Farm Blogging

Congressman Earl Blumenauer from Oregon is taking on the thankless cause of farm policy reform, both at his website and at TPM Cafe's table for one.

Comments

Seems like good stuff, mostly, and pretty impressive for an urban congressman to work on this.
Of course, it will never happen, given that (a) most of the people in Congress who care about the issue have been bought by the corporate corn and sugar lobbies and (b) most the popluation will never care about wonky issues like these.

Posted by Jose Peterson | June 4, 2007 3:45 PM

Blumenauer: "Americans have a right to a policy that promotes energy independence: The pursuit of heavily subsidized corn-based ethanol is a fool’s game fueled only by massive government subsidies and regulations not justified by the science or economics. We deserve a food and farm policy that enables our farmers and ranchers to produce vast quantities of renewable energy: wind, solar, in some cases small-scale hydro, geothermal and biomass."

The preceding is an excellent example of the ridiculous hold that "energy independence" maintains over American political discourse. Corn ethanol deserves the bashing it gets, but given that it comes from Iowa rather than Dubai, you wouldn't think this if you were actually concerned about energy independence rather than carbon emissions. Which Blumenauer, despite what he says, clearly isn't, and rightfully so.

Posted by Jose Peterson | June 4, 2007 3:55 PM

Corn ethanol deserves the bashing it gets, but given that it comes from Iowa rather than Dubai, you wouldn't think this if you were actually concerned about energy independence rather than carbon emissions.

No, you're mistaken. The point is that corn ethanol will never be a viable contributor towards energy independence, even though it gets sold under that label. So if you're really concerned about energy independence, the argument goes, you'll want US government policy to be less focused on the boondoggle that is corn ethanol, and more focused on realistic alternatives.

Posted by Steve | June 4, 2007 4:00 PM

Many threads come together in agricultural policy. It is, in a sense, the driver of the US economy, as the elements of transportation, manufacturing, distribution, and export policy that serve it are in themselves huge subjects. To argue that energy runs a close second is simply to miss the point- much of that energy is used making food.

Yet this mighty hegemony stands on the precipice. Our topsoil is disappearing, the materials we use for fertilizer rising in price, and other nations are developing their own mechanized agriculture.

In one respect, today is a vast improvement on the white-bread 50s. One need only contemplate the lugubrious artifacts of that era on the supermarket shelves- Spam, canned 'pork and beans', white bread- to imagine the dark ages of eating from which we have emerged.

Unfortunately, the suburbs of today were farms in the 50s. The extent of this loss can hardly be imagined by young people, and that failure of the imagination is perhaps the most serious symptom of what ails us.

The price of a bushel of wheat is the same now as it was in 1900, but in 1900 you could buy a six-course dinner for the price of a loaf of bread today. Food for thought.

Posted by serial catowner | June 5, 2007 1:13 PM