Big Ag
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Why gutting subsidies shouldn’t be the focus of Farm Bill reform efforts
A lot of people, myself among them, have spent substantial time this year trying to demystify the 2007 Farm Bill. But as it lurches into its stretch run — with passage possible by year-end — I fear that the bill is more shrouded in mystery than ever, even among sustainable-agriculture advocates. The answer ain’t blowin’ […]
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More evidence that industrial ag is destroying the planet
From an ecological standpoint, the fundamental problem with U.S. farm policy dating back to the ’70s is that it rewards farmers for maximizing yield at all cost. Encouraged to produce as much as possible, all the time, farmers have few incentives to conserve resources or protect water, air, or soil quality. The federal government’s dizzying […]
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The former governor of North Dakota loves biofuel and GMOs
Speaking yesterday at a gathering of the Grocery Manufacturers Association — a trade group whose member list reads like a directory of multinational food corporations — President Bush waxed coy about his new choice for USDA secretary. This afternoon I’m going to name a new Secretary of Agriculture. I’m not going to tell you who […]
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All hail the biofuel boom
A UN official recently declared biofuels a "crime against humanity," because they leach agricultural resources from feeding people and direct them to feeding cars. But one man’s crime is another’s boon. Surging biofuel use encourages farmers to maximize yield over all other considerations — and they do so by lashing the earth with all manner […]
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Edwards calls for moratorium on new industrial ag feedlots
I was going to ask why this didn’t get more play, but then I remembered I had forgotten to post on it for a week, so I guess I’m part of the problem. Anyway, Edwards apparently called for moratorium on new or expanded CAFOs. Is this not a big deal? As far as I know, […]
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The Senate Ag Committee’s Farm Bill
No jaded observer will be surprised: The Senate Agriculture Committee yesterday released its version of the 2007 Farm Bill, leaving the subsidy mechanisms in the 2002 bill pretty well intact. I’m still trying to chase down details of the proposal, but here are a couple of tidbits. The big news is that the version contains […]
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As food series ends, the story is just beginning
During my trip to the Midwest this summer, I saw many unsettling sights: vast monocropped landscapes lashed regularly with chemicals, insidious low-slung buildings that imprison thousands of animals and concentrate their waste. Yet I returned oddly invigorated, buzzing about Iowa’s promise as a sustainable-ag mecca. Amid the cornfields and the CAFOs, I saw thriving homestead […]
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A frustrated resident speaks out
The following letter was mailed anonymously to Marian Kuper, whom we featured in last week’s “A Tale of Two Counties.” She shared it with Tom Philpott so we could give readers a sense of the frustrations brewing in CAFO country. We welcome responses from other perspectives. I know that others still believe the United States […]
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How the nation’s breadbasket is poisoning its own water supply
In late September, the corn and soybean fields of the lower Missouri River floodplain are a lovely dull brown, nearly ready for harvest. The row crops sprawl as far as the eye can see, their regimental march broken only by levees, gravel roads, the occasional band of cottonwoods, and the endless tracks of the Burlington […]
