Merrigan choice for USDA deputy secretary
	Finessing a fertilizer deal
	Traditional farm programs may be replaced
	Some 'drive wedge' between consumers, ethanol
	Stimulus plan should help farmers
	Budgeting, marketing to play key roles
	Europe must accept biotech
	Beekeepers 'hanging on'
	Money doesn't mean credit's easy

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Spring planting is not that far away and the weather, albeit slow in the process, is changing. Farmers are wrapping up pre-planting projects and preparing to move back into the fields for another spring season. With an uncertain economy and the potential for unstable markets, the year offers up more challenges than usual. But in spite of tough times and the long road ahead, there are rumored pockets of optimism that suggest agriculture will survive the current crisis and emerge a better industry in spite of heavy regulatory control and government legislation. In spite of that, producers are finding it difficult to embrace that optimism as they head into the busy time just ahead.

We explore the latest and developing issues in this issue of Crop News Weekly and offer up a chance to take an interactive part in our growing online community. Welcome back!

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Kathleen A. Merrigan is President Obama’s nominee for deputy secretary of the Department of Agriculture. Obama, speaking of Merrigan and other nominees, said, “I am grateful that these distinguished men and women have chosen to put their unique talents and expertise to work serving our country. Together, I am confident that we will be able to tackle the challenges of our time as we work to right our economy and enact policies that give America’s working families the relief they need.”

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition praised the selection of Merrigan. “The farmers and rural constituents of our grassroots member organizations are excited to have a lifelong supporter of family farmers and sustainable and organic agriculture working with the (Obama) administration to reform U.S. food and agriculture policy,” said the coalition in a statement to the press.

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“What We've got here is a failure to communicate.” It's a famous line from the 1967 movie classic Cool Hand Luke that starred Paul Newman. It's also a fitting theme for what's been happening in the crop input side of agriculture since last summer.

Fertilizer prices hit new highs as a number of market forces aligned and caused an artificial spike. With corn and soybean prices also setting price records, many dealers filled their fertilizer barns in anticipation of a normal fall market, without any commitments from farmers. When the bottom fell out of the market, they found themselves with a high-priced product that their customers say they can't afford. - John Russnogle, Farm Industry News

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Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says the government must begin to look at new ways to support farmers — including the use of “green payments” — because of the impact of the recently passed economic stimulus package on the federal deficit.

Vilsack, the former two-term governor of Iowa who became secretary on Jan. 21, said producers must begin to think creatively and innovatively about how they can use their land to absorb carbon, how they can structure a financial market for the use of their land and provide additional support for everyone who farms. - Forrest Laws, Farm Press Editorial Staff

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New anti-ethanol commentary by environmental and food manufacturing organizations are “stirring up fear” among consumers at a time when all segments of the economy should be pulling together to bring about recovery.

The Washington-based Environmental Working Group and the Grocery Manufacturers Association seem to be intent on destroying the ethanol industry at a time when the country needs to be reducing rather than increasing its dependence on foreign oil, National Corn Growers Association officials say. - Forrest Laws, Farm Press Editorial Staff

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The global economic slowdown may not affect agriculture as severely as it does other industries, but farm families are feeling the pinch with commodity markets and production inputs.

Economist Jose Pena says tighter credit may not have as serious an effect on agriculture as it does on other industries. “Rural banks appear to have funds available to finance agriculture,” he says.

“But the financial crisis probably will dictate that agricultural lenders require more financial information and loan application documentation from borrowers, especially in terms of details on how they secure loans.” - Ron Smith, Farm Press Editorial Staff

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Kenneth Wright spent a lot of time this winter pouring over figures, trying to find ways to match production cost cuts with what’s likely to be a 15 percent income reduction from a Hunt County, Texas, wheat, grain sorghum, corn and soybean operation.

He and son Kendall also will watch markets closely, closer than usual perhaps, looking for opportunities to lock in a profitable price.- Ron Smith, Farm Press Editorial Staff

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Food imports produced through biotechnology should be less of a problem for European Union countries as the rest of the world adopts them, EU official Dan Rotenberg said at a seminar on U.S./EU trade relations during the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 90th annual meeting in San Antonio.

The EU must accept biotech food and feed or it won’t be able to feed its livestock, Rotenberg said, and would then need to import meat from animals fed biotech crops in the United States or elsewhere. Rotenberg is the European Commission counselor to the United States.

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For several years, U.S. honeybees — key for good crop yields — have been dying off or abandoning colonies en masse, resulting in fears for the pollination of U.S. crops. The die-offs and set of odd behaviors exhibited by honeybees is known as colony collapse disorder, a malady researchers have yet to pinpoint the cause of.

In 2006-07, problems with colony collapse disorder-affected hives had largely been an East Coast problem. Tens of thousands of colonies were lost to the disease. By last summer, the problem had shifted to the West Coast, where crops like almonds rely heavily on the insects. - David Bennett, Farm Press Editorial Staff

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On the day Barack Obama was taking the oath of office as the nation’s 44th president, the U.S. stock market was tanking big-time. So much for optimism in the financial sector.

Despite infusions of a trillion dollars or so by the U.S. Treasury into the financial system, almost daily the news reports are of more billions in losses by major financial institutions, more business failures, more thousands of job layoffs, and more ravaging of 401(k)s, IRAs, and market-based college savings plans. In 2008, an estimated $8.4 trillion vanished from U.S. equity markets. - Hembree Brandon, Farm Press Editorial Staff

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