Farm Bill Brings the Bacon
What has the power to unite progressive Democrats and conservative Republicans? According to a compelling article in the San Francisco Chronicle, agribusiness is having its way in Congress, even getting Democrats to cut food stamps to make room for subsidies.
What has the power to unite progressive Democrats and conservative Republicans? According to a compelling article in the San Francisco Chronicle, agribusiness is having its way in Congress, even getting Democrats to cut food stamps to make room for subsidies.
WAIT, BEFORE YOU GO…San Francisco Chronicle:
As Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton toured the land denouncing special interests, giveaways to the rich, home foreclosures, job losses and a middle-class squeeze, back in Washington House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats met behind closed doors on a plan to raise taxes and cut food stamp money to protect billions of dollars for agribusiness, a sector of the economy that is booming.
The negotiators agreed Tuesday to find $10 billion in extra money in a last-ditch effort to save the farm bill, once seen as an opportunity to reform commodity programs and divert scarce funds to conservation, nutrition, organic research and California fruit and vegetable growers who are locked out of the Depression-era programs. The money is needed to appease these interests while still maintaining the commodity subsidies. Yet in proposals so far, those areas get trimmed to keep the subsidies flowing.
The subsidies demanded by the farm lobby would help big corn, wheat and soybean growers in areas where income is shattering records, credit is flowing and real estate values soaring.
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Over the past two months, the Brazilian Amazon has registered a sharp spike in deforestation.Over the past two months, the Brazilian Amazon has registered a sharp spike in deforestation .
Edward R. Murrow titled his 1960 CBS documentary "Harvest of Shame" on the merciless exploitation of the migrant farmworkers by the large growers and their local government allies. More than 50 years later, it is still the harvest of shame for nearly 2 million migrant farmworkers who follow the seasons to harvest our fruits and vegetables.
Earlier this month, Howard Buffett -- the philanthropist son of the "Sage of Omaha" -- penned a Huffington Post article defending a project within the U.N.’s World Food Program called "Purchase for Progress" and offered his vision of an ideal future for farmers in the global south. (more)
Several states, including Minnesota, Iowa and Florida, are considering legislation that would make it a felony for activists and journalists to carry out undercover investigations of agribusiness operations (more).
The overuse of antibiotics can lead to drug-resistant superbugs, so it's cause for concern to the folks at Johns Hopkins' Center for a Livable Future that the vast majority of bug-killing drugs aren't even consumed by sick humans.
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