Just after the 9-11 attacks Senate majority leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) said that he wanted a farm bill proposal out of the House in two weeks. But with the closing of Senate offices over the last week due to the Anthrax crisis, the entire process has been delayed.

In the interim there is great confusion and many different proposals are being discussed, considered and advanced. Senator Lugar (Rep- ID) has proposed a farm bill based on commodities "vouchers" that is receiving a lukewarm reception from the commodities groups. Senate agricultural chairman Tom Harkin has yet to release his proposal and reports are that it should be out next week with a strong Conservation Security Act component.

Meanwhile, in a surprising turn of events several large meat and corn commodities groups have just sent a letter to Daschle requesting that he delay passage of any farm bill this year and instead pass a bill in the early part of next year. Stay tuned as the Senate turns.

Speaking of twists and turns, as the House version of the farm bill heads to the Senate and farm bill talks reach a crescendo in Washington, negotiations are as unpredictable as a west Texas twister. This time at the eye of the storm is the rumored deal

between the House Ag committee and the White House on "Fast Track" legislation. Last week the Congress Daily (Oct. 19) reported in an article on "Fast Track" (presidential trade authority), that the White House was stepping up efforts to pass fast track and in doing so "were getting serious" about the farm bill. The article reported that White House and OMB (Office and Management and

Business) staff "met behind closed doors (last) Thursday with several commodity group officials" to discuss the situation. Inherent in these discussions was finding common ground between the House Ag committee (Stenholm/Combest) on funding for a commodities heavy farm bill in exchange for their key votes in support of "fast track." Then, later in the week, OMB reported that the administration's support "could rise to the $73.5 billion" figure initially requested in the Stenholm/Combest bill. Stay tuned for more on the fast track, farm bill deal making.

With the recent terrorists attacks, domestic bio-energy production from plant materials is gaining renewed attention as U.S. policy leaders examine alternative sources to foreign oil dependence. Unfortunately, the farm bill proposal advanced out of the House two weeks ago fails to capitilize on an opportunity to help farmers. While this legislation promotes biomass production through a transportation subsidy, none of this money is available to farmers. Instead, H.R. 2646, gives $50 million annually solely to the timber industry where the subsidy offsets transportation of trees to biomass generation plants, to the tune of $5-10 per ton. The practice will likely result in the logging of large healthy trees which increases the likelihood of fire and degrades forest habitats.

Common sense would suggest using recyclable plant materials from farmers provides a more sustainable method of bio-fuels generation and progressive farm and environmental groups are calling for this subsidy to be made available to farmers as well. Rural Updates! will keep you posted on the progress of this as the Senate begins to review the House proposal in the coming weeks.

4. NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE VOICES OPPOSITION TO ANTIBIOTICS IN ANIMAL FEED

The prominent medical journal "The New England Journal of Medicine" this week stakes out a position opposing the use of antibiotics in animal feed. The October 18 issue of the Journal contains three studies documenting the presence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in supermarket meats and human intestinal tracts. The first study found that 20 percent of ground meats (chicken, turkey, beef and pork) from supermarkets contained Salmonella bacteria, and that over half of the strains detected were resistant to three or more antibiotics. The second study found antibiotic resistant strains of the bacteria Enterococcus faecium in 17 percent of chickens purchased at supermarkets in four states.

The bacteria were resistant to an antibiotic at the time approved for livestock but not humans, indicating that the resistance probably came from feedlot antibiotic use. In the third study, healthy participants ingested samples of meat-derived antibiotic resistant bacteria, and found (by testing stool samples) that the bacteria survived in the intestinal tract of each person. (No word on how 18 healthy people were convinced to ingest resistant bacteria). As the widespread use of antibiotics as a livestock "growth-promoter" is cited as a chief cause of increased resistance, these three articles were accompanied by an editorial calling for a halt to the use of antibiotics in animal feed. For more information, see http://www.nejm.org.