Napoleon Got There First--Mothers Day

It was the Civil War general Nathan Bedford Forrest who supposedly said (but he didn't) "I get there firstest with the mostest", but it was Napoleon Bonaparte who first honored mothers, according to this post by Mr. Beauregarde. (Actually, it seems it was a day to honor procreation, as befits the French.)

FSA Tries an Outreach--Mike Zook

FSA/USDA has been criticized over the decades for representing the mainstream, "progressive" farmer (i.e., aka now "industrialized") and ignoring minorities, small farmers, specialized crops, organics, etc. Much of the criticism is justified, though some isn't.

But here's an article from the Havre Daily News on some of the problems and complications faced when one county committee and office (Hill County, MT) tries an outreach to the Chippewa Cree. It takes persistence (10 years to change the zoning for county elections) and the ability to overcome bureaucratic obstacles (even within the tribe).

Credit to Mike Zook for trying.

Bureaucrat Is Pictured

I'm ambivalent about linking to this post, but it's not everyday a bureaucrat makes history, even if it's as a subject in a Lucian Freud painting. (No, it's not my idea of beauty but to each his/her own.)

The Perils of Centralization

Dirk Beauregard posts on the virtues and vices of having a centralized country. (Like no newspaper.) I follow his blog because it points out the very great differences between the U.S. and France. It's a reminder of how decentralized we are and how weak the federal government is, when compared to other countries.

Transparent Society

I've always liked the ideas in David Brin's Transparent Society. Brad DeLOng participates in a discussion of it after 10 years. IMHO federal bureaucrats, especially SES, and to a lesser degree perhaps the GS, should lose most on the job privacy. Let's stick an Internet camera in the office of each Congress person and each Federal executive. Let's let everyone know when someone in the bureaucracy is looking at their data. (Yes, it will take forever to implement, but it's the way to go.)

Sorry, I'm Doubtful

I just don't believe this claim of hundreds of thousands of bikers for Rolling Thunder. 3500 local riders I could buy.

In 2007, over 3,500 bikes from the local area as well as from points across the USA and Canada joined us for the Ride of the Patriots. The bikers assemble in an orderly manner eastbound along Fairfax Boulevard (Lee Highway) starting at Patriot Harley-Davidson and then with the help of Police motor squad units from Fairfax County, the City of Fairfax and Arlington County are escorted safely to the Pentagon staging area to join 400,000 other bikers for Rolling Thunder.

EU Ag Policy

Now we have a farm bill, we can pay a little attention to what the EU is going through. Here's a link to a summary.

It must be nice to have 27 bureaucrats (the ag ministers of the countries) be able to set policy.
And from a summary of the EU Commissions proposals:

Abolition of set-aside: The Commission proposes abolishing the requirement for arable farmers to leave 10 percent of their land fallow. This will allow them to maximise their production potential.

Phasing out milk quotas: Milk quotas will be phased out by April 2015. To ensure a ’soft landing’, the Commission proposes five annual quota increases of one percent between 2009/10 and 2013/14.

Decoupling of support: The CAP reform “decoupled” direct aid to farmers i.e. payments were no longer linked to the production of a specific product. However, some Member States chose to maintain some “coupled” – i.e. production-linked - payments. The Commission now proposes to remove the remaining coupled payments and shift them to the Single Payment Scheme, with the exception of suckler cow, goat and sheep premia, where Member States may maintain current levels of coupled support.

Moving away from historical payments: Farmers in some Member States receive aid based on what they received in a reference period. In others, payments are on a regional, per hectare basis. As time moves on, the historical model becomes harder to justify, so the Commission is proposing to allow Member States to move to a flatter rate system.

Extending SAPS: Ten of the 12 newest EU members apply the simplified Single Area Payment Scheme. This is supposed to expire in 2010, but the Commission proposes extending it to 2013.

Cross Compliance: Aid to farmers is linked to the respect of environmental, animal welfare and food quality standards. Farmers who do not respect the rules face cuts in their support. This so-called Cross Compliance will be simplified, by withdrawing standards that are not relevant or linked to farmer responsibility. New requirements will be added to retain the environmental benefits of set-aside and improve water management.

John Phipps Scores

John Phipps pointed out the final version of the new ACRE program in the farm bill will be lucrative if prices decline off their current highs. This morning that was picked up and discussed by Dan Morgan in the Post--concerns in Congress and in USDA. See John's new post this morning.

Caution: We Don't Know What We're Talking About

The title of this post is triggered by this bit of information:

"African Americans have replaced Asian Americans to become the ethnic group that spent the most on organic produce"

Certainly surprised the heck out of me. Source: Choices Magazine--an article by USDA/ERS--
from their summary (data is 2001-2004):

We used the Nielsen Homescan data from 2001 and 2004 to analyze consumer
purchase patterns of fresh organic produce. Our analysis shows that Asian and African Americans tend to purchase organic over conventional produce more than Whites and Hispanics. Households residing in the western region spent more on
organic produce on a per capita basis than those residing in other regions.
Contrary to popular opinion, we do not find any consistent positive association
between household income and expenditures on organic produce.

Comfort Food and Stress

John Tierney at NYTimes writes about research suggesting primates who are stressed out seek "comfort food". The suggestion is that stress would help account for the class differentials in obesity.