10-14 NWR Farm Bill Wakeup

This is your Northwest report for Friday, October 14th, I am David Sparks and The American Farm Bureau Federation is hoping that a group of farm bill information documents can get its membership talking about the desires it has for the next piece of legislation. On its website, Farm Bureau has a membership survey and more than 40 background papers on different farm bill issues. While Farm Bill preparation is a hot topic in D.C. agricultural circles, Farm Bureau lobbyist Mary K Thatcher says the buzz hasn't reached the countryside: "I think everyone continues to struggle with farmers not really engaging and thinking about farm programs and some of it is probably left over fatigue from the last Farm Bill. I think a lot of it is that people say this one is not due for almost another two years. But, we think next spring we are likely to be called to testify, there are likely to be field hearings etc. and so we want to make sure that we are prepared and we have at least a 10,000 foot view of what our farmers want us to be thinking about in the next farm bill."

Elsewhere, the USDA has just announced the launch of a new private investment fund with the potential to inject $100 million into growth-oriented, small businesses across rural America. And a new study proposes that global methane emissions from fossil fuel development are up to 60 percent greater than estimated by previous studies...