BY CYNDIE SIREKIS

More and more women are taking on leading roles in the agriculture industry.

Some might find it surprising, but over the past 10 years the presence of women in agriculture has increased significantly, with a 21 percent rise in the number of female principal farm operators. Today, 30 percent of all farm operators are women, according to the latest Census of Agriculture.

Terry Gilbert, chair of the American Farm Bureau Women’s Leadership Committee and a Kentucky farmer, says many women gravitate toward specialty-type and value-added farming, such as vegetable and fruit production for local markets.

“Everybody wants to know their farmer, know their food and know where their food comes from, and I think a lot of women are getting into farming to answer that need,” Gilbert says.

Although more doors are open to them than ever before in history, women in agriculture still face obstacles.

There still seems to be a little bit of a prejudice or negativity against women, a sentiment that “she can’t do what a man can do,” Gilbert says. Despite the nay-sayers, “Women are extremely capable of being leaders in agriculture and in farm organizations,” Gilbert says.

She’s not interested in starting a gender war, believing that men and women bring unique strengths to agriculture. She would like to see more women become involved in agricultural leadership through Farm Bureau women’s programs.

Training women to be effective spokespersons and to be comfortable speaking in front of a group – talking about what they do on the farm or ranch and why – is an important focus of the Farm Bureau Women’s Leadership Program, with its “Growing Strong” theme for 2014-2015. The program highlights grassroots initiatives such as the year-long Our Food Link program that advocates the importance of agriculture with consumers of all ages. Other initiatives include enhancing women’s business planning skills, strengthening social media strategies and engaging in balanced community conversations about food.

Learn more online at www.facebook.com/FBWomen or read the Our Food Link Blog.

Cyndie Sirekis is director of internal communications at the American Farm Bureau Federation.

By Bryan Thompson
Kansas Public Radio

TOPEKA — A Washington, D.C., group that advocates for families and children is urging Kansans to speak up for renewal of the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

CHIP was created in 1997 to provide coverage for kids whose families are not poor enough for Medicaid but can’t afford private insurance. Congress must reauthorize the program for it to continue after the next fiscal year. More than 56,000 children in Kansas are enrolled in CHIP.
The advocacy group First Focus recently released a report showing that publicly funded insurance, including CHIP and Medicaid, is more important to rural children than to their urban counterparts. According to First Focus spokesman Ed Walz, that’s absolutely true in Kansas.

“Rural kids are 23 percent more likely to get their health care through CHIP or Medicaid than kids in Kansas urban communities,” he said.

Kansas is positioned to play a key role in getting the program renewed, Walz said. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., is a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, which has scheduled a hearing on the reauthorization Tuesday. In the House, Kansas Reps. Tim Huelskamp and Mike Pompeo, both Republicans, serve on the Congressional Rural Caucus.

The Senate bill would reauthorize CHIP through 2019. Walz said the price tag for the extension would depend on the final structure of the bill.

“There’s some really encouraging news there,” he said, because the Congressional Budget Office estimated the cost of extending CHIP funding for four years and found it would be less than the alternative.

“As children became uninsured and the federal government had to pick up some of those costs, as children moved into Obamacare exchange plans and as they moved into Medicaid – that combination of costs would actually be higher for the government than extending CHIP coverage,” Walz said.

First Focus conducted a poll earlier this year that showed strong bipartisan support for CHIP in Kansas, including two-thirds of Republicans and two-thirds of voters who identify with the Tea Party.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — State records show that a Democratic U.S. Senate nominee seeking to get his name off the ballot is the only candidate since 2010 to fail to use wording that the secretary of state’s office says is required.

The Wichita Eagle (http://bit.ly/1qSKS4t ) reports that nine other candidates have withdrawn after winning their party’s nomination in the past four years. Records The Eagle obtained shows all of them declared they were incapable to serve.

Secretary of State Kris Kobach has kept Democrat Chad Taylor on the ballot against his will. Kobach says Taylor did not declare himself incapable to serve if elected in his letter withdrawing from the race.

Taylor sought to withdraw to clear the way for independent candidate Greg Orman to directly oppose Republican Pat Roberts.

United States Attorney’s Office

TOPEKA- The former president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local Union 906 pleaded guilty Monday to embezzling more than $51,000 from union members in Topeka and Waco, Texas, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said.

Timothy Sanchez, 40, Topeka, pleaded guilty to one count of embezzlement. In his plea, he admitted the crimes occurred while he was president of the labor union, which represents approximately 200 active members who are employed at the Veterans Administration Health Resource Center in Topeka and Waco.

While Sanchez served as president, he embezzled funds from the union by making unauthorized debit card charges for expense reimbursements, writing unauthorized checks for his own benefit, and filing false meeting minutes and annual financial reports with the Department of Labor to conceal his embezzlement.

Sentencing is set for Nov. 25. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000. The U.S. Department of Labor Office of Labor-Management Standards investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Rich Hathaway is prosecuting.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Hundreds of mourners have turned out to remember a Topeka police corporal killed in the line of duty.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that officers from more than 70 law enforcement agencies were on hand when Cpl. Jason Harwood was buried Saturday.

The observance featured the reading of a letter to Harwood from his surviving identical twin brother, Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Jeremy Harwood. Also, the German shepherd who was Harwood’s K-9 partner before his promotion to corporal two years ago lay down in front of the casket.

Harwood was a decorated 15-year police veteran who was shot after he pulled over a car last weekend. Prosecutors have announced plans to seek the death penalty against the man charged in the killing.