Pelosi Takes Heat for OK of Farm Bill
Legislation heavy on subsidies draws Bay Area activists’ fire
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signed off Friday on a five-year farm bill that would keep multibillion-dollar subsidies flowing to cotton, corn and a handful of other crops, deeply disappointing Bay Area food and environmental activists who had hoped that Congress might shift federal farm policy this year to combat obesity, air and water pollution and industrial farming.
Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat, hailed as reform a bill that would grant subsidies to farmers earning up to $1 million — five times more than the cap sought by the Bush administration — while increasing actual payments to farmers. The bill comes during the most prosperous era American agriculture has seen in decades as crop prices and farm income approach or set record highs.
“Bush seems to be taking a harder stance on millionaires than the Democratic Party, which is surprising,” said Kari Hamerschlag, policy director for the California Coalition for Food and Farming, a Watsonville group urging lawmakers to move money from crop subsidies to environmental and nutrition programs.
The bill, finished late Thursday night by the House Agriculture Committee, would add $1.6 billion for environmental and pest detection programs and research for California’s fruit, nut and vegetable crops. It also would add money for farmers’ markets and to provide more fresh produce in school lunch programs. Approval of the money is a breakthrough for the state’s specialty crop industry, which receives no direct subsidies.
But the bill leaves the big commodity programs intact for cotton, corn, wheat, rice, soybeans and a handful of other crops that have been subsidized since the Dust Bowl in the 1930s.
Last year, farmers received more than $21 billion in crop subsidies. Average farm incomes are about 20 percent higher than the average U.S. household income.
The committee even threw in an export subsidy for tobacco.
If anything, “we’ve actually increased the rates at which we support prices” for subsidized crops, said Daniel Sumner, a leading farm economist and director of the Agricultural Issues Center at UC Davis. “We’ve really done nothing of a significant nature to change those programs. … I think that’s a mistake for the country.”
Pelosi’s prime motivation in supporting the current farm policy apparently is to preserve the re-election prospects of freshman Democrats in rural districts who toppled Republicans in November and helped secure Democrats their House majority and Pelosi the speakership. Nine of the freshmen sit on the House Agriculture Committee. Several said they feared any vote to reform farm programs would endanger their political prospects.
Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly said the speaker was trying to “balance equities” between competing groups.
The Bay Area has become a hotbed of opposition to this year’s farm bill. Food activists have teamed with environmentalists to form the most potent coalition in 75 years against the traditional farm lobby, one of the most powerful in Washington. Subsidized commodity interests dominate the House and Senate agriculture committees.
Led by Michael Pollan, a professor at UC Berkeley, and Berkeley restaurateur Alice Waters, food activists have become a force against crop subsidies, pushing for what Pollan calls a food bill, not a farm bill.
The activists want more diverse and locally grown food as well as more fresh food in federal nutrition programs such as food stamps and school lunches. They have tied the nation’s obesity epidemic to subsidies for corn and soybeans — the source of high fructose corn syrup and vegetable oils widely used in processed foods.
Ken Cook, president and founder of the Environmental Working Group, said the activists are “shocked that this would be considered reform.”
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, a Democrat whose Minnesota district receives large corn subsidies, said Pelosi backs his bill and will use her power to make sure it passes the House next week.
Peterson called the $1 million payment limit a “huge change in direction” and warned that the House leadership would quash any attempt — a rebellion has been promised by Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis. — to make any significant changes.
“This is not a deal just between me and the folks that represent these people,” Peterson said, referring to members representing subsidized farmers. “The speaker is involved in this.”
Peterson dismissed critics outside the traditional farm belt.
“I know people on the outside can sit and complain about this, but frankly most of those people have no clue what they’re talking about,” Peterson said. “Most people in the city have no concept of what’s going on here.”
Commodity groups ridiculed the idea that subsidies have anything to do with obesity.
“The farm bill did not require people to eat more than they should,” Daren Coppock, chief executive of the National Association of Wheat Growers, told a Washington conference this year. “If the farm bill causes obesity, it also causes AIDS, global warming, the extinction of endangered species, bad grades in school and probably dancing.”
But the activists, backed by many agricultural economists, argue that the subsidies produce no public benefit. If federal tax dollars are to be spent in the farm economy, they argue, the money should go to things that benefit the public as a whole.
“I think shifting subsidies into environmental programs … is a much better way of supporting the goals that U.S. taxpayers and consumers have for our agriculture programs,” said Ann Tutwiler, a leading farm policy expert who is a managing director for the Hewlett Foundation.
The same goes for shifting money to nutrition, she said. “Where the activist community is coming down is a better place for U.S. farm policy to be.”
Martha Noble, a senior policy analyst at the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, said alternatives to crop subsidies include “conservation, research for organics and specialty crops — fruits, vegetables, grasses, things that grow in a diversified food system — certainly better nutrition, more attention to local foods and local markets.”
Activists groups have taken aim at payments for commodities for two reasons: The money provides incentives to increase the use of pesticides and fertilizers and expand farm operations to capture more subsidies. That leads to larger farms and monocultures of single grain crops such as corn and wheat over millions of acres in the Midwest. The subsidies also raise land prices, winding up in the pockets of landowners, who may or may not be farmers, and making it difficult for younger farmers to get started.
Cattle ranchers who use grass pastures are at a disadvantage to large feed lots that use subsidized corn and other feed grains, Noble said, and places such as Iowa and Indiana that once grew apples and vegetables now grow mainly corn.
“We could have a much better agricultural system in this country, more diversity, more diverse food available in lots of different regions” without the subsidies, Noble said.
Rep. Kind promised to lead a fight on the House floor, hoping to pick up many Democrats for his plan to change the bill.
“We anticipate large bipartisan support,” Kind said. “I don’t think the farm bill is in final form by any stretch of the imagination. The process is just starting.”
© 2007 Hearst Communications Inc.
Isn’t there some mechanism by which Pelosi can be recalled by her electorate? She is a disgrace.
Run Cindy run!
I will be supporting the Green candidate next time around or maybe Cindy.
What infuriates me is the recipients of these welfare payments and it is welfare since they never repay. If you want to see who gets the money go to the Environmental Working Group’s Farm subsidy database. Sorry but I’m a 57 year old semi-illiterate when it comes to websites or I would post the link.
I found some relatives who get 20,000 a year and more. All inherited their farms so do not even have bank loans. There is no earthly reason to help these people. All of them complain when the government helps a poor person. If we took the money we pay these welfare queens we could fund health insurance for all poor children.
