Policy Matters... As In, It's Important

As a run-of-the-mill citizen who cares about the food I eat and with some understanding of and interest in the policies that affect how and what I eat, the Farm Bill has always struck me as this massively important piece of legislation that gets almost no attention outside of the world of those who actively support sustainable farming and those, like many members of Congress, who take pleasure in giving billions in subsidies to huge agribusinesses so they can grow more corn and soybeans and sugarbeets and the like.

For some reason the Farm Bill is only revisited every 5 years, and the sustainable/small farm community fights its little heart out and gets little scraps of improvement here and there, while the supposed true believers in the free-market system and protectors of the mythical "family farm" in Congress continue to prop up the agri-giants who, one would think, don't need the help. "How are we going to ensure Americans can afford to buy food?" they argue. "They're not all East Coast liberal elites who can afford to pay $8 for organic chard!"

Translated into non-politician-ease: "How can we ensure we continue to get big donations from ADM and Monsanto if we don't waste billions in tax payer dollars to ensure Americans can get cases of Orange Crush and Coke for the same price as 4 or 5 apples?"

In any case, the Farm Bill will be rearing its head once again in the next Congress. And some folks want to stop, or at least drastically slow down, the cycle of the overwrought influence of the big boys and their deep pockets on this important piece of legislation. You can read a little about it on Simple, Good, and Tasty, and then you can stay tuned to the effort through Facebook (even for a reluctant FB user like me, this seems like an apt use of this particular form of social media).

Good luck, and may the $8 organic chard be with you.

Obama's Ethanol Problem

I’ll admit that, at least with respect to the upcoming presidential election, I’m an Obama guy. But his position on subsidizing corn to produce ethanol is something that hopefully he’ll come around on once he’s in office.

Mr. Obama is running as a reformer who is seeking to reduce the influence of special interests. But like any other politician, he has powerful constituencies that help shape his views. And when it comes to domestic ethanol, almost all of which is made from corn, he also has advisers and prominent supporters with close ties to the industry at a time when energy policy is a point of sharp contrast between the parties and their presidential candidates.

In the heart of the Corn Belt that August day, Mr. Obama argued that embracing ethanol “ultimately helps our national security, because right now we’re sending billions of dollars to some of the most hostile nations on earth.”

Umm, Sen. Obama, how does planting even more subsidized corn to convert into ethanol, which is jacking up the cost of corn here and worldwide and which most experts seem to agree is significantly contributing to the international food crisis, help our national security?

The food crisis is pounding underdeveloped countries, leading to riots and unrest. Unrest breeds anger and hatred, particularly toward large superpowers whose policies are, to be kind, exacerbating the problem.

Anger and hatred does things to otherwise rational people. And just as reports have indicated that our little misadventure in Iraq and some of its related sequelae like Guantanamo Bay have proven to be exceptional recruitment tools for terrorists, it’s not a far leap to believe our food policies might be used in such a manner, as well.

Taking a step back to something more pragmatic – and completely ignoring the environmental impact of planting even more corn (the petroleum-based fertilizers, the gas-fueled equipment, the fertilizer run-off into already stressed waterways, the lost land to more monoculture, etc.) -- as the Environmental Working Group is now reporting, the entire concept of food for fuel has some serious flaws, including a tiny little speck of one called “bad weather.”

Most experts agree that the corn ethanol mandate plays a key role in higher corn and soybean prices and inflated U.S. and global food prices. The Washington ethanol mandate to convert food to fuel, a key provision of the 2005 and 2007 federal energy bills, put the full weight of U.S. policy behind the corn ethanol boom. Add to the equation the extreme weather already inflicted on the Corn Belt, and the likelihood of summer heat and a fall freeze, and an even sharper food and fuel price spiral seems inevitable.

If this scenario plays out, inflation is likely to worsen throughout the foundering U.S. economy. And many experts predict that the pace of food price inflation is likely to quicken in 2009, in line with the ethanol mandate’s climbing food-to-fuel targets.

I know it's getting you votes in Iowa, Sen. Obama, but how about taking that subsidy money and socking it into research focused on other, more sustainable alternative fuels, eh?

Just a thought from a concerned citizen, free of charge.