Amidst all the turmoil of enacting our farm bill, the Canadian process seems rather tranquil. The government and industry consult, after figuring out how much money to spend, and come up with a program, apparently without passing Parliament. I guess in the parliamentary scheme, much focuses on the budget process.
The Agrinvest plan sounds a bit like a 401K for farmers.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Thursday, December 20, 2007
I Don't Want the Whole World To Know How Senile My Husband Is
That was the best line I heard yesterday (yes, from my wife).
What was the trigger for it? I commented I needed to blog about it, and that was her reaction.
What was "it"? Damned if I can remember now. Her reaction just washed away the "it".
What was the trigger for it? I commented I needed to blog about it, and that was her reaction.
What was "it"? Damned if I can remember now. Her reaction just washed away the "it".
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Who Is a Farmer
FSA has just put out a renewal of the proposed rule for Cash and Share Lease Provisions for Future Farm Programs. (The issue has been: who shares in the risk of production of the crop. But with the price of land rising and people looking for new ways to split risk and reward between landowner and tenant, this is a hot issue. Apparently so much so people requested more time to comment.) I was surfing this site, searched on "agriculture" and stumbled on the document. Comments run for 30 days. I'm also interested to note that Salomon Ramirez is now in DC and a division director. I remember when...
I'm curious over the impact of the on-line comment process on the number and quality of comments.
I'm curious over the impact of the on-line comment process on the number and quality of comments.
County Committees
Ah, for the good old days, when county committees had power and were subjects of political struggle (when farm programs first started, the committees were all-powerful, now they aren't).
53 years ago:
53 years ago:
Independence County’s Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service committee, which has served nearly four months longer than a regular tenure, has issued a statement that the committee welcomes an investigation of the election of county committeemen held in August.
The statement was issued in reply to a Guard story that the office of Compliance and Investigation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture had been asked to investigate the election after the state committee said it has had 10 or 12 complaints. The state ASCS committee has never certified the election of William P. Magness, Clyde Stewart and W.S. Finney. The men were supposed to have taken office Sept. 1.
From the Batesville Daily Guard.
Satan Working Overtime--Egypt, Zebibah, and Me
The Times has a fascinating article today on the zebibah in Egypt. Seems the zebibah is the name for the forehead callus caused by pressing one's forehead to the ground as one prays. The more you pray and the harder the impact, the more visible the callus. Egyptian society has, according to the article, become much more visibly pious in the last 2 decades. Women wear the hijab (head scarf), men display the zebibah.
Where does Satan come in? Where do I come in? Many decades ago I wanted to be visibly pious. I saved my allowance and made a big display in Sunday School of all the money I contributed. But I knew better. I knew that was egotism. That was a sin. That was Satan. Or, alternatively, maybe I felt it was conforming to society and I could feel rebellious (once every 2 decades or so). So I made a simple decision: stop going to church.
What will happen in Egypt? I don't know, but I don't believe a conformist society can last in the modern world. Satan and egoism are still at work.
Where does Satan come in? Where do I come in? Many decades ago I wanted to be visibly pious. I saved my allowance and made a big display in Sunday School of all the money I contributed. But I knew better. I knew that was egotism. That was a sin. That was Satan. Or, alternatively, maybe I felt it was conforming to society and I could feel rebellious (once every 2 decades or so). So I made a simple decision: stop going to church.
What will happen in Egypt? I don't know, but I don't believe a conformist society can last in the modern world. Satan and egoism are still at work.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Maturity--Age or Experience
The conventional wisdom seems to be that it takes a long while for the body to mature. Brain scans seem to prove you have to be at least 25 to achieve good judgment.
From personal experience, I might say it takes longer.
But on the other hand, since I'm contrarian, maybe not. Brain scans also seem to show that the brain is like a muscle, different types of experience leave their mark. For example, London taxi drivers have to study for 3 years to learn all the streets and pass the exam. Scans show the area of their brain devoted to spatial relationships grows over the 3 years. So, maybe we shouldn't assume that the brain scans devoted to maturity simply show the natural development of the body with the logical conclusion that we shouldn't expect mature judgment from 21 year olds. Maybe the scans reflect the progressive infantilization of Americans, the fact that children/adolescents/young adults aren't exposed to situations that test their judgment. We don't have 8-year olds responsible for herding their family's cows. We have (I'd guess) fewer teenagers working jobs and more studying. We have more students in college and post-graduate study. (You learn many things in college, but not necessarily good judgment).l
From personal experience, I might say it takes longer.
But on the other hand, since I'm contrarian, maybe not. Brain scans also seem to show that the brain is like a muscle, different types of experience leave their mark. For example, London taxi drivers have to study for 3 years to learn all the streets and pass the exam. Scans show the area of their brain devoted to spatial relationships grows over the 3 years. So, maybe we shouldn't assume that the brain scans devoted to maturity simply show the natural development of the body with the logical conclusion that we shouldn't expect mature judgment from 21 year olds. Maybe the scans reflect the progressive infantilization of Americans, the fact that children/adolescents/young adults aren't exposed to situations that test their judgment. We don't have 8-year olds responsible for herding their family's cows. We have (I'd guess) fewer teenagers working jobs and more studying. We have more students in college and post-graduate study. (You learn many things in college, but not necessarily good judgment).l
Philpott and Metz on Farm Bill
Monsanto sponsors a site, which has an interview with "Tom Philpott, the founder of Maverick Farms, a sustainable-agriculture non-profit and small farm located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina. We also talked to Bob Metz, former president of the American Soybean Association and a fifth generation soybean and corn farmer in West Browns Valley, South Dakota" here.
Philpott would like a supply management program (once known as "production adjustment"--my area of concern) for corn and soybeans to reduce current levels of production for fear of environmental consequences.
Philpott would like a supply management program (once known as "production adjustment"--my area of concern) for corn and soybeans to reduce current levels of production for fear of environmental consequences.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Senate Passes Farm Bill
The Senate passes a farm bill, with no changes on payment limitation and which is unsatisfactory to the administration.
NYTimes and Locavore
The Times decided to jump on this bandwagon with two op-ed pieces.
- One praises the energy saving virtues of hunting in your own backyard (particularly white-tailed deer, to which I would add the Canadian geese who now overwinter, thanks to global warming).
- The other challenges the casual and unthinking usage of "food-miles" to evaluate food, also making the claim that feeding 6 billion people (more conceived every second) will take some industrial agriculture, and ending with a plea to look at the big picture.
$4 Million Owed and Bureaucratic Rules
There's a North Dakota case where a farmer was got money fraudulently, was convicted of fraud, forfeited $3.9 million in assets and served 4 years in jail. Now FSA has sent demand letters to the man and his associates (who weren't convicted), asking for repayment of the farm program payments. Here's a version of the AP story.
What's not clear is whether the forfeited assets should have gone against the debts (in which case there's a bureaucratic foulup among Justice, USDA, and FSA) or not. In any case, it's not clear why FSA didn't send demand letters to the associates 4 or more years ago. Unfortunately, when you don't often have such cases, they tend to get messy because no one remembers how to process them.
What's not clear is whether the forfeited assets should have gone against the debts (in which case there's a bureaucratic foulup among Justice, USDA, and FSA) or not. In any case, it's not clear why FSA didn't send demand letters to the associates 4 or more years ago. Unfortunately, when you don't often have such cases, they tend to get messy because no one remembers how to process them.
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