More than 20 farm groups this month launched the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance in an attempt to improve the public image of U.S. agribusiness.

The announcement was covered primarily by the trade press. Here are links to stories from The Cattle Network, AgWeb, and The Packer.

The Des Moines Register reports that this "latest attempt to burnish public image of U.S. agribusiness" may cost up to $30 million.  The newspaper says farm groups are worried that their public support is slipping amid attacks on farm subsidies and the success of best-selling critics such as Michael Pollan. 

 "The farm lobby is likely to face a fierce struggle to protect agricultural spending in the next Congress, which is due to write a new farm bill by 2012. The White House’s bipartisan deficit commission is considering a proposal to slash farm spending by $3 billion a year, or about 25 percent of the total annual payments that now go to farmers and landowners," the newspaper writes in its Green Fields blog.