Jim Goodman
Jim Goodman is a third-generation dairy farmer from Wonewoc, Wisconsin.
Articles by this author
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Views Thursday, August 22, 2019 Farmers Need a Bill of Rights On January 11, 1944 in his annual State of the Union Address, President Roosevelt noted that while the Constitution guaranteed a set of political rights, they were in some respects inadequate. To ensure equality, Roosevelt proposed an Economic Bill of Rights that would guarantee: Full employment... Read more |
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Views Monday, June 17, 2019 Current Farm Crisis Offers Opportunity For Change JFK, as it turns out, was not correct when he noted 60 years ago that the word 'crisis' is a combination of the Chinese brush strokes meaning danger and opportunity. While he was linguistically incorrect, we get what he was saying. A crisis situation can be the impetus for change, an opportunity to... Read more |
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Views Tuesday, May 28, 2019 An Anti-Trust Reboot Could Give Democrats Traction in Rural America Democrats need to study history and follow the example of Theodore Roosevelt , in other words, become “trust busters.” Roosevelt was a Republican and his willingness to confront the monopolists of his day earned him scorn from some, yet enough support to win the Presidency in 1904. Eventually, the... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, April 17, 2019 Don’t Fall for the Hype of Free Trade Agreements Approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA 2.0 also known USMCA) will do little to reverse the problems of the NAFTA trade agreement of 1994. Nothing in the proposed replacement agreement will prevent job outsourcing, nor is there any part of the agreement that would reverse our... Read more |
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Views Sunday, December 23, 2018 Dairy Farming is Dying. After 40 Years, I’m Done. After 40 years of dairy farming, I sold my herd of cows this summer. The herd had been in my family since 1904; I know all 45 cows by name. I couldn’t find anyone who wanted to take over our farm — who would? Dairy farming is little more than hard work and possible economic suicide. A grass-based... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, October 03, 2018 Bad Farm Policy Contributes to Natural Disasters Good farm policy works for rural people by stabilizing prices, encouraging the growth of rural communities, and helping farm families deal with natural disasters. This last point is particularly relevant now, as fires rage in the Western US, tornadoes, hurricanes and floods destroy communities... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, November 29, 2017 Stop Pretending the Estate Tax Has Anything to Do With Family Farmers The mystique of the family farmer in this country goes all the way back to Thomas Jefferson’s model for democracy. Jefferson centered his vision on the yeoman farmer, who, with family labor, worked a small farm and embodied the virtues of honest and hard work. It was an important idea to a new... Read more |
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Views Friday, October 27, 2017 In Organic Farming, Rules Are Not Made to be Broken Consumers see organic food labels showing cows grazing next to a little red barn and that’s what they want to buy, products from happy cows owned by profitable farmers that respect the rules, their customers, the environment and their animals. And, most organic milk is still produced that way — the... Read more |
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Views Tuesday, April 25, 2017 NAFTA Needs To Be Replaced, Not Renegotiated The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) must be replaced with a transparent trade agreement that ensures farmers in all three nations—Canada, Mexico, and the United States—receive fair prices for their production, that consumers are guaranteed the right to know the content and origin of... Read more |
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Views Friday, August 21, 2015 Truth In Labeling—It's Our Right to Know What's in Our Food Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1599, the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015. A gross misnomer, of course, since the bill's real purpose is to preempt the rights of state and local governments to pass laws requiring the mandatory labeling of genetically modified... Read more |