BUDGET ADDRESS - The Illinois Department of Agriculture will consolidate their animal disease labs into one, under the Governor’s proposed budget.  The Centralia lab will be closed, and all operations will be moved to Galesburg.

 

FARM BILL - Today’s New York Times has a special opinion section on what should be done with the Farm Bill.  The national Farmers Union president is the only ag person commenting on the measure.  Everyone else is anti-farm bill. http://nyti.ms/xl1mMT

 

THE $850 HIT - An Ohio woman who compared animal-welfare work to the liberation of World War II concentration camps has been charged with soliciting a hit man for $850 to fatally shoot or slit the throat of a random fur-wearer, federal authorities say.

 

HARVEST FOR ALL - The farm and ranch families of Farm Bureau last year raised more than $556,273 and donated more than 10 million pounds of food to hungry Americans as part of Farm Bureau’s “Harvest for All” program through Feeding America. Illinois Farm Bureau took top honors for raising the most funds and volunteer hours in 2011, raising $401,000 and volunteering 4,000 hours.