Farm Bill

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I’m late with this, but it’s nice to know others are out there fighting for those of us most affected by this.  The cuts in food stamps…i.e., the “Eat Shit” campaign of those compassionate conservatives who think all life is precious…as long as you’re a conservative and wealthy….poor people should just dry up and blow away and “decrease the surplus population…”

From the email sent to the organic advocates group I belong to:

Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH) and other hill champions are coordinating Members
of Congress to make ‘one minute’ speeches in opposition to the House Ag
Committee’s proposed cuts to SNAP. When you call your Members of Congress
today, ask him/her to speak out on the House floor in support of SNAP
tomorrow, *July 10 at noon or on Wed., July 11th at noon*. If interested,
House offices should contact LaDavia Drane (ladavia.drane@ mail.house. gov)
in Rep. Fudge’s office. “One Minutes” are first come, first serve.

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“House Republicans think a working poor household with $2,000 in assets
shouldn’t be getting food stamps – an average of $1.50 per meal – but they
don’t seem to have problems with far wealthier insurance companies and
agribusiness getting much bigger handouts from the Farm Bill,” noted Dunlea.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the House bill would cut spending
over ten years by more than $35 billion, the Senate bill $23 billion.****

“****America* ***’s children, seniors and 1.5 million veteran households
facing a constant struggle against hunger deserve better from Congress,”
said Senator Gillibrand of the House bill.****

The House bill does not include several amendments attached to the Senate
bill, including one that required those getting subsidized crop insurance
to comply with conservation requirements and another that reduce by 15
percentage points the share of crop insurance premiums the government pays
for farmers with adjusted gross incomes of more than $750,000. Currently
the government bears an average 62 percent of crop insurance premiums

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The quote from Henry Kissinger popped in my head. Link Here:

http://www.corporate-aliens.com/quotes/getquote.php?Henry-Kissinger&quoteid=1427

Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world.
Yeah, that about sums up the disaster the world is in right now, doesn’t it?
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A really good article here on conventional versus organic farming.  I take issue with the yields being 25 percent more in conventional farming–I’ve read differently–especially when it comes to drought conditions.  Rodale did a comparison of conventional versus organic farming and found that the crop loss from bugs, etc., was minimal, and when they were in a drought, the organic soil was better able to retain moisture, helping the crop to survive.  If you look at the soil samples in the article, it’s plain to see the difference in soils. I used to have a compost bin at my house, and it was so amazing to put food scraps in the bin, along with leaves, sticks, and stuff, and see it magically transform into rich compost.  Compost is amazing in that it can help break up clay soils and will also help sandy soils to hold moisture.
In the ecology textbook I’m reading, they bring up an important point:  pesticides not only kill the bugs the farmers don’t want on the crop, but they also kill off beneficial bacteria in the soil which the plants need to thrive.  Also, I’ve read that the outbreaks in salmonella and e. coli could easily have been avoided with organically grown food–the beneficial bacteria love to eat them.
Here in the corn belt, we are experiencing a severe drought.  They have pretty much given up on the corn crop, and are unsure about soybeans.  Again I wonder at the wisdom of so much land being devoted to grains, instead of growing nuts, which don’t require chemicals to grow, and the trees help soil erosion.
Also, people are watering their lawns, which drives me up a wall–they cut the grass to two or less inches, and then wonder why the grass dies.  Grass should be grown to at least 3 inches so the roots will grow deeper, allowing it to find moisture when it’s dry out.  I never had a problem with my grass dying when I still had my house/lawn.  But you never, ever hear about this when they’re talking about people watering their lawns.
Finally, I like the idea of subsidizing farms based on how much carbon they leave in the soil.  Great idea.  Probably won’t go anywhere if Monsanto doesn’t like the idea…

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