AGRICULTURE NEEDS EDUCATED VOTERS

Oct 09, 2012  |  Today's News

Today is the final day to register to vote AND be able to vote in the November 6 election.  Assuming that you are a registered voter and have that task checked off your to-do list, you are probably now considering which candidates have earned your vote.  IL Corn’s Election 2012 site might be able to help you with your decision.

Our site contains links to Presidential candidate responses on a wide variety of agricultural topics like energy, farm policy and trade.  You can read your way through comments the candidates have offered in the media and comments they’ve offered directly to the agricultural community. 

As an example, Mitt Romney said the following regarding policy: “On the broader question of farm programs, we must be cognizant that our agricultural producers are competing with other nations around the world. Other nations subsidize their farmers, so we must be careful not to unilaterally change our policies in a way that would disadvantage agriculture here in our country. In addition, we want to make sure that we don’t ever find ourselves in a circumstance where we depend on foreign nations for our food the way we do with energy. Ultimately, it is in everyone’s interest is achieve a level playing field on which American farmers can compete.”

President Barack Obama commented on farm policy too: “I know that any farm bill passed this year – and there needs to be a farm bill passed this year – needs to have adequate protections for America’s farmers. That’s why I have called for maintaining a strong crop insurance program and an extended disaster assistance program. We can reduce the deficit without sacrificing rural American economic growth, as the Romney-Ryan budget would do. Instead of making farmer pay more for crop insurance, we will do it by cutting subsidies to crop insurance companies and better targeting conservation funding.”

And if you’ve already selected a candidate, you can find great information about the status of the race like polling numbers and electoral college votes needed to win.  You can even simulate the vote, assigning electoral college votes to the candidates as you predict the election will occur.

Check out the IL Corn Election 2012 site.  Please be an informed voter during this election season.