Professor Louise Fresco, agronomist, has one of the more interesting presentations that I've seen on TED.
She's asking us to take a more critical look at what might be our preconceived notions of agricultural production and the idea of what we may think is industrial farming. Those of us that talk about the need for “sustainable” agriculture frequently equate it with small-scale family farms.
Yeah, ABC's Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos demonstrated they were a couple of chuckle-headed-info-entertainers at the Democratic primary debate a couple of weeks ago between Senator Clinton and Senator Obama. But it's old news, no longer worth even a yawn.
How many years has it been since New York Times reporter Judith Miller created the work of fiction about "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq ... which contributed to some degree to the United States embarking on a fabricated war ...that has killed hundreds of thousands ... will cost trillions of dollars ... maybe helped destabilize the world economy ... and just possibly has some connection to the growing worldwide food crisis?
This documentary film (1hr 49min) first aired on French television in March. Monsanto was founded in St. Louis, Missouri in 1901. It is the manufacturer of PCB's, Agent Orange, and makes the world's best selling herbicide, Roundup. The company may be the world's largest manufacturer of genetically-modified seeds. The growing worldwide food crisis and the power of large multi-national corporations like Monsanto are quite possibly not unrelated. To see this film go to
Monsanto
a. Who's getting what in your state?
b. Who's passing out the money at the state and national level?
c. What crops are we subsidizing and why?
d. Who SHOULD we be helping?
Don't let any politician tell you they're doing the best they can or nothing can be done in an election year, which is the standard shopworn excuse most often used.
GO TO: Fair Farming
It seems to me more and more Americans have come to the conclusion that whenever feasible, locally grown food makes a lot of sense for a number of environmentally sound reasons, such as reducing transportation costs and the use of fossil fuels, reducing our dependence on corporate agriculture, treatment of animals, as well as not aiding in the destruction of, for example, the Amazon region in South America--a story unto itself. It often simply tastes better as well.
The urban farming movement is growing in Kansas City and throughout the country: Novella Carpenter in Oakland, California runs a blog I came across. You can find her at City Farmer. She has some interesting stuff to say. Also of interest is Urban Agriculture Notes, a Canadian site.
The rot seems to keep on giving in much of our farm policy. Congress tinkers with the system periodically but not a great deal changes.
Ken Cook, president of Environmental Working Group, said a few months ago, "America’s farm subsidy system is broken." This has been stated before but up until recently the average person would have had difficulty gathering information on America’s farm subsidy programs. It was shrouded in mystery and unclear as to what the rationale might be for passing out taxpayer money.
Something like two-thirds of US farmers do not receive any subsidy payments. Farm program benefits have been highly concentrated and have often not rewarded land stewardship nor encouraged improving the environment. But now there is a web site called MULCH.
A couple of months back I'd heard that narco-traffickers from Mexico had decided to set up marijuana plantations in some of our national parks, particularly in California. Why worry about crossing the border or building tunnels? (Is it really that easy?)
Heavily armed guards from the assorted cartels supposedly protect these agricultural endeavors. Apparently the U.S. Forest Service has issued warning to hikers and campers about the possible danger!
A problem is that after the "harvest" there is a fair amount of environmental destruction because of various chemicals used along with the necessary irrigation systems and overall forest destruction.