Nothing our elected do in DC shocks me anymore.
What I find shocking, is the American public allows it go on. Our foreign neighbors believe we are amusing, — but frightening. — Not the Iraqi’s, — they are not amused.
The cold hard truth is that the country is led by people who fail to understand the concept of the public sector as anything but a prop to those who already have resource. That’s how they built the railroads, isn’t it? Through dispossession of the indigenous people of the plains and distribution of resource to the wealthy. Socialism in reverse is the capitalist way. We need to figure something else out, na?
Evelyn, I agree.
Maybe the American citizens need to listen to Bob Marley’s “Get Up, Stand Up — Stand Up For Your Rights!”
There is NO difference between democrats & republicans. NONE. 0. Liars all. I want to believe Kucinich is all he appears to be, but his continued attachment to the democratic party keeps me skeptical.
It’s time for Pelosi to go. Time for someone to stand up to the Conservatives in Congress.
Because I noticed at the bottom of the article a copyright for “Hearst Communications” I guess this is a plant story(oops,pun, sorry) so I am only going to point out that “traditional” farming would be “Dad and Sons” farms, not Cargil, in the same way “traditional” medicine would be going to the local GP and getting aspirin; not seeing the”nurse praticioner” and getting Oxycontin through your Sicko HMO.
When we speak of traditional anything, let it not be attached to corporations.
July 23 is comming Ms Pelosi. I am among the legion of people that will be helping Representative Sheehan KICK YOUR BUTT to the curb!!!!
With love.
Pelosi is turning out to be a republican. Just like everyone who is bought and sold by big business. And don’t kid yourselves, that is her REAL goal, to kiss as much corporate butt as is possible. I just don’t understand how high prices are a positive thing. That would, acording to the law of supply and demand, indicate that there is a shortage, somewhere. The fact that profits are high as well would indicate that there is profiteering gong on. The real thing is that so much of agriculture in this country is big business instead of smaller family farms or even local business is a real problem, and it’s not going to get any better with people like Pelosi in charge. It’s time for her to go away, and be replaced by someone who gives a damn about the PEOPLE in her district.
I made the mistake of emailing her office, and got a very tersely worded reply saying that since they couldn’t determine whether I was from her district or not, that she wouldn’t be replying at all. Perhaps someone should tell the speaker of the HOUSE that she has a larger responsibility to the WHOLE COUNTRY. If she isn’t going to be responsible to the rest of us, too, then she has NO business being speaker of OUR HOUSE.
She is no better than any republican, and some of you know how I feel about THEM.
ESHU: Good points.
This photo makes the woman look like a figure from a wax museum. Maybe that’s what it’s come to, the more they act like robotic mannequins in their representation of big business, the more the life of the spirit drains out of them.
And I’m sure all those millions for yet more pesticides will bring back the bees needed to pollinate crops in California. Insanity reigns!
She’s putting up the wrong finger. And be prepared for the comments on the open mouth.
Yup - the article does not clarify what “earning
$1 million” is. Gross or net. But simply calculating
$1,000,000 divided by $4/bushel (a high price for corn)
and then dividing by 100 bushels/acre (as I remember
a very good yield) gives 2500 acres. This is not a
family farm. Unless there is more information, I
(regrettably) might have to agree with the Bush
administration on this. Not making any judgement on
the rightness or wrongness of subsidies to start with.
WJM
at least you got a reply - or maybe you got a
reply because they couldn’t determine whether or not
you were a constituent. I got absolutely no response
at all from a month ago. Perhaps I made it obvious
I was not a voter of importance to her.
Further proof of the inherent twin-ness of the Republicans and Democrats. Politics, power, and favoritism. Business is business and what is right or what serves the people is relevant only as it affects the probabilities of successful elections. It has always been so.
Bush’s colonoscopy was not sucessful today…they couldn’t remove Pelosi’s head.
Nancy Pelosi, stop supporting stupid corporate farming legislation, and I come from a farm background, a family farming background of people who had to earn their livings, not the big time corporate parasites this damn whiny Peterson represents.
Run, Cindy, run! (seconding Jaded Prole)
Same old same old…
I too e-mailed Pelosi re impeachment. I live in southern California so naturally, no response.
I however, will respond to Pelosi: with a check for as much as I can spare to whoever runs against her, be it Cindy or someone else.
Enough already!!!!
That’s the American way - they help the rich get richer, while pissing on the peasants.
Jim Hightower had the answer many years ago.
We need a constitutional amendment that says “A corporation is not a person”
We should restrict freedom of speech to truthful, commercial speech; prohibit all political participation; and prohibit all subsidies, tax incentives and any other transfer payments to corporations–including not for profits and family farms that incorporate. This would leave individuals and businesses who are actually responsible for their actions to participate in the political process. People who run corporations are legally exempt from financial responsibility for their actions. That should be enough of a public subsidy.
Farm subsidies should be minimal and serve only to keep family farmers on the land, not to encourage one crop or another.
Whadda woman!
‘Pepsi Cola Pelosi’ - the Peoples’ Revolutionary!
She has really ‘nailed her colors firmly to the fence’ with this one, now all can see her as she really is.
–> A Nonentity.
Pictured above: A person who is catching tasty corporate flies in her mouth, whilst holding up a finger to remonstrate with all here who see her as a cheap plastic imitation of ‘a hopeful’.
She is none such, she is a no-hoper. She’s just another doomed spectre haunting the corridors of power along with the rest of the abhorrent Govern-mental ghouls.
How very stoical is that upright soul, Mr Kucinich, who chooses to daily sit and work among this rotting fraternity!
Cindy was right (as usual). ‘Nancy Sold-out’ [RIP] just sold your souls to the highest bidder folks.
No matter, ~ soon she will be lain to rest with the rest of the DEAD & DISEASED on Capitol Hill, and thus help us tarmac the Road to the Future.
Stride on, dear fellow Progressives.
And be glad that *YOU* at least have Life coursing in your veins, - even as the mouldering corpses in power wither and blather away their last gormless days on Earth…
and…
Canuckchuck:
“Bush’s colonoscopy was not successful today …they couldn’t remove Pelosi’s head.”
Silly you Canuckchuck! – of *course* they couldn’t.
The UK’s Mr Tony Bliar was too far entrenched in that hellish place!
canuck, good one. can’t wait to use it.
WJM and peoplefirst,
I can’t say that I am a big fan of Nancy Pelosi either. However, if you should want to contact her to let her know how you feel here are some tips:
Constituents can contact Nancy Pelosi via her regular U.S. Representative website: www.house.gov/pelosi/ or via this email address: sf.nancy@mail.house.gov.
