind climate change trial in Montana Today at 2:00 a.m. By BETH HANSON and MATTHEW BROWN / Associated Press FILE – Lead plaintiff Rikki Held listens to testimony during a hearing in the climate change lawsuit, Held vs. Montana, at the Lewis and Clark County Courthouse on, June 20,…

War is expensive both on and off the battlefield Alan Guebert Aug. 13, 2023 When asked to describe war, Union General William T. Sherman noted that “War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it.” Later, in a speech, Sherman did refine his easily forgettable dictum to the much shorter, impossible-to-forget: “War is hell.” Others thought…