Women in Agriculture

"Lady Landowners" group? Encouraging such groups is a good idea for FSA.

Reston, Somewhat Walkable

Via Freakonomics, that's the score for my Reston neighborhood at walkscore.com (a site which for some cities evaluates how far you have to walk to reach amenities), which is about the same for the Lake Anne Center, the first part of Reston to be built. Mr. Robert Simon, the "father" of Reston, must be twirling in his Lake Anne apartment, as he dreamed of separating pedestrians and cars so that Reston would really be walkable. He didn't realize how lazy modern Americans would be.

What Happened to the ABA?

Here's a discussion by Jonathan Adler at volokh.com of possible bias in the ABA's evaluation of judicial nominees. An excerpt:

"[maybe] the ratings reflect the perspective of a somewhat-insular white liberal elite that has a tendency to give higher ratings to those who are most like them in background, experience and perspective."

Back in the 1950's, the ABA and the AMA were two pillars of the establishment, which was moderate to conservative. (Malcolm Gladwell's new book has a chapter on how the establishment looked down on some Jewish lawyers.) I don't know what's happened in 50 years to change the ABA (not that I necessarily agree with Adler).

Second Guessing the White House Garden

There's lots of attention to the White House garden, so it's fulfilling its symbolic function. I can't resist some cracks/comments:

• I'm a bit surprised at the kale/collards--we grow them as fall only. I guess they're buying seedlings.
• I'm not sure what the First Lady is teaching the school kids--making them work for 15 minutes and then a cookie break. I don't think the mother of either of the Obamas would be that lax--standards are slipping. (Even I can work 30 minutes straight before taking a break, and I'm old.
  
• 15 students, plus maybe 10 adults from the staff--that's 25 people for 1,100 square feet meaning each one does 40 square feet.
• were they hauling off the turf--is that to be used for patching elsewhere on the lawn (maybe after the Easter egg roll) or maybe on the Mall? If they composted it, and where's the plan for the compost pile for the White House--surely that's going to cause lots of criticism from the organic people, maybe that would reduce the carbon released from the sod breaking. Or maybe not: if you plow native prairie you turn under the sod, but I haven't seen that mentioned as a redeeming factor in converting land to crops.

I'm not sure of the relation between the Clinton's rooftop garden and this--certainly the rooftop garden doesn't pose any security problem, while this one looks dangerously accessible from the street.

Bottom line--anything a politician does in Washington is subject to second guessing. Because people feel so strongly on this issue, they'll get a lot of carping.

A Blast from the Past--The Hammer Award

The Hammer Award was an Al Gore, Reinventing Government, idea to recognize bureaucrats who had been innovative. Al Gore, for those of you who are young, or old with bad memories, is the man who used to be Vice President of these United States before he was the man who used to be President.

I was trying to research procurement procedures, just being bored on a Friday afternoon and with nothing better to do, particularly as a reader had expressed frustration with the Government's process. So I did a search on "programming" on the GSA site and got this result, with the Hammer Award as the top result. Makes me real confident in the currency of the site.

Fast Tracking the Stimulus, Not So Much

The Government Executive has an article on the various problems the administration is running into with its stimulus package.

Dr. Shiva Again

Since I took one crack at Dr. Vendana Shiva, I might as well take another. This Post article today on the burgeoning middle class in rural India paints a different side of the picture than the poor, oppressed farmers committing suicide she has depicted in the past. An excerpt:

India's rural destiny still depends on good monsoon rains and robust agricultural production, but four years of bumper crops and heavy government investment in rural infrastructure have given birth to what some analysts call an emerging economy within India.

In the dusty market along a bumpy road in Yadav's village, 40 miles south of New Delhi, sales of microwave ovens, washing machines and 32-inch, flat-screen plasma televisions have risen in the past year. Branded-clothing stores called Rich Look and Charlie Outlaw have sprung up, looking to attract upwardly mobile farm youths.

I suspect the truth is in between--commercial, yes "industrial", farming with its chemical fertilizers produces winners and losers, Dr. Shiva sees only the losers, this article shows the winners.

Carbon Offset for the White House Garden?

The first lady makes the front page of the Times and the Post style section with the announcement of the White House vegetable garden.

As they're apparently digging up the lawn to create it, I think they might need to buy carbon offsets for it. If I understand correctly, and I may not, any conversion from permanent or perennial vegetation to annual cropping means a net release of carbon. But, all cynicism aside, it's a nice symbolic gesture.

Carbon Credits, A Pipedream?

Sec. Vilsack may be overpromising (I know, he's a politician so that's totally surprising) when he says farmers can replace direct payments with payments for carbon credits. That's the message of this Marcia Zarley Taylor post at DTN:

The number one challenge facing pro-carbon trading farm groups at the moment is proving that agriculture's contribution to carbon reduction can be real, "additional" and permanent, others Ag Carbon Market Group members say.

Here are two GAO products which are relevant

FSA Interfacing With IRS

According to Sec. Vilsack, FSA will now require producers to sign a waiver form to permit IRS to provide income data to FSA to check compliance with adjusted gross income requirements. (It's a followup to a GAO audit.) See the press release here.

Note: the public doesn't want bureaucratic red tape, but it wants payments made to eligible people and it wants IRS data kept private. How does a bureaucracy square the circle: a form.