More Management Improvement

Government Executive has an article on the Bush Administration's plans and hopes for the future, performance management-wise. Pardon a jaded bureaucrat, but I've lived through PPB (LBJ's adaptation of McNamara's methods), Zero Based Budgeting (Carter), sunset Act, the Grace commission, MBO (management by objective), BPR (business process reengineering), GPRA (government performance results act), Reinventing government, and observed Bush from the sidelines with PART (performance assessment rating tool).

There are three weaknesses with these efforts:

1. NIH (not invented here)--each administration has to have its own effort, so there's a lack of continuity
2. Congress has never bought into the efforts. Yes, individual senators and representatives can push through something like paperwork reduction, but you don't get agreement. Even if the authorizing committee can agree on something, there's always the appropriations subcommittee with its own ideas.
   
3. Government by its nature is not outcome oriented, and when it is, there are conflicts. There are limited cases--you can measure whether checks get out on time. But one effort of Gore/Clinton was to speed visa processing--that's measurable, certainly, but maybe you don't want to quickly process visas for potential terrorists. Do you want to build an impenetrable wall along the border, or do you want to allow wildlife to follow their historic migration patterns?
   

Most Ridiculous Line I Read Today

From the NYTimes magazine, on carbon farming and mob stocking ("Better Living With Livestock"):

Meanwhile, the soil on his fields continues to deepen by a few inches annually, Collins claims, and his pastures have become so thick in energy-laden plants that he’s been able to eliminate grain inputs, saving tens of thousands of dollars a year.

According to the piece, by practicing "mob stocking" on his Vermont dairy farm, Collins is able to eliminate grain feeding. In effect, according to the article, he's invented a perpetual motion machine, producing topsoil and milk without importing grain onto his farm. That formula can't work. My geology 101 class and my years of gardening say soil develops from the breakdown of the bedrock (which takes geologic ages) and/or addition of organic materials. But if the only organic material is the hay and grass produced on the farm, you've got a closed system.

When I do a Google I get this blog (I hope he takes better care of his cows than he does his blog--the last post is 2006.) It turns out the NYTimes doesn't completely or accurately summarize the idea--so the line is less ridiculous when the missing context is supplied. The "mob stocking" is a method, not to increase fertilizer but better to handle an all-grass diet. The "deepening" of the top soil is supposedly done by subsoiling and converting subsoil to topsoil. And it wasn't, as of 2006, a completely independent operation--he admits that they haven't done much "winter grazing", meaning probably they're importing feed for Dec through April, or 5 months of the year (Vermont, remember).

I do wonder about the whole scheme--he's pushing the "Carbon Farmers of America", his new company, and suggesting that society pay farmers for sequestrating carbon, at the rate of $25 a ton. To quote:

"We are marketing Carbon Sinks to businesses and to the public, priced at $25 per ton. For every ton of carbon dioxide that a farmer transforms into just over half a ton of organic matter, which can be measured accurately in their fields, the farmer will be paid $19. One dollar is going to go for administration for the company. The other $5 will go toward equipping and training new carbon farmers. A priority for us is to create what in effect will be both a training program and a bank for new young grass farmers to get started. We want to build an army of young graziers who are going to create this topsoil we need so desperately. This will give an enormous opportunity for young people to get into a really meaningful livelihood and do a lot of good, and be able to make money doing it."

My reaction is that it sounds very dubious. Perhaps a one-time reward for converting subsoil to topsoil, but not on a continuing basis. No way. But if you want to donate to Mr. Collins, here's where you can buy.

A Bad Day for First Amendment Rights in DC

A neo-Nazi march on the Mall (maybe some of Obama's bitter people from Michigan?) against immigration was subject of a protest that resulted in arrests. From the Post article, one of the protesters:

"People marching in brown shirts and swastikas is a tool of intimidation and terrorism. We came out here to oppose them so they won't feel they can do it safely," said Dan Peterson, 23, a D.C. resident who was arrested.

I enrolled in the ACLU back in the 70's when Skokie was an issue. Mr. Peterson needs an education in civics.

Funniest Line of the Day

From Walter Shieb's (former White House chef) discussion of First Family recipes (re: the Cindy McCain deal) in the NY Times:

And while we’re on the subject [of White House cooking], isn’t the whole thing a tad sexist? I don’t believe that anyone has asked Bill Clinton what he’ll be looking for in a chef should his wife become president or what he’ll serve at his first state dinner. (As his family’s former chef, I can’t resist affectionately suggesting that this is probably for the best, given his predilection for comfort food.)

Local Food or Global Eater?

The local food advocates say we should eat locally, save on food-miles that create carbon dioxide to add to global warming. I wonder, which is better, to import winter fruits and vegetables from Chile, for example, or to export oneself to Chile in order to eat there?

Rising Organic Food Prices

According to NYTimes, the organic food industry is being hit and hurt by rising prices, particularly the dairy and meat people who have to pay higher prices for organic grain.

(I really need to get off this kick, but I find it interesting observing the theories of the organic/locavore community and seeing whether they're borne out when the economic facts change.)

Earmarks, the Good and the Bad

Kevin Drum notes that "earmarks", which Sen. McCain (and the Dems) have vowed to attack, includes stuff like aid to Israel and military housing.

He has some sane comments as well.

As for me, I'm bitter about what I'll call the policy/legislative earmarks in appropriations (like one provision in many ag appropriations bills prohibiting USDA from releasing data publicly before they give it to Congress). The dollar earmarks are an invitation to corruption, as may have occurred with the highway interchange in Florida, put in by Alaska's representative's staff. (I like the idea of Alaska earmarking for Florida.) But, with some transparency, some earmarking gives a good way to bypass the bureaucracy, which does need to be bypassed occasionally.

Obama Shows His Youth

Here's a post with video of Gumbel interviewing Obama (from ESPN, ? maybe?). It's interesting, but Obama says he took up basketball as a youth partly because it was a "black" game. (He seems pretty good in the pickup game later.) But when I was a youth, 20 years earlier it was a "white" game--blacks were just the comic relief aka Harlem Globetrotters. Bob Pettit and that bald white guard were big scorers, along with Bob Cousy and Bill Sharman with Boston. Of course, then they got Russell and the Joneses and we were in a different era.

A Sense of Humor at Farmgate

Farmgate summarizes weather, planting and crop conditions, state by state. (Most of Midwest had 1 hr to do fieldwork--too much rain. Conditions not much better elsewhere. The last two states in the list:

WISCONSIN: Soils are wet in Wisconsin with 48% having surplus moisture and the rest has adequate moisture, but no fieldwork was underway last week due to continued snow, rain, and muddy conditions. A few oats are in the ground, but not enough to reach 1% for the state.

HAWAII: (Just for comparison purposes) There were 7 days available for fieldwork, soil moisture is adequate, and all crops are in perfect condition, but field work will be coming to a halt due to volcanic emissions and smoke that have necessitated evacuation.

Environmental Working Group--Pioneer in Transparency

Having been there when ASCS was responding to the initial EWG FOIA request, I was struck by this comment (from an article mostly focused on Arkansas rice):

The group’s farm-subsidy database has played a pivotal role in the policy debates surrounding U. S. agricultural policy, said Sallie James, a trade-policy analyst with the Washington-based Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.

“I’m lobbying for [Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group ] to get a public service medal,” James said. “I can’t think of anything that’s been done in the public policy arena in the last 20 years that has had as much of an impact as this seemingly simple Freedom of Information request.”

It's true enough, but you have to add in the Internet as a vital enabler.