Kevin L. Richards
Farmer
Expert Bio
Kevin Richards farms in the central Oregon high desert where his family grows hybrid carrot seed, grass seed, peppermint oil, alfalfa, wheat and hay on 600 irrigated acres.
Prior to returning to full-time farming, Kevin served as Director of Regulatory Relations for the American Farm Bureau Federation’s Public Policy Team. He specialized in issues relating to biotechnology, sustainable agriculture, and international regulation and trade.
Kevin has also worked as an international economic advisor on policy and development issues ranging from environmental regulation to infrastructure investment and public finance. He has experience working overseas with government officials and industry leaders in Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Pakistan.
Kevin attended Oregon State University, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in economics, and Georgetown University, where he earned Masters’ degrees in public policy and economics.
Studies, Articles and Answers
Showing 4 out of 4 results
Question
A: I think you’re referring to what Congress and the agriculture community call the Farmer Assurance Provision, a small piece of legislative language designed to protect farmers by providing them with the assurance that once they have adopted approved GM seed, their ability to plant and harvest their crop will not be jeopardized by lengthy litigation. Anti-GMO groups have repeatedly used procedural lawsuits as a tactic to try to overturn science-based decisions by USDA and disrupt the regulatory process. The Farmer Assurance Provision aims to make USDA’s decisions more predictable and defensible. [...]
OtherQuestion
A: If you find the Farm Bill confusing, don’t worry. You’re in the majority! The Farm Bill is comprehensive legislation that sets agriculture and food policy in the U.S. every five years. The entire content of the Farm Bill goes far beyond the scope of this website and actually barely mentions GMOs among hundreds of pages of legislative text. That said, the types of questions you’re asking are pretty common. Here are some clarifications. The federal government does not pay farmers to grow GMOs. In general, there are two main types of agriculture subsidies. First, the federal gove [...]
Business Practices GMOs & FarmersQuestion
A: Your question is certainly an interesting one that Congress and federal courts have wrestled with since the very beginning of our democracy. Ultimately, I think the answer to whether the amount of corporate lobbying is appropriate is based largely on personal political philosophy, and reasonable people can disagree on what level of lobbying is or is not ideal. One thing seems fairly objective and clear to me though: so long as corporations are following the rules, there is no basis for discriminating against them because they happen to be large, or they happen to do business in a particu [...]
Business Practices GMOs & FarmersQuestion
Q: Why Do Big Ag Businesses Like Monsanto Spend 5m Dollars a Year Lobbying To the Us Goverment..
A: Companies spend money on lobbying to help preserve a predictable legal and regulatory environment to do business in. Companies involved in the food and agriculture sector spend more money than some other industries because it is regulated more highly. Personally, I would like to see a lot less money spent on lobbying—not just by companies, but also by activist organizations, consumer groups, trade organizations, and individuals. It is not that I think lobbying money is necessarily bad. It’s that I think a lot of that spending is wasteful. There wouldn’t be nearly as much of an incentive [...]
Business Practices GMOs & Farmers