"Dad, Can We Eat This One?"

So much for the innocence of childhood, but Abby is cute, even though a bit ... Her father, Ron, is equally evil, posting great pictures of all the produce from his garden.

Farm Constitution Rears Its Head

The farm bill included a 10-acres base provision--no payments to "farms" with a base for the crop of under 10 acres. Now people are waking up to the implications and complexities. Via Keith Good (who's always good) the Lancaster FArming site reports on concerns of the PA Farm Bureau:

"PFB believes that the original intent of the measure was to allow farms with 10 or fewer base acres to be aggregated or combined with any farm or farms with base acres — whether owned or rented — to exceed 10 acres.

But according to Pallman [PA FSA head], the law is clear that the only way farm base acreages can be consolidated is through land purchase."

One complication, with which I became familiar in the early 1980's, is a "farm" is a "farm" is a "farm". So if disaster provisions are keyed to losses (on a farm) of production due to a natural disaster or the new ACRE program is keyed to expected revenue (on a farm), FSA has, in the past, maintained only one definition of a farm. So in Pennsylvania where farms originally were small, and operators are renting them from their owners (who may be the spouse, children, or descendants of the original farmer), if FSA treats each ownership tract as a separate farm, it increases the likelihood of eligibility for disaster payments. But it can make participating in other programs more difficult, as the acreage conservation reserve in the 1980's or the payment program now.

Map of Religions

Here's an interesting map of the US, showing the leading churches by county. I knew the Mennonite/Amish community was spreading, but not to Kansas. (The Presbyterianism of my father's side is a minority faith everywhere, even in its western PA heartland.) Hat tip to Religion in America.

New Term--Biodynamic Farming

Stumbled across a new term, new to me anyway: "biodynamic farming". Apparently there's a conflict between "organic farmers" and "biodynamic farmers". Best I can tell, it's mostly theological (I mean that literally--it reminds me of the differences among the Presbyterians during most of their history). The biodynamic faith is an offshoot, and more religious than plain organic farming.

Bureaucrats Are the Offensive Line of Life

A thought, prompted by the recent introduction into the Football Hall of Fame of Art Monk and Darrell Green. Consider this: there are 5 times as many offensive linemen on the field as quarterbacks, but the Hall of FAme has 33 modern era offensive linement to 23 quarterbacks.

Oh for the Safety of the Chlorophyll Based Economy

I'm searching for a term to contrast with "carbon-based economy". But the title is tongue-in-cheek; witness this sentence quoted in today's NYTimes Book Review: "“In the New York of 1867,” he writes, “horses were killing an average of four pedestrians a week (a bit higher than today’s rate of traffic fatalities).”" (Review of the book called Traffic, which sounds interesting.)

Monsanto and rBGH

Tom Philpott at Gristmill is among those noting with approval that Monsanto is trying to sell off its making of recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH). It's an interesting issue: on the one hand there's the "yuck" factor, those who believe that interference with nature is wrong and on the other the "green" factor, those who believe efficiency is the way of the future. That is, if the hormone enables the production of more milk from the same inputs, isn't that similar to an Energy-Star appliance?

Obviously I lean more towards the efficiency side. But "lean" is the right word.

Information to Complicate One's Understanding.

Why is Canada slim and the US obese?

Well, a possible reason is difference in the kind of statistics used (see the comments on the post). But it's interesting to consider the broader (ouch!) picture. Seeing a map of Mexico using comparable stats would also be of interest.

Pensions

I'm getting more conservative. Here's a Times article (from 2 days ago) on pension costs in Europe. Due to different attitudes on immigration, their problem is much worse than ours.

"One factor that may offset the issue could be the surprising success some countries have had with the introduction of private pensions.

Sweden created a system in 1999 that siphoned off 2.5 percent of a worker’s gross income and invested it in privately managed stock and bond funds. Employees choose the funds themselves, based on their appetite for risk.

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Related

Managing Globalization: Generational Wars in Europe

Since then, countries including Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and all the Baltic states, as well as Germany, have adopted similar programs. (A proposal by President Bush to do much the same died at the beginning of his second term.)

Germany’s system, using tax incentives to persuade people to save for their own retirement, got off to a slow start in 2001. But now some 11 million Germans have bought into it.

I think the Dems should consider this, even though it's like what Bush and the Reps have suggested in the past. A 1 percent add-on, phased to 2 percent with a corresponding reduction in FICA taxes for the second percentage point, sounds about right to me.

Is Hemingway Back?

Poppa was a big big figure in the arts when I was growing up. People (the artsy types) mocked, but "The Old Man and the Sea" did great (in the 50's). Then, after his suicide and the gradual subsidence of his wives, his children, his reputation, he seemed to be very much a has-been.

But, consider this:

"Bleargh. I did this [i.e., mock a TV show] comfortably from a perch way up on my high horse, where I listened to the Stones and read Hemingway and scowled at girls in obscenely short shorts and bought glasses like Tina Fey's. Competitive dance?"

This is from Caitlin Gibson, a guest blogger for Joel Achenbach, who, by the name alone, must be young, young young. And I swear I've noted a couple other cites of Hemingway recently. He must be on the way back. (Has over 4 million hits on Google--maybe he was never gone, except in my mind?)