The Myths We Live By

Ethicurean has a piece on a new chain, Cereality, serving breakfast, as in combining cold cereal, milk, and toppings for a big markup. But the writer's succumbed to the myths:

Of course, the reason why the cereal grains purchased by General Mills or Kellogg’s cost mere pennies is the tremendous subsidies that go to corporate agribusiness growing corn and wheat, thus creating an excess of extremely cheap and nutritionally deficient grain products that are making our nation fat and diabetic and destroying arable farmland because they are grown in huge, chemical dependent monocultures. On top of all that, subsidies force small-scale farmers both here and abroad off their land because they can’t compete with our artificially cheap grain prices.

The truth, of course, is many more family farmers (like John Phipps) grow wheat and corn than do any corporate agribusinesses.

Wired and Down to Earth

Down to Earth links to an article in Wired on green "heresies" (offenses against a supposed "green" ideology), specifically organics and genetic engineering.

C.P.Snow had his famous lecture on the Two Cultures many years ago. I think I sniff a whiff of that in some of the "green"/environmental controversies. There's the reasonably hard science of the climatologists. Most greens accept and believe that. But there's also some romanticism, often with an anti-scientific edge. I'd see that in Prof. Pollan's most recent book with its attacks on "nutritionism." Sometimes the greens/locavores seem to be the modern Luddites, distrusting the modern works of the mind.

While many years ago I decided I wanted to be a historian (and failed, but that's another story), I also then, and now, was very interested in science. Whether it was the science fiction of Heinlein, Clarke, and Asimov, or the science writing of Asimov and Gamow, I got off on the ability of smart men (few women mentioned back then) to understand the natural world. (Perhaps it was genetic; my father had a BA in chemistry and BS in chemical engineering before his health forced him into farming.)

I've never lost my interest in science (though string theory is way beyond me, I still have problems with subatomic particles). And I've never lost my faith in the mind. While I acknowledge the problems often raised (usually eugenics is the first one) the mind is the only instrument we've got and we've come a long, long way since I was a boy.

So, while not a scientist, you can reasonably accuse me of great faith in science. And I don't see the great divide between the "natural" and the "engineered". All of which is a long-winded way of saying I agree that "organic farming" shouldn't be "privileged", to use current terminology over conventional farming. And the only way to progress from where we are is to use all our tools, including genetic engineering. It's easy for humans to be over-confident in their smarts, but the only alternative is faith in dumbness.

Corn Price Volatility

APAC has an interesting analysis of past run-ups in corn prices, and their subsequent declines. Having predicted current prices will fall, I'm glad to see someone with better credentials than old age agree with me.

What Will They Do Next?

There's a french film that got good reviews, maybe even an Oscar nomination, about a man locked inside his body by a stroke, except that he could blink his eye and so he wrote a book.

MIT's Technology Review has an update on work implanting chips in the brain so primates like us can communicate with external gadgets, like a mechanical arm, and feed themselves. Both fascinating and a little disturbing, until I read this paragraph:

After just two days of training, the monkeys learned to control the arm in three dimensions and to control the gripper placed at the end that functions as a hand. The animals even learned to use the arm in ways in which they hadn't been trained: an accompanying video shows an animal using the arm to push a piece of food into his mouth. In a second video, the monkey brings the gripper back to his mouth and licks it, ignoring another piece of food. "He gets so good at using the tool that he may think about it as part of his own body," says Schwartz. He likens the training process to learning to use a mouse to control a computer cursor. After a certain learning period, "you're not thinking about how you have to activate a muscle in an index finger to push the left mouse button," he says. "In that way, you've embodied the cursor on the screen."

And of course, I was moving my mouse as I read. But the dividing lines blur and blur.

Students as Farm Laborers

Many of the comments on the NY Times article I linked to below said that farmers should hire students. My guess is that's more difficult than one might imagine. Any given farmer for any given crop needs harvesting labor only for the period the fruit is ripe. In the wheat belt, I understand that harvesting crews follow the custom harvesters north, from Texas into Canada. That setup is probably better able to attract students than fruit and vegetable. I remember in my youth buses of migrant labor (black or "Negro" as we said then) would arrive to pick beans for canning (just a handful of fields in my area, on the river floodplain). They'd go north for other crops. And the film, "The Ciderhouse Rules", shows a similar setup for apples at a later date. But somehow I can't imagine today's parents of college-bound children encouraging them to follow the crops north as harvesters.

