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  • From: STEVE GILMAN <stevegilman AT verizon.net>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Market-farming Digest, Vol 62, Issue 36
  • Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:57:51 -0400

Hi Brigette,

The Farm Bill is A Lot more complicated than a rudimentary look might suggest -- and the Devil's wretched excesses are in the details.... In this regard I'd point anyone who wants to know what's going on in the name of taxpayers supposedly providing a safety net for farmers to go to the Washington Post's investigative series, "Harvesting Cash" at
<www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/interactives/farmaid/>.

There's a story there about a Houston surgeon collecting subsidies on the land he bought for his Mansion -- because the rice subsidies run with land, for instance.... and on and on about gaming the system -- which serves the Big Boys very well. Sure, some smaller farmers might be thrown a crumb or two, but crumbs they are -- the entire organic research budget comes in around 1% of USDA's total expenditures, for example.

Huge subsidies are one of the reasons why the Farm Bill is delayed once again -- and there's the specter of WTO sanctions hanging over the results -- meaning Congress will have to rewrite commodity titles once again in the near future.

Instead of subsidizing a continuance of petro-agriculture whose days are plainly numbered (witness the major fuel/fertilizer/pesticide cost increases just this season), I think we'd all be better served by Public dollars researching and supporting SUSTAINABLE alternatives, not delivering them mindlessly into the coffers of Agribusiness as Usual.

best,
Steve
Ruckytucks Farm





On Mar 26, 2008, at 9:09 AM, market-farming-request AT lists.ibiblio.org wrote:

Message: 3
Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:18:24 -0400
From: Brigette Leach <avalonfarmshomegrown AT earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] WIC! Wicked!
To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <47E98840.5030209 AT earthlink.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Kate,

I agree that everyone should have access to good, nutritious food. I
also want to provide some information on what I assume you are referring
to when you say subsidies.

The Farm Bill, as it is commonly called, is actually the Food Security
and Rural Investment Act. There are ten /*titles */in the legislation;
energy, commodity, conservation, nutrition, trade, credit, rural
development, forestry, research, and miscellaneous.

About $2 of every $3 in '07 farm bill spending went to food stamp and
other nutrition programs...76% up from 68% in 2002. The commodity title
spending has been cut more than 60% from previous legislation and
currently accounts for about 12% of the total.

Food Security Act spending amounts to $23 per American per year, or
about $.06 a day.

We do have problems with access to food in the US, but it is for a
variety of reasons. Lack of information as to how to buy, how to cook it
after it's purchased, how to store fresh produce in order to keep the
nutritional content, not to mention money management. Lack of even
having a grocery store in the neighborhood is another.

I make it a point to visit grocery stores wherever I travel...domestic
as well as international travel...and I have seen everything from great
produce to absolutely pathetic in quality, variety and quantity. I feel
fortunate to live in an area of the US where a wide variety of fruits
and veggies are produced and I have always had access. But I can take
you to grocery stores within 40 miles of my home and farm where the
produce section of the store is one of the pathetic ones. I wouldn't eat
the stuff that is there either. There is not doubt in my mind that
frozen fruits and vegetables would have more nutritional value than what
is in that produce section.

At the farmers markets we attend we see both ends of the financial well
being spectrum... from those who could well afford the $4.50/lb peaches
and not bat an eye...to those on the other end who are just glad to have
the extra dollars that the Project FRESH coupons provide. I also get to
talk to the young families and the seniors who use EBT (electronic
benefits), in Michigan we call it the Bridge Card, used to be called
food stamps, and the Project FRESH program coupons. It does break my
heart to see people who I know full well do not have the personal
resources to eat well, but the resource that is lacking is not only or
always money. There is a huge lack of knowledge...we don't teach home
economics any more, children don't spend time with parents and
grandparents...and yet we wonder why they don't know how to buy, store
or prepare food. People aren't born knowing, they have to learn it
somewhere and nobody is teaching it. Honestly, I've had people at the
farm market who don't know what a cherry is or if it has a pit, which
frequently gets referred to as a seed.

So do I think subsidies are the problem? Not at all.

Brigette Leach
Avalon Farms Homegrown
Share of the Farm
www.avalonfarmshomegrown.net





  • Re: [Market-farming] Market-farming Digest, Vol 62, Issue 36, STEVE GILMAN, 03/26/2008

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