The Empire, er Republicans Strike Back

From Politico, on a study of the use of Web 2.0:

"the study found Republicans have “struck back,” with GOP senators averaging more than 5.5 IQ points higher than their Democratic counterparts.
Of the seven senators who scored “genius” social media rankings, four were Republicans: McCain — the top tweeter, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Scott Brown of Massachusetts and John Cornyn of Texas.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0810/41278.html#ixzz0xAeLxv9E"

History Repeats Itself: ACRE

Farmgate reports on an analysis of why and which farmers enrolled in ACRE.Two points strike me:

1. in terms of farmer education, only 25 percent of farmers used the spreadsheets available on the web, while 90 percent apparently talked to FSA personnel.  That tells me that even though PC's and the internet have made inroads, the in-person contact is key.  It's also a clue as to the bureaucratic success of FSA and the farm programs: the FSA clerk technician may be a bureaucrat in my eyes, but in the farmer's eyes she's a trusted source of information.
2. as usual (I'm reading between the lines) the bigger farmers and those more active in managing their risks took advantage of the program.  I say "as usual" because that's been the pattern since AAA days. The biggest and most "modern" farmers have always taken advantage of government programs; that's one reason why there's some truth in the accusations the greenies, foodies, and others make against them.

Best Advice of the Month

From Dan Drezner: "10)  Quit reading blogs.  They rot your brain and give you cooties. "  (Actually, I prefer his no. 9.)

Is 600,000 Chickens Small?

A discussion in Farm Policy about confusion in California about the enforcement of humane standards for hens includes this quote:

The Journal article pointed out that, “John Lewis Jr., president of Farmer John Eggs in Bakersfield, says he doesn’t know what to do with his small, family-run company’s 600,000 hens. He doesn’t want to put them in a cage-free environment because, he says, they would be running around in their own feces and he would have to feed them antibiotics.
“Plus, when they are on the ground, he said, ‘If something scares them, they all run into a corner and pile on top of each other and suffocate very quickly.’”

As we never had more than 1700 poultry (all ages) at one time, I disagree with the "small". But I agree: chickens are stupid, I do not like chickens, and chickens easily panic and smother (just like humans--where was that crowd that stampeded and 19 were killed?).

Immigration and Housing

I've still got that bee in my bonnet about the relationship of housing, immigration, and the economy.  Succeeded in getting a question answered on Ezra Klein's blog here.

Black, Black Clouds for Cotton

Via Chris Clayton, a link to a review of the prospects for cotton in the future farm bill.  Basically it's bad for cotton if the Republicans take Congress but also bad if the Democrats retain control, because Collin Peterson likes crop insurance and not marketing loans, while the cotton people like loans and not crop insurance.

As I'm in a sadistic mood today, I enjoyed a good laugh at their predicament.

A Dem like me finds a bit of solace in their support for the South Korean trade pact and support for regulation of derivatives in the financial regulation law just passed.

Liberal Klein Disses Grandmothers

Ezra Klein thinks grandmothers have a lame sense of humor (re: D = drive, R= reverse joke of Obama's).

Lincoln's Disaster Program (Cont)

Chris Clayton reports Vilsack says they're working on Lincoln's disaster program, but want it to reinforce crop insurance:..." if we were to do it, how would you do it in a way that would reinforce crop insurance and the SURE program?"

I think the answer is, you don't.  It's like saying, if we're going to somehow find the money so our teenager can replace his old car with a new Porsche, how do we do it in a way that would reinforce his good driving habits?

The Germans, Bless Them

Watched The Last Station over the weekend--starring Mirren and Plummer.  It's apparently reasonably accurate depiction of Tolstoy's last days and the conflict with his wife, Sophia.  It's good, not great, if you like such pictures, as we do.

The director's commentary was interesting.  Most of the movie was filmed in various German places, because they had both the financial incentives and the infrastructure, in contrast with Russia which was disorganized and a crap shoot.  He commented he wanted the villa where the Tolstoys lived to be a bit dirty, because it was the center of a lot of farming activity (a commune) and lots of people going in and out.  But despite his best efforts, the German crew would keep cleaning up the dirt. 

Given my mother's folks came from Germany, I've experienced that mania, although I've fortunately escaped it myself.

Is $1.1 Million Small?

I don't know what regulations the bankers feel handcuffed by, but these apple growers in Washington feel $1.1 million is too small. That seems to be the cap on the FSA loan program (presumably the one for beginning farmers, though that's not clear).

I saw elsewhere that farmland prices in the Midwest were pushing towards $7K per acre.  That would mean about a quarter section, which probably is a smallish orchard.  Of course, if it's bare ground, you've got to allow for planting trees and bringing them to production, and hopefully you aren't growing Red Delicious but some up and coming variety.  (I've found Jazz to be good; I usually eat Fujis but in late summer the Fujis we get have lost something (imported maybe from New Zealand or somewhere).) 

I suspect I'll confirm the thoughts of the food movement but I suspect the FSA beginning farmer program was mostly geared to growers of field crops or dairy.  It's been around a while so it would be hard to prove. Anyhow raising the cap is hard.  Even if you get past the opponents of any such farm program, you face the reality the bigger the loan you can make, the fewer the loans.  So is it better to lend money to a bunch of people who want to flee their city job and set up a small farm in the country, supporting themselves by free-lancing or other such work