วีดีโอ

There are many fine things here, but, like almost all other advocacy groups, they miss the biggest thing about the farm bill, as do resources like Kiss the Ground, the Dan Imhoff books, (with very minor exceptions,) and the politicians mentioned. The problem is a false paradigm. The biggest thing about the farm bill, historically and ideally, (for transformative proposals,) is market management, not spending. It's much bigger in impact, leading to major structural changes, much bigger than all conservation spending, and much bigger than spending on farm subsidies. These are economic impacts in the multi-trillions, (not counting multiplier effects). Market management involves minimum farm price floors, (like minimum wage floors, which are not spending,) backed up by supply reductions, to prevent oversupply and cheap prices. US farms had "living wage" price floors, 1942-1952, when the farm programs got up to speed, but agribusiness lobbied against it, and Congress lowered them, more and more, 1953-1995, then ended them. They're needed because "free" farm markets don't balance supply and demand, but rather lead to cheap, below cost farm prices most of the time. So what the farm bill has done for 70 years is to lower farm income, to penalize farmers, to force farmers to increasingly subsidize agribusiness/CAFOs with below cost ingredients, (cheap farm prices). By multi-trillions of dollars. Forced to subsidize CAFOs, almost all farms across a wide region have then also lost all livestock and poultry, to then lose the sustainable livestock crops, grass pastures, hay, and nurse crops like oats. What, then do you do with the massive regions of hills (plus stream areas) that had alway had permanent cover? See "You Can't Fix Sustainability without Justice." The Environmental Movement has never understood the Farm Bill, and has advocated instead on the side of agribusiness exploitation of farmers, of creating this disaster. This is all covered up by the spending paradigm, where only subsidies are seen, interpreted through dozens of farm subsidy myths.

Promo>SM ✌️