Non-constituents can contact Nancy Pelosi via her House Speaker website: http://speaker.house.gov/contact/ or via this email address: AmericanVoices@mail.house.gov
When I used Pelosi’s U.S. Representative website and correctly entered my address information I received the same response as WJM. I may have tried the same thing with her U.S. Rep email address but I can’t remember.
Since then I send Pelosi email either through her House Speaker website or the corresponding email address. Using the email address gives you a convenience place to include a subject with your message if you want to do that. But Speaker website and email address both seem to lead to the same place. The only time I have received a message from Pelosi in her role as Speaker is when her message inbox was too full.
Of course you can always just call Pelosi or use the US Postal Service:
Office of the Speaker
H-232, US Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-0100
I suspect Pelosi, like my Democratic U.S. Senators and U.S. Representative, is just barely listening to the likes of me if she is listening at all. But I keep trying anyway.
May I also recommend the following article by Rebecca Solnit and re-published by Common Dreams:
“Democracy Should Be Exercised Regularly, On Foot:
Free association not only promotes active bodies and public boldness, it is also vital to society and a force for change” by Rebecca Solnit
www.commondreams.org/views06/0706-35.htm
I’ll vote my conscience in 2008, but in the mean time I sure would like to see Democrats do something right before then.
Why would activists be surprised at this? First off, Pelosi is from solid bourgeois stock. Born in to money and married more.
More importantly, the Democratic Party is not a party of small farmers or workers it is a party that represents big capital. Its origins of course were as a party of the slaveocracy but it is a capitalist party through and through and will defend the interests of capitalists.
I am always amazed that people that call themselves activists are shocked by these developments. During the Carter administration the Democrats controlled both houses and the Presidency. Not one bill of importance to labor was passed. It was Carter that began the deregulation of the airline and trucking industries if my memory serves me right. And didn’t he use the Taft Hartley against the miners in 78?
During a two year period of Clintons reign (remember him, the guy that supported NAFTA and threw working class women off welfare) the same results.
There are millions of workers in this country that don’t vote. They have already figured it out through experience. This is unfortunate as they have drawn through their disgusting experience with the Democrats that all politics is bad and have withdrawn completely as opposed to building a working class alternative.
The leaders of organized labor bare the brunt of the blame for us having no party of our own not only to vote for but to participate in and build.
Why the shock about Pelosi?
tomd1664
I can’t vote for Cindy Sheehan, but I did send Pelosi mail expressing my support for Cindy. Just another thing she probably doesn’t want to know and doesn’t care about.
I hear the local Code Pink group is regularly up front and in Pelosi’s face.
Meg is right!
Democrats & Republicans are just giving us a good cop, bad cop routine as they maintain their Wall St. plutocratic interests.
There are SOME traditions that must go, like the 2 Party Whoresrace and the New York Times.
And some that should be rebuilt: reality based, issue oriented campaigns and the rule of law.
Question is: is there any other way than collapse for these things to happen?
“The leaders of organized labor bare the brunt of the blame for us having no party of our own not only to vote for but to participate in and build.” - Richard Mellor
Indeed, and an election system that favors a two party system of competing plutocrats.
So - have all you wishful thinkers concluded that voting Democratic won’t end corporate welfare? This farm bill will pass, with the help of the Republicans (even while they decry the wasteful taxing and spending of the Democrats) and the DLC Democrats (of which there are too many). And the farming communities will vote for them because the family farms do get their crumbs which is all they’ve come to expect.
Anyway, Nancy’s lying. She’s not buying votes, she’s buying agribusiness campaign money. Next bill, please.
As for the comment about the bees, a friend told me colony collapse disorder is caused by malnutrition weakening their immune systems due to greedy beekeepers taking all their honey and feeding them - corn syrup.
You’re funny, canuckchuck.
I agree with Puffin that the system favors a two party deal but that has been used many times by various nay sayers and in particular the leaders of the labor movement as to why they refuse to fight for or build a workers’ party in this country.
I am not Puffin is making this argument.
But we only have to look at Brazil. They have the same system as the US. I think it was in 1981 that Lula led a major strike. He ran and nearly won the presidency nine years later. he eventually did win it of course.
I agree that the system is geared to serve the twin parties of capital but the working class is potentially the most powerful force in society and can easily overcome these obstacles
when on the move.
PuffinThrush
Yes, I think I used the speaker.house.gov/contact website,
but as you say, you didn’t get a response unless the mailbox
was full, so looks like SOP (standard operating procedure).
there’s an old joke around here that goes like this.
How do you starve a farmer?
-> Weld his mailbox shut.
Face it. The powers that be are ENTRENCHED. The solution is not to outmanuver them politically. They are engaged in warfare. Big money will stop at nothing to protect it’s income. They will break every law that hinders them. They will kill any person or class of person that stands in their way.
That is not to say we are hopeless, or the sky is falling, BUT face it! All this bitching is not going to even show up on their radar, let alone stop them.
THE PROBLEMS OF THIS AGE WILL ONLY BE CHANGED BY FORCE!
Same as any other age.
Long ago the federal ‘farm-aid” programs morphed into federal vote-buying programs, and it is the American taxpayer who gets screwed every year by them. It is also somewhat frustrating (and amusing, I suppose) to see all of those right-wing, salt of the earth, patriotic American farmers line up to get their snouts into the federal tax-dollar trough. This whole ‘farm-aid” system is as f*cked up as is the defence contractor-subsidy system (again, little more than a federal vote-buying program). At some point someone with enough balls is going to have to bite the bullet and do something, because the ever-expanding national debt cannot sustain the 21 billion dollars per year in handouts. If you think farmers are whining about their “lot” now, wait for the squealing to start once the tap drys up………….
I think we should remember that they’re not talking about farmers here. If think that only 2% of the US population works on the land. These are big business. Of course, they are ripe for collectivization but lets not think its the Green Acres crowd that’s getting the hand out.
If you want a clear picture of who gets the subsidies, watch PBS, and check out the advertisers [oops, they’re ’supporters’ or some other euphemism, aren’t they? not plain old advertisers].
Anyway, Archer Midland Daniels [corn], Monsanto [soy beans], and most of the other Foundations doing good while doing damned well, have their names plastered all over PBS so they can look innocuous, as they rake in billions in various government ag programs while experimenting on the body politic with their GMO crops - that we don’t need to know about ‘cuz this stuff is all harmless - Just ask the FDA.
