Several farm groups held a news conference today in an effort to urge Congress to act on estate tax reform during the lame duck session. As of now the estate tax will revert back to its pre-2001 exemption amount of $1 million, with a tax rate of 55 percent on January 1, 2011. One of the panelist, Taylor Slade a North Carolina cotton and peanut farmer, said that the outdated tax law hits all of agriculture, as it doesn’t take much for an operation to exceed the $1 million dollar exemption.