Sarah Palin did mention "the farmers here in this great state of Minnesota" in slamming Obama's tax policies, and their effect on small business. She talked about her sister's new gas station and other small businesses that need to be encouraged, not torn down, by excessive taxation and federal regulations.
It was very effective, and showed that a lot of Palin's role will be to relate to the little guy. She introduced her husband Todd, and noted that he was a proud member of the United Steelworkers Union, and world champion snowmobiler.
The one reference was the extent of ag issue mentions at the GOP confab, about like the Democratic parley last week in Denver. Once the Iowa caucusses are over each election year, so are the high level discussions of farm issues.
The GOP platform, which has already received about all the notariety and publicity it will ever get, does call for ending the mandates to use ethanol in motor fuels. This would knock the props out from under this highly subsidized, inefficient fuel and take corn farmers back down the slippery slope.
Actually, this is inevitable eventually and any smart corn farmer is banking his windfall profits while the getting is good, to be ready to batten down the hatches when better alternatives to corn-based ethanol are fully developed.
If nothing else, the inclusion of this plank in the GOP platform speaks volumes about the power of the livestock lobby and particularly the food processing lobby versus the corn lobby--in the power structure of Washington. Now that food prices are rising smartly because of the high cost of corn for sweetner and fattening livestock--corn-based ethanol's days are clearly numbered.
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