Remember, PBS is no longer the Public Broadcasting System. It’s now the CORPORATION for Public…
Besides the give and take game the politicians have to play to get elected in the first place, having to play both sides of the field, they have to forget themselves and act as the actor would to convince, at least, the dumb percentage of the population. Nobody wants to die like the senator Paul Wellstone for disobeying the big orders (Oh,…I’m just kidding…;).
Not that I believe any politician will just go out of their way and make things right for the world, I should add.
Didn’t this article miss the main ramification of the legislation, that it will lead directly to starvation in poor countries?
“Bush seems to be taking a harder stance on millionaires than the Democratic Party, which is surprising,”…
What are people who believe the Democrats are the working people’s friends smoking? Why can’t we accept the notion that both parties are corporate? What is wrong with people who keep denial alive?
Maybe it’s me. Maybe I’m seeing things wrong and those who view things through their personal looking glasses are right. Maybe I’m just crazy and need a lobotomy to see things the same as those who keep this going do. Please tell me someone…what color pill do I need in order to understand this thinking?
The increased subsidies to agribusiness will increase our deficits, while reduing agriculture efficiency for a token possible reduction in food prices. Most importantly it will result in fewer markets and less income for poor farmers in undeveloped countries.
If Nancy wishes to maintain support from those not aligned with special interests she must change her stance now.
When only millionaires are elected, only millionaires will be represented.
Pelosi proves over and over that she is not in any way a representative of the people but merely another corporate shill even worse than any Republican.
Impeach Pelosi! She is not doing her responsibility to the constitution. No where else in society is lawlessness tolerated as it is in D.C. Paris Hilton did more time than the treasonous Libby.
There is a change a coming. 9/11 is the weapon to bring these criminals down. All the lies are coming out. There is yet hope that we can bring our country back to what it is supposed to be.
Here the problem is again organization. Where are the coalitions of farmers and labor? Where are the coalitions of farmers and environmentalists?
Where is the urban and rural coalition? The people divided will always be defeated. And so it goes and so it goes we go on and on and on. Pelosi is the symptom; the disease is our belief that a Congresswoman will do the “right thing.”
Congresswomen (also Congressmen) only do what they are forced to do.
Stop a War: Filling Geary Street with protestors daily rather than whinge about the war at the nationally known coffee shop.
huckleberry: “THE PROBLEM OF OUR AGE WILL ONLY BE STOPPED BY FORCE”
Not if we’re smart. If people don’t turn it off and stop buying their stuff, even force won’t work this time around. It will only be stopped by non-participation and creating local, sustainable economic enterprises. A good start would be limiting federal power under the interstate commerce clause.
“I agree with Puffin that the system favors a two party deal but that has been used many times by various nay sayers and in particular the leaders of the labor movement as to why they refuse to fight for or build a workers’ party in this country.
I am not Puffin is making this argument.” - Richard Mellor
Richard Mellor,
I believe you may have misunderstood the intent of my comment.
Certainly, there have been many apologists for the “failures” of the Democratic Party who claim that there is no room for another political party because of the realities of plurality voting. I do not share this view. Plurality Voting does, however, make maintaining and building any third party much more difficult. Simply put the way we vote needs to be changed.
I’m not very familiar with the issue of agri-business subsidies. I’m an opponent of NAFTA because of the global economy’s extreme amount of transport. I do not support farm subsidies for the purpose of maintaining trade balance. Every nation should make food production a priority and not remain casually dependent upon food imports.
That said, reversing the current state of agribusiness will take more than 5 years and require much more legislative solutions to enact real reform. So, I’m not going to condemn Pelosi for her stand on this issue.
Regarding her opposition to impeachment, I say impeachment is absolutely necessary, even if it brings Congress to a complete halt. The only way to win the war against terrorism (or whatever the debacle in Iraq can be called) is to impeach. George W Bush is a malevolent traitor, just like his father, paternal grandfather and great grandfather. They have all in their time practiced eugenics and race cleansing.
George W Bush’s brand of eugenics is called radical christian dominionism. George W Bush is waging class war. His goal is to bankrupt the Social Security system and pit the lower classes (the non-millionaires) violently against each other.
Just to set the record straight, all farmers, even in red states, are not right wing conservative Repugs. Also there are many more family farmers that are benefiting from the government programs than those few that are earning over one million, which is a big reduction from the present two and one half million, which is obviously too high. Better to concentrate on throwing many more billions away in Iraq, which benefits no one but Bush`s oil cronies. The smallest farmers will not survive in any case with the high costs of today so stopping subsidies will not keep them going as some have maintained. There are far greater problems to get paranoid about in this country than worrying about the nations farmers. They are and always have been, the backbone of the country. Remember, no government program is perfect and billionaires are eligible for social security and medicare also. It takes more than one year of high prices to put most farmwers on easy street and anyone that wants to can try it and find out what an easy life it is.
What I could never figure out in ‘04 were the number of Bush/Cheney signs on foreclosed farms. Oh well, I guess it takes all kinds.
If you want to write Pelosi.. you have to write her at her SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE website. NOT her congressional district one. It will be spit out.
WRITE HER HERE
http://speaker.gov/contact/
They keep them separate.
If you want to find out more about how to survive in the coming years…
Check this out
http://www.communitysolution.org/
II. Philosophy and Practicality
The current energy crisis in the world, and the high probability of it worsening, has generated a sense of urgency in developing alternatives. Thus there is a great need for low-energy-use agrarian models. Although this Agraria neighborhood-community proposal may include new ways of living that are unique, some compromise may be made to it in order to achieve early implementation or to fit within zoning or other limitations. One example is composting toilets which may be controversial and zoning that requires standard water toilets.
MORE
All this malarky about “backbone” of the country, and greater problems. Get real. Everything points in the same direction. The people with the money and resources influence and benefit from elected officials via contributions. People feeding off the government and voting for their interests. If it looks like a pig, eats like a pig, it’s a pig. The program is a pig and so in Nancy PeLOSER.
Kucinich is trying to run in the Democratic Party because currently we have a 2 party system. If folks get totally disgusted…(they probably have to get REALLLY disgusted).. then maybe a 3rd party would be viable…
but he is making them honest…
It is harder to kick him out or disregard him if he is part of the establishment. .although they are trying
If part of our tax dollars goes to subsidize farmers, then why can’t we feed every man, women and child in this country? Why are more and more people going hungry every day? The way I see it, the problem is not so much subsidizes, but the fact we are not taking care of peoples basic needs.
