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Rufus T. Firefly
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is one way of saying it, though I prefer "mensch"
Sep 2000
time: 07:34
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quote:
Originally posted by Whaleboy
American farmers can retrain. It's not like they'll starve. Sure it'll cause hardships for some people, but nothing like the hardship suffered by + ten times that number in the third world. Financial inconvenience suffered by tens of thousands, or life/death struggle faced by hundreds of thousands? Tough one, especially considering that the humane option is also the cheaper one  . |
Beyond that -- and maybe this has been said already -- what makes farmers so freakin special? Over the last two or three decades, we've basically turned over our entire shoe manufacturing industry to the Third World. Did anyone, aside from shoemakers, whine and fret about it? Did John Cougar Mellencamp and Wille Nelson organize Cobbler's Aid? No. Why? Because Americans aren't raised with romantic myths of the Family Shoe Business. But the Family Farm, for whatever reason, looms ridiculously large in our collective imagination -- even for Americans like me, whose families fled the horrors of serfdom in Eastern Europe, landed safely in New York City, and never, ever even thought about going back to the land. The myth is so huge that we can't have sensible policy discussions about it. And bastards like the good people at ADM play that for everything its worth -- and its worth billions. 
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Tuberski
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ACK!!! PTHBBPPPTTT!!!!
Feb 2002
time: 23:34
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quote:
Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
Beyond that -- and maybe this has been said already -- what makes farmers so freakin special? Over the last two or three decades, we've basically turned over our entire shoe manufacturing industry to the Third World. Did anyone, aside from shoemakers, whine and fret about it? Did John Cougar Mellencamp and Wille Nelson organize Cobbler's Aid? No. Why? Because Americans aren't raised with romantic myths of the Family Shoe Business. But the Family Farm, for whatever reason, looms ridiculously large in our collective imagination -- even for Americans like me, whose families fled the horrors of serfdom in Eastern Europe, landed safely in New York City, and never, ever even thought about going back to the land. The myth is so huge that we can't have sensible policy discussions about it. And bastards like the good people at ADM play that for everything its worth -- and its worth billions. |
Sure the shoes are made in other vountries, but those shops are still owned by Americans.
 ACK!
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Gatekeeper
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United States of America
Feb 2000
time: 23:34
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quote:
Originally posted by Odin
A farm subsidies cut will never pass, it would be political suicide for congresspeople from rural states or districts. Even if it did pass the House, the Senate would kill it because rural states are overrepresented.  |
My state has two senators and one representative. Tell me, how does that make it "overrepresented" in the halls of power that is Washington, D.C.? Last time I checked, the U.S. Constitution had provisions that each state would have two senators — population be *damned* — and U.S. House representation based on population (hence my state having one rep versus California's 60 or so reps).
[right-wing frothing]
You wanna change it? Fine. Then we refuse to host your nuclear weapons, your military bases and everything else on God's green Earth that makes us target number one for weapons of mass destruction held by foreign powers. We also refuse to grant fly-over rights, and trust me, we've got enough hills, mountains and prairie vastness in which to hide anti-aircraft missiles so as to make urban interlopers wish they hadn't taken the chance.
[/right-wing frothing]
[left-wing frothing]
You wanna import your food? Be my guest. Find out the hard way that cheaper isn't always better. I sure as hell hope you're not one of those types who bemoans the Wal-Mart Effect, because that's exactly what's happening to U.S. agriculture, all in the name of cheap, cheaper and cheapest. ADM, anyone? Smithfield Foods (or whatever the hell they're calling themselves nowadays)? The "cheap" mentality has also led to foodstuffs being larded with craploads of blood-pressure spiking sodium and artery-clogging fats, the latter of which is only *now* just beginning to have something done about it, after forty plus years of ruining generations of health, all in the name of the Almighty Cheap Dollar.
[/left-wing frothing]
*cough* OK, all frothing aside (I tried to be equal time about it), what follows is the most important, at least to me: The residents of my state are largely *hostile* toward corporate farming. Hell, we even had laws on the books that kept corporations from expanding their toehold in our state, until the damn thing was overturned by a *federal* court because it interfered (somehow) with interstate commerce. Most farmers in my state don't even gross enough to reach the normal $250,000 ceiling, let alone the "cheat" ceiling of $360,000. So that comment about not having support in rural areas for cuts in support doesn't hold water in *all* rural areas, such as mine. Hell, a fair number of folks in my state depend on food stamps, and I know there's farmers among their ranks.
When it comes to subsidies, the problem is far too many of those dollars are going to corporations and not honest-to-goodness, soil-of-the-earth farmers and ranchers. I'm all for closing the loopholes and cinching the belt, so to speak, as are a number of folks in my area. Of course, I can't speak for ag producers outside the Upper Midwest, so they might have a totally different viewpoint. And since they outnumber us — in Congress and in population — their voices are likely the ones you're hearing in Washington, D.C.
In the end, thank goodness for value-added agriculture. It's what will keep us going in the Upper Midwest.
Gatekeeper
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13-03-2005 07:31
) and all that crap. They seem to have this inordinate amount of political power and this irritatingly loud collective voice 
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