Dear Jason,
On behalf of America's farm and ranch families, I want to publicly thank you for bringing greater attention, through your music, to the challenges we face. Those involved in agriculture here in the United States work hard every day to feed, clothe, and fuel our nation in a way that is unrivaled in history.
I live on my farm outside the small West Texas town of Kress, about 60 miles from Amarillo. My family and I wake up each morning to grow cotton under the "Amarillo Sky" for which one of your greatest works is named. That song is especially meaningful to every farmer and rancher who, like me, has a young son or daughter that wants to carry on the family tradition. The stories of the three young men featured in your video are shared by farm kids all over this great country of ours.
Since the G-8 Leaders and five of their developing country counterparts set 2010 as the end date for completion of the Doha Round at the July Summit, there have been multiplying pledges of fealty to the Round, culminating in the alleged "breakthrough" at the meeting of Trade Ministers in New Delhi earlier this month. While Ministers avoided substance as carefully as one would avoid H1N1, this "breakthrough" did serve to drag negotiators back to Geneva with the usual procedural incantations: process of engagement, action agenda, work plans.