We do need a working class party in this country, because most of us are part of the working class. If Cindy runs, it could be the genesis of such a party. We need to start building for the future and this means moving away from the Democratic Party. The DP can’t represent the interests of the multi-nationals and the working class at the same time. This is a conflict of interest.
Please check out the US Social Forum. This could be part of, building for the future.
The sad thing is that the Democrats are trying to outstrategize the Republicans who slowly, but surely, got elected in all areas of government so that if they need to tell their man (or woman) in this branch of the government to do this or that, it will get done and they get their way. But has the Democratic leadership thought this through? Afterall, the Republicans sole aim was to gain power and never mind what is good for the people — that is what the interests are of the people. So if the Democrats want some of that power, they will do the same, to gain a seat, keep a seat. Little do they know that means the Republican Party and the Democratic Party become one and the same. Imagine what the Democratic Leadership could accomplish if they just served their term passing legislation that is good for this country; carrying out the will of the people. Imagine the numbers, the landslide in favor of the Democratic Party in the next election!
Pelosi’s prime motivation in supporting the current farm policy apparently is to preserve the re-election prospects of freshman Democrats in rural districts who toppled Republicans in November and helped secure Democrats their House majority and Pelosi the speakership. Nine of the freshmen sit on the House Agriculture Committee. Several said they feared any vote to reform farm programs would endanger their political prospects.
I thought the main purpose of a representative was to do
what is best for the republic. I can not remember a time when I witnessed a politician crash and burn after being given a once in a life time opportunity to do what is right for the people. Democrats are playing politics as usual while Pelosi continues to shoot herself in the proverbial foot.
“Pelosi the Pariah”
I haven’t posted for a long time, but now my dander is up.
The Farm Bill is a very big deal for EVERY American, but they don’t know it. It’s not just about corporate welfare for the agribusiness moguls.
Real farmers don’t benefit much from these subsidies. In fact, the big corps like Cargil, ADM and other huge operations for corn, wheat, and cotton that do get the welfare actually drive smaller farmers out because they can afford to sell their crops for less than the unsubsidized farmer. These subsidies affect American farmers much the way they do farmers in foreign countries. That’s the reason the WTO is at a standstill at the moment. The smaller countries finally stood up to the U.S. and Europe and said they are not going to take it anymore! They are fighting these subsidies as ILLEGAL under the WTO! American citizens are largely to blame for the dire situation of farmers and hunger around the world. Consumers demand cheap food. Well, cheap food ain’t cheap. Somebody paid for the true cost of the food. Either with your tax dollars, on the backs of labor, the devastation of our environment, our soils, biodiversity, the poisoning of the planet, the destruction of foreign economies, and on, and on, and on….. It’s not that these subsidies in the 2007 Farm Bill are not enough or too much; They should be eliminated ENTIRELY! Period! But that isn’t going to happen until we have campaign finance reform. So, write, or e-mail your Congressional representatives and get them to support/co-sponsor the U.S. House Bill 3099 “Clean Money, Clean Elections”. In the Senate, get them to support/co-sponsor the Durbin/Spector bill “Fair Elections Now Act”.
There are many of the Farm Bill provisions that are good, but don’t get anywhere near enough funding. Organic research, rewarding farmers for good land stewardship, school lunch programs, food stamps, etc. There was also a provision in the 2002 Farm Bill that approved the “Country of Origin Labeling” (COOL) law. And guess what, 94% of Americans want to know where their food comes from, but this law has never been enacted because of lobbying pressure from big agribusiness. And of course the same lobbiests are at it again in the 2007 law to strip COOL legislation. So, on Monday, call your Congress critters, and complain about the subsidies, but also let them know in no uncertain terms that you want to know where your food comes from. Toll free numbers: 800-459-1887 or 800-614-2803 or 866-338-1015.
And if you really want to know about your food and what is going on with the politics of food, visit the Organic Consumers Association web site. http://www.organicconsumers.org/
I know this has gotten rather long, but I just want to add that your local farmers aren’t making a living wage by a long shot. Most have to hold outside jobs just to stay afloat. My daughter once told me “Mom, I’ve never seen anyone pay so much to work this hard”.
BUY LOCAL!
Thanks
How typical of the fearful, convictionless, toothless bunch who are terrified of doing anything of substance because they can’t offend the lobbyists, whom they intend to continue to service.
Someone who can’t stand up to agribusiness isn’t going to stand up to the sociopathic criminals who run the executive branch.
In reprinting this article I’m curious if you did some homework ?? The day that the Dems do something that bush doesn’t do must mean it’s helping someone - perhaps farmers??
I also noticed you are using a trick the pub controlled media often uses on Dems/ Libs/ progs they want to put down — an ugly photo. So have you joined the fox/ phony news media too ?
Did rupert buy you?
jsc said:
“A good start would be limiting federal power under the interstate commerce clause.”
Yes, that would be nice if our elected officials ‘played by the rules.’ Unfortunately, they don’t. At least not where “we the people” are concerned.
And why should they? “We the people” haven’t truly held anyone in Washington accountable for years.
“Bush’s colonoscopy was not sucessful today…they couldn’t remove Pelosi’s head.”
LMAO! they found several other heads stuck in there, they were surprised so many could be jammed in ha ha
“Bush’s colonoscopy wasn not successful today… they couldn’t remove Pelosi’s head.”
That is because they had move Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction first!
Pelosi correct, article wrong!
Sorry, Pelosi appears to be correct on this issue.
Thanks to Rebel Farmer for getting to the heart of the matter.
In addition, American agricultural subsidies are part of American foriegn policy.
America has the power to dominate basic food stuff markets, even in the world’s poorest countries, where the fertile land is used for cash crops such as coffee, cacao, etc…
Only Europe has successfully kept their high quality local farming techniques due to extremely advanced methods developed over hundreds of years, and goverment protection.
Food is kept just cheap enough to prevent all of you from digging up your front lawn.
Will the American EggMcmuffin triumph over the baked fresh daily French Baggette? Are Freedom Fries the answer to world hunger? Who knows?
How many American children really want farm when they grow up? How many people want to be so tied to a plot of land and its crops and animals that even planning a weekend vacation a major undertaking??
Its a complex problem. How does a society feed the millions of city dwellers? The family farm is not necessarily long term reliable, because if the kids don’t want to carry it on, a lot of knowledge gets lost. The corporate model has solved some farm problems like this, but quality has suffered to the point where the end product is actually dangerous.
