The following post was added prior to the U.S. House vote to delay passage of the 2013 Farm Bill on the afternoon of June 20.

By Gene Hall

While left-wing environmental groups attacked farmers and the farm bill for years, farmers now are being hit from the right by the Heritage Foundation.

By Gene Hall

The farm bill should be an easy vote, easily explained back home.

There is not any jobs bill on which Congress could vote that will sustain more jobs than a farm bill. These jobs range from the farm gate to port cities. From truck terminals and railheads to hometown grocery stores, jobs are the legacy of farm bill legislation. There are jobs in urban centers and jobs in small farm towns—jobs dependent on farming.

By Gene Hall

It’s a curious coalition that always creeps out of the deep woods to oppose the farm bill, which, in one form or another has ensured U.S. supplies of food and fiber since the 1930s.

It’s sort of like an episode of The Walking Dead.  One group of zombies swoops in from the deep woods of the left, believing that attacking modern agriculture in their typical Luddite fashion will produce the environmental utopia of which they dream.

The following post is a reprint of The Ag Agenda written by Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation.

The New Year is upon us, which means many of you have probably made a New Year’s resolution or two. The funny thing about resolutions is that they are easier to make than to keep (I speak from experience). Come January 7, that piece of cheesecake typically wins out, while the elliptical machine is already starting to gather dust.

By Gene Hall

Okay, I admit it.  Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack got my attention when he said rural America is becoming irrelevant.

“It’s time for us to have an adult conversation with folks in rural America,” Vilsack said in a speech at a Farm Journal forum. “It’s time for a different thought process here, in my view.”

Vilsack was once the governor of Iowa, a Democrat, and he expressed his disappointment over squabbling in the farm sector. He said rural America should pick its political fights more carefully. Citing the lack of a farm bill as evidence, Vilsack hinted that rural America, which voted overwhelmingly Republican, is losing its influence.