As the Farm Service Agency released a schedule of dates for hearings on plans to close county offices around the country, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, sent Agriculture Secretary Vilsack a letter this week asking him to provide a rationale for the closure of offices in Ohio and an assurance that farmers would continue to get the same level of service. Read More...

FFA, formerly Future Farmers of America, has risen to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s challenge to tell him what’s needed in the next farm bill, as he encourages 100,000 young people to become farmers in the next few years. Read More...

In a sign that mayors are going to get involved in the setting of nutrition policy in the farm bill, the U.S. Conference of Mayors has established a food policy task force headed by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. Read More...

LA QUINTA, Calif. — Two key agricultural lobbyists said here today they believe Congress will make a serious effort to write the farm bill this year and have a chance of succeeding because the fiscal pressures will be worse in 2013 than in 2012. Read More...

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., unveiled his own commodity title Monday at events in North Dakota, his office said in a news release. Read More...

HONOLULU — Delegates to the American Farm Bureau Federation convention here ended their support for the $5 billion annual direct payments program that crop farmers get whether prices are high or low on Tuesday, but the new policy they passed reflected continued differences between regions and commodities that make it difficult for the nation’s largest general farm group to develop policy on a new farm bill. Read More...

HONOLULU — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman may not agree on all the issues facing agriculture, but the two men made the same points on farm bill spending and its schedule here on Sunday.
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HONOLULU — In a sign of the continuing splits among farm groups over the crop program in the next farm bill, American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman appealed to the delegates at the convention here to give him and the board “clear direction” in telling Congress what Farm Bureau members want in the next bill. Read More...