The corporations will deal with their quality problem. Either with advanced technology, or more illegal immigrant slave labour. Corporations are very adaptable.
The question is, how many consumers and agriworkers have to get sick or worse, before the problem is recognized and dealt with?
Good-bye Pelosi.
Good-bye Corporate Democrats.
No progressive leadership, no progressive agenda.
Time for a change in politics in this country!
Step 1: Stop buying corporate food. It can be done.
Step 2: Lets have real primaries on real issues so the incumbents pay heed!
Rebel Farmer: I know this has gotten rather long, but I just want to add that your local farmers aren’t making a living wage by a long shot. Most have to hold outside jobs just to stay afloat. My daughter once told me “Mom, I’ve never seen anyone pay so much to work this hard”.
BUY LOCAL!
You are absolutely correct. I live on seven acres next door to a good neighbor who has a proper small farm. He works harder than anyone I know, and he’s in his early sixties. And he has another job. We’re in a drought right now, and he’s really hurting, but he made sure I got enough hay in May to feed my animals this winter. Bless him.
Tech2 said: Food is kept just cheap enough to prevent all of you from digging up your front lawn.
Actually, if everyone at least dug up their back yards and planted their own stuff, we’d all be better off. Front yards would be great too-but figure how much flak you’d get from people with restrictions in their subdivisions. More land used for growing crops other than a swath of grass that requires gas for continual mowing and pesticides and fertilizer would be a good idea.
I’m expanding my garden, bit by bit.
I understand she’s writing her biography too. Wooo, that says it all about this creature…
Activists are shocked?
You mean, like the union folks were shocked when Pelosi proudly signed the most recent job export bill disguised as a trade bill, a travesty also committed with no mainstream media coverage?
You mean like the entire Democratic base was shocked at her stubborn insistence that she will not defend the Constitution of the United States no matter how egregious the crimes by this rogue administration?
You mean that Nancy Pelosi? Nancy Pelosi, the first female Speaker, in whom we had such hope after the election? The Nancy Pelosi with the hundred-hour plan, none of which dealt with the real issues, which didn’t matter anyhow because none of it actually passed? You mean the principle-free power-hungry political prostitute?
You mean the Nancy Pelosi who thinks she by her own little self owns the entire f*cking table and everything on it and off of it, who pokes a stick in our eye day in and day out and then expects us to supplicate ourselves before her throne?? The one blinded by a craven lust for more power?
SEND HER A LOVING EMAIL DAILY REMINDING HER THAT HER WRINKLED ASS IS GOING TO BE IN A SLING IN 2008 UNLESS SHE REPENTS.
I’m not a hater by nature, but I’m really, really, seriously starting to have a very hard time not hating this woman for the hideous creature she seems intent on being.
Rebel Farmer - Thanks for your intelligent educated post.
Buy Local! Support your local family farmers, go to the farmers market instead of the grocery store. Join a CSA and participate in the production of your own food!
Above all support public financing of election, we will make no significant progress on any other major issue until we get corporate money out of politics!
If Pelosi’s move “shocked” any activists, then those activists haven’t been paying attention. Pelosi is full of hot air, and respect for the unsustainable and ugly status quo.
Who the hell is Cindy?
When Reagan had cancer on the nose and rectum I wondered if it was somehow connected!! (July 85)
Thank God for Cindy Sheehan. Hopefully she will replace this corporate whore who really is not giving women a good start in their first position of power they have held in the US. Let’s not give Hillary the same opportunity. I’m all for women in power, provided they are doing something different than what the rich, gray haired, dried up, old white men have already done to this country.
Pelosi’s real constituents, corporate exec’s from the usual industries of oil, pharma and telecomm, took her to lavish yacht parties in Boston Harbor at the 2004 Dem Convention. The very same corporations who catered to the Republicans in the same manner, at their 2004 convention in NYC. Mother Jones broke the stories when they happened - the major corporate media however never shows how the money flows in an election.
Cindy Sheehan should be able to soundly defeat her unless Pelosi is now taking voteds for Diebold. Pelosi no longer has a fan base among liberals, conservatives or moderates. She is through.
money tastes like shit.
Nancy Pelosi is looking more and more like a pile of radioactive toxic waste.
My first choice was excrement’s more controversial synonym but that would be an insult to a substance that in proper balance can help things grow. Nancy is increasingly showing herself to be good for nothing.
Pelosi. Hillary. Ugh. Disgusting examples of power hungry, greedy, lying women. Where or where is an Eleanor Roosevelt today to serve humankind?
i feel sorry for these poor farmers. a million just doesn’t go that far these days.
Pelosi is just a female version of the Zionist, Israeli loving Joe Lieberman who puts Israel first and the U.S. second.
Buy local - Vote local. Buy products that come from WHERE YOU LIVE…and vote for candidates that represent HOW YOU LIVE!
This Congress is the worst display of poor representation in all of US history! It’s great to see Pelosi showing (in vivid colors) where her allegiance falls. This makes it easier for more to see her true “color” - which is a bright shade of “money!”
We will find no better candidate for representative than Cindy Sheehan and for President, Dennis Kucinich. Both need much support at EVERYONE’S local level - LOUDLY and vehemently, if we hope to see changes made that truly protect and support us.
Did they remove Bush’s head from his ass when he had his surgury?????
Even a brief glance at what the main stream Democrats have done over the past 50 years or so will demonstrate that there is hardly any surprise in what Pelosi has done. The tragic use of nuclear weapons against Japan was done uner Truman, as was the witch hunt era, which began under Truman’s Attorney General. On the economic scene, it was the Bill and Hillary team that ended the Glass_Steagel act which protected us to some extent from financial scandals. It was that administration that brought us NAFTA, with its predicatable results, and it was that teacm of DLC Democrats that ended the welfare safety net. which was one of the most important legacies of the Roosevelt era.
The bi-furcatiion of wealth and income grew mightily under Clinton, and resulted in the US having the greatest disparity of wealth and income among developed countries. (Of course, Bush has made sure that this re-birth of the gilded age continue, but this doesn’t excuse the Democrats, since they’ve gone along with it.) Among the Democratic candidates, only Dennis Kucinich will uphold the progressive New Deal legacy and we should support him. If the DLC brigade proves victorious, we must work to build a viable independent party witht he aid of people like Ralph Nader.
I’m voting Green from now on. To bad the elections are rigged. Republicans will win anyway and run US into the ground.
