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Texas Agriculture Archive

July 4, 2003

Death tax elimination gains ground

Supporters cite recent House action that they're gaining ground in complete estate tax, or "death tax," elimination.

"We are very pleased that the House of Representatives again has passed absolute elimination of the death tax by a rather wide margin; in fact, a wider margin than has been in previous votes," said American Farm Bureau Public Policy Director Dick Newpher.

The problem now is getting it passed in the Senate, where it will take 60 votes to pass the controversial legislation.

"We are expecting that we're probably at 58 votes in the Senate and we need desperately to have two more votes so that we can pass this legislation and send it on to the president, and that's going to be a very big challenge," Newpher said.

Currently, death tax exemptions are rising each year with complete elimination due in 2010. But the tax comes back in 2011.

"The people who have very, very large estates have already found ways to avoid paying the death tax," Newpher said. "They put together some kind of tax scheme that makes sure they don't pay the death taxes. The small businesses and farmers generally have to deal with the planning, the legal work that goes on with regard to death taxes."

Newpher said the fact that the numbers from the vote are growing each time the issue is voted, "I think tells us that the sentiment is growing in our favor."

Case IH in search of Farmall tractor photos

Case IH is looking for a few outstanding photos of Farmall tractors. Winning entries in "The Spirit of Farmall Photo Contest" will appear in the 2004 Case IH Farmall custom calendar that will be distributed worldwide.The contest coincides with Case IH's revival of the Farmall name on a line of compact tractors to be launched later this year.

Each contest entrant may submit up to three, color Farmall images. Thirteen finalists will be selected: one for each month and one for the cover. Finalists will receive a 1/16th scale model Farmall Super H tractor and 20 calendars to share with family and friends. Deadline for contest entries is July 11.

Photos must be submitted as 35mm prints from film negatives or slides, or digital photos on disk—horizontal format preferred. It isn't recommended that photographs include people operating or standing in front of the equipment. Nevertheless, people in the environment are fine. Case IH retains all rights to photographs upon submission, but originals can be returned if the entrant includes a stamped, self-addressed envelope.

For more information and for entry forms, visit the Case IH web site at www.caseih.com or contact Deena or Shannon at 800-435-7844 or 904-264-6006.

Trade priorities detailed

The American Farm Bureau Federation has reaffirmed its support for trade negotiations and detailed the priorities it believes must be part of any agreement that truly opens agricultural trade.

In testimony before the House Ag Committee, AFBF President Bob Stallman said the World Trade Organization negotiations are agriculture's best opportunity to address a number of trade problems. However, AFBF does not support the proposal that Stuart Harbinson, chairman of the WTO ag committee, crafted to forge a compromise between different proposals.

"The AFBF board spent a substantial amount of time at their board meeting a few weeks ago discussing the Harbinson proposal," Stallman said. "The board voted unanimously that the Farm Bureau position is that having no WTO agreement would be better than accepting a poor agreement—and that the current Harbinson proposal is a poor agreement for American agriculture."

"We feel it undermines the full intent and the whole program for implementing the law as passed as part of the farm bill," said American Farm Bureau Commodity Policy Specialist Carolina Anderson-Rydell.

Anderson-Rydell maintains the new labeling law for meat and meat products is controversial primarily because of a lack of information.

"Much of the controversy would be squelched if USDA came up with some answers to some of the questions," she said.

Anderson-Rydell says the move by the subcommittee would delay the USDA's ability to answer those questions.

"Cutting the funding simply complicates the program and doesn't give USDA the resources to carry out the intention of the law," the commodity policy specialist said.

Many livestock producers and processors are concerned that new rules to track the origin of cattle will be expensive, because no tracking program currently exists.

Notable Quotables

"When we started, we were unsure if the seeds would even remain planted in space without any gravity, let alone grow. As it turned out, the project was the first ever to complete a major crop growth cycle in space—from planting seeds to growing new seeds."

—DuPont Co. researcher Tom Corbin on the success of a soybean crop grown in space on the International Space Station. The experiment, conducted by DuPont subsidiary Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., and researchers from the Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics, yielded 83 space-grown soybean seeds, which were found to have similar physical and biological characteristics as earth-grown soybeans. The scientists said the experiment offers the possibility that space-grown vegetation could support long-term human presence in space.