As for dairy, the other type of farming in the piece, not many teenagers are willing to get up at 4 am for first milking.

Lack of Labor for Fruits and Vegetables

The NYTimes has a nice article on the problems facing NY fruit and vegetable growers (yes, NY state is more than the Big Apple, lots of small apples and even some cabbage grown in Ontario County and points west, where my paternal grandmother grew up) because of lack of labor.

One dairy farmer bit the bullet and spent over $1 million for 4 robot milkers. (He has 700 cows.) Much of the problem is twofold--natives won't work for the wages farmers can pay and immigrant labor is uncertain, given the hype over closing the borders, etc. Unfortunately, while organic farms can attract "interns" (meaning low paid, unskilled labor) by providing psychic benefits, the run of the mill fruit or dairy farm can't. Just not that many suckers born. (Sorry--it's warm and humid today and my temper is uncertain, I don't really mean to be mean to the young who believe in saving the world by veggies and organic labor.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post has an article on the problems with empty houses in the suburbs--abandoned due to foreclosures. No explicit link in the article to the crackdown on immigrants, but I make that link. Of course, many believers in organics are anti-globalism, which in my mind means anti-immigrants. A tangled web, indeed.

Your Principal Is Your Pal

One would think an eminent college professor, particularly one in the field of English literature, would know this. But no: "Who were the principle players?"

From Stanley Fish's blog post on a proposal by the University of Colorado to have a Chair on Conservative Thought and Policy. (He's against.)

I know, I'm showing my age (and my blue pencil past) but such mistakes gripe me. (And don't get me started on "its" and "it's", which no one these days knows how to use.

Second Most Credulous Line I Read Today

From the Washington Times (similar stats on other media outlets):

For the 21st year in a row, the two-wheeled crusade called Rolling Thunder has taken over the capital of the free world. An estimated 350,000 motorcyclists — plus their intrepid passengers, activists, organizers, fans and awestruck spectators — have assembled here to draw America's attention to fallen soldiers, lost warriors, prisoners of war, honored veterans and military families.

It's true enough--someone came up with the "estimate". The only difference between Rolling Thunder and the "pro-life" or "anti-war" or whatever rallies and marches is the existence of an opposition with a motive to question the accuracy of the estimates. Rolling Thunder seems to be a sacred cow.

Most Credulous Line I Read Today

This title of a post on Casaubon's Book: "Fascinating Read". It refers to a Russian scholar who claims to have identified a famine in the U.S. during the Great Depression such that "United States lost over seven million people during the famine of 1932-1933".

Just shows what happens when people (the scholar) focus on statistics too much and on life too little. See this table.

Iowa Farming Today

From the summary of an Iowa State study of Iowa commercial farmers 2000-2007:

Within the IAFBA data set, the top 20 percent have improved their financial standing significantly over the period. The lowest 20 percent have made little financial progress. Between these extremes we see farm businesses, at varying degrees, meeting outside cash obligations and strengthening their equity position.

This study provides a snapshot of Iowa commercial farmers’ financial strengths at the beginning of the ethanol-fueled price boom and a new Farm Bill. We expect, for a few years at least, that commodity prices will continue to be strong. The grain price increases may result in cutbacks in livestock profitability depending on the growth in meat demand. Ultimately strong farm profits will be bid into land, [bolding added] rents and other asset values, resulting in tighter more volatile margins.

If commodity prices do remain strong, one of the unresolved questions is how the farms represented by the panel will fare. Will a rising tide lift all boats or will the range in adjusted cash income become wider? The lower 20 percent group has higher debt-to-asset ratios and is more dependent [bolding added] upon government payments as a source of cash income. This group may be more vulnerable to changes in the cost structure of agricultural assets. And, it is unclear how the new farm bill will influence farm income and equity growth across this rather broad spectrum of farm structures. Farm size, enterprise mix, financial condition and human capital will all contribute to the ability of farmers to adapt to changing conditions. The full version of this report is available at: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/FM1883.pdf

The fact that the poorest 20 percent are most dependent on payments is a clue to the persistence of government farm programs. And the idea that profits get bid into land means landowners ultimately benefit from government payments. (Some landowners are farmers, some retired farmers, some widows of farmers, and some are absentee--speculating or, like Ted Turner, pleasing themselves.)