Phoning Pelosi or Reid’s offices is a joke. No one has answers to questions about current issues, or even seem slightly interested in the concerns of the caller.
Matter of fact it is like talking with a bored teenager. Finally one asked if I would like my views “passed on to the speaker”. Totally frustrated, I said “no, I am just calling to see what the weather is like in Washington”.
The young man I spoke briefly with in the senate leader’s office barely listened before abruptly disconnecting as he “had another call”. No responses to either emails or snail mail, so why
bother.
Pelosi’s constituents are Corporations, period.
kick this whore out, vote for Cindy
Rebel Farmer–
Good post, good advice, and good facts on how real farmers are still getting the shaft! Thanks for your expert point of view.
EINSTEIN - PULEEZE EXPLAIN !!!!!!!!!!!!
Explain?
Of course, the details of the bill may be demonic, but the overall picture to me is this:
If you don’t subsidize agriculture, especially highly profitable (per acre) crop agrigulture, then you see your arable land go abroad and converted domestically into industrial and housing real estate. This goes A against national security interests, and in the end would kill the small and independent farm agriculture in the long run because it would rezone the country MINUS agriculture.
The price of vegetables, especially organics is going up and up also, and it may also become attractive to use land in this way also, and it may also become attractive to use some of the subsidized acreage for this kind of production.
What is neccessary is to expand a bill such as this one in order to include this type of enlightened food farming.
At any rate it will come, and it too will be corporatized.
But, this has nothing to do with yes or no to subsidies.
Actually, environmentalists need to look into cooping and corportizing themselves in order to produce the type of food they want to produce.
This is already being done in places like Sonoma county by French companies. And Alice Waters of all people must know this and is in a position to become a major corporate farm executive controlling millions of acres close to major cities to provide locally grown organics.
She’s probably politicking for the subsidies for her own corporate initiative.
There’s a lot of business oportunities here.
Subsidies really need to be cut for the MILITARY. Not for farming on US soil.
Another thing that needs to be done is to build a society that is independent of cars, with more rail and public transportation, including better distribution of goods through a combination of computer ordering, light and heavy rail and very light trucking.
Air transport should be cut back.
Less fuel should be used and people should live in communities where they can walk or bicycle more for everyday life and use the car when really desired for long trips etc.
This bears heavily on the energy market as well.
The idea now is to produce unlimited energy and to use it in an unlimited way. This is destructive from a mechanical point of view. It is unintelligent and uncreative as well.
This is what I call energy “noise.” You want to have a society powered quietly and efficiently without excess energy “noise.” That is a frenetic society.
The Amish farmers function without energy “noise.” Not that I am advocating their lifestyle. I just mean to point out that they are able to accomplish a great deal, including large wealthy families, with much less frenetic energy consumption.
This has great health and mental benefits, and is good for wealth creation and stability as well.
A couple of weeks back Pelosi asserted that she was on the side of progessives. So much for her born again progressivism. Same old, same old…
Daren Coppock… so misinformed, and now spewing forth his misinformation to the mainstream public.
True, the government perhaps did not hold up the spoons to the mouths of the obese citizens of this country; however, the government is fully involved in the cover-up about the truth concerning corn syrup. Check it out: they KNOW it makes us fat, have known for years, AND they allow the label to say “natural”, if it inculdes corn syrup- and folks, the swill jest ain’t natural at all as it requires very complex cheical processing- two times, I believe- to convert the corn to corn syrup. We have been hugely duped by the government and the corn syrup producers. So, screw you, Coppack!
And check THIS out: the US recently forced MX to accept US corn syrup, in exchange for allowing the MX sugar to enter the US. So, almost immediately, the soda pop in MX started having corn syrup included. I said then, “Look, they’ll start putting the goo in candy right away”, but I was apalled when I found out they made a brand new baby food in MX, advertised as “so good for baby”- and yep, you guessed it, it has corn syrup! Oh yah, soooo good for baby, just see how little Angela is now sooo BIG!
Corn syrup- it’s a “CORN-SPIRACY”. And the subsidy BS is responsible.
Educate yourself, and then spread the word.
I love the picture of Pelosi…looks like she is demonstrating the oral sex technique she uses on Bush…and you GOTTA know where that finger goes….
Pelosi won’t budge because of the fact that she knows she will get WellStoned.
Iowa, Ohio to take just two states ends up with a whopping 18,000 per individual going to less than 13,000 persons of those states , this is counting Corps as persons, and this is just on top of old subsidies, for not food but biofuel.
It is more than a doubnle dip as the amounts spent towards these fuels and refinerys is paid back on a guaranteed 110% basis that has no bearing on profits guaranteed by a subsidized price and irrigation guarantees.
Under the irigation laws no property over 160 acres is allowed low cost irrigation and must be family farm yet nationally almost 95% of irrigation is to corporate farms of over 160 acres.
How much difference will subsidizing corn make in variety of plants, soy cultivation is expected to be reduced by at least 1/3rd as it per acre profit will be more than double soy.
The overall cost to consumers is already being felt, in that the price of even corn sugar is rising never mind the futures market who know beef, hog and chicken prices depend upon corn for feed.
While many americans have indeed swung form eatig so much beef to lower cost chickens; then again the affluent can still afford free range beef/pork/chickens or organics those varietys are being placed out of reach and even the cheaper chickens price is rising.
Farm subsidys have been one of the greatest grafts in all of american subsized programs and in my memory the great thefts reached public notice in Nixons term with BEBE Reboso and others, subsidized corn that was not bought to be sold but stored for US foreign Aid progrms.
During the late 60’s and up until the late 80’s even during the cold war furor, the US governetn borrowed money at 8% interest paid the famres for the grain and then sold it on internaitonal markets by corporations and the recipient of this largess was the Russians who could buy it at cost+4% interest and this went on even during Regans terms.
In other words the american populace paid farmers and corproations financial entitys twice the value of corn, while the supposed backbone of US the American farmer got fatter than hogs of of those tax and farm subsidies.
the farmer as the American backbone is one of the greatest mems ever to be perpetrated on American public but then again most think chickens grow in plastic bags without guts or feathers.
I can see why they believe Pelosi and the democrats.
That she, Pelosi, says the newly elected democrats from agricultural states would not hold office if they voted against this bill is just one more way of showing how politicos let the taxpayers pay for supporting the party apparatus.
It is not the Americans who benefit, just the connected and politcal operatives who do.
Oh the total is way more than this bill as the energy bill will mean over 180 billion dollars in the next thrtee years to; no longer famrers, but part of Corproate energy companys.
The cost of milk is controlled by Dept of AG working on division of profits; the prices are set by three corproations in the south eastern US up to Canadian border, the Tennesee Area Milk Authority Firms such as Kroegers and other groups representing not farmers but Corporate Grocery and food item outlets.
A Dept that bought all the Nations extra milk producing cattle, and paid not to raise more, that now limits the amounts of milk being produced and keeps this valuable nutrient costly for many americans.
Pelosis moves are not new and if score card was written and published on how she voted on many of bills such as this maybe the outright criminality of her terms would be more obvious to all.
Like the Wellstoned play on words if Pelosi does’nt play ball but , if you are part of an organization and you know its evils just because you do not pull the trigger yourself but gain rewards for keeping trap shut that is Conspiracy to defraud and Racketeering.
That is wht we are governed under today, one big crime syndicate.All of them!
I saw Pelosi from the beginning when during the President’s speech, she urged the audience to clap hard for our “President”. Turn coat. Our speaker of the House was out front clapping away. Some Democrat. And she continues to play her hand as a false Democrat, just a phoney Republican in disguise.
It is time to make people like Pelosi who sold others grandchildren into future poverty while protectign her fellow criminals as they continue the spread of death and maiming to people such as in Iraq; to spend time in jail and relinqish all the profits she gained while doing so.
Her Grandchildren can visit her; once a moonth on visiting days at a Fed Pen!
Pelosi may become the “Gray Davis” of San Francisco politics.
Peace activist Sheehan arrested at Congress
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN2337983820070723
What do we do with “No, no Nancy?”
Say say no to “No, no Nancy.”
The Daily Californian
Former TV Producer Shares Her Video About Bush’s Human Side With Class
BY LETA SHY
Contribution Writer
Thursday, April 25, 2002
Photo/Peter J. Goetz
Alexandra Pelosi showed a portion of her documentary of President Bush’s 2000 campaign to Alan Ross’s (pictured left) Political Science 179 class.
Former television producer Alexandra Pelosi showed a group of UC Berkeley students part of her documentary of a “charming, one-dimensional” President George Bush yesterday.
Pelosi, who left NBC News to make her video, spoke to students in Alan Ross’ Political Science 179 class after showing a portion of “Journeys with George,” a digital video camera documentation of Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign.
The video recorded crucial campaign moments during the time Pelosi spent as part of Bush’s official press corps. She followed Bush throughout the New Hampshire, South Carolina and Michigan Republican primaries, documenting Bush’s reactions to his surprising loss to Sen. John McCain in the first primary as well as his key victories later on.
But the video’s first half focused primarily on Bush’s role as prankster, confidante and comedian in the year-and-a-half-long campaign across the United States.
“(Bush) was so charming,” said Pelosi, daughter of House Minority Whip Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco. “I thought some of us were in love with him.”
http://www.dailycal.org/printable.php?id=8486
einstein–good point, it may be true we need subsidies but not for corporate agriculture. We need to keep co-ops and family farms, not the corporations. When you don’t have your own money and livelihood invested in your business, you don’t make good long term business decisions, and in agriculture that’s a really big deal. First step, no subsidies to corporations of any kind. (Unfortunately, we may need a constitutional amendment)
Industrialized agriculture doesn’t work–ask the people in the Soviet Union. And, there is new research out of the University of Michigan favorably comparing organic to conventional agriculture. The Jeffersonian dream has a new opportunity.
www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.org.php?id=5936
As a for instance, farmers manured their fields for thousands of years and the fields stayed fertile and productive. Then big chemical discovered nitrates and other artificial fertilizers.
Suddenly, cow poop is declared a hazardous waste, to be carted away to walled in places and only nitrates, etc. are legal fertilizers, at great expense to the farmer.
Nitrates are salts, so the nature of the soil is becoming saline as is the runoff into the surrounding aqua systems. The fertilizer companies are makeing great profit, however, and that is what counts.
Fertilizers are by producs of carbon based energy manufacturing, hazardous waste by themselves, now put upon fields and fed to animals by molecualr mutations.
Animal manure is now recycled and fed along with waste by products of meat processing to the next group of animals to be processed.
The mad cows are not realy mad but slobbering idiots cause dby eating their own kind and the crap from their own bodys.
The same can be said of sheep and chickens.
All of the agricultural industry is subsidized and like an industrial faclity profits are beng maximized but that it is part of the energy industry finding a way to profit by usage of its waste wether it be in feed to plants or plastics used in packaging it is still tying up its hazardous waste into a useable form.
That its forms are in the long run hazardous and not immediatley recognizable as such is what keeps both the energy and agricultural industrys practices possible.
I am so sick of “public servants” playing politics with public well being. Instead of being concerned about what is the best for the this country and it’s people they are, once again, more concerned about getting votes. Don’t they see that if they help the people, the majority of the people, that if they do what is right they will get the votes. They may need to be remonded.
Farm commodity subsidies aren’t what really subsidizes ethanol, low farm market prices do. See “A Fair Farm Bill for Renewable Energy” at http://www.agobservatory.org/issue_farmbill2007.cfm
The National Association of Wheat Growers is wrong about subsidizing sugar and corn and soy oils. Low prices do that, however, not subsidies. For clarification see: “A Fair Farm Bill for Public Health” at citation above.
Peterson said “frankly most of those people have no clue what they’re talking about,” That’s true regarding history of the farm bill. For this mainstream media article is totally false that “cotton, corn, wheat, rice, soybeans and a handful of other crops that have been subsidized since the Dust Bowl in the 1930s” and so are many progressive groups that spread this falsehood. See: . For correction see IATPs “Crisis By Design,” http://www.iatp.org/iatp/publications.cfm?accountID=258&refID=48644. Nixon’s Ag Sec Butz started commodity subsidies To lower farm prices faster to subsidize agribusiness giants, then he went to Ralston Purina.
For these same reasons Rep. Kind’s bill must be opposed. It doesn’t end multibillion dollar cheap grain subsidies, 2.5 billion apiece for Smithfield and Tyson, http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/rp/CompanyFeedSvgsFeb07.pdf So, in contrast to Kari Hamerschlag, above, Bush is soft on billionaires. He doesn’t deserve praise.
We don’t need subsidies, we need a price from the marketplace for farmers for a “living wage” worldwide, to stop dumping below cost exports on poor countries. We need the National Family Farm Coalition’s Food From Family Farm’s Act. (http://www.nffc.net/issues/fnf/fnf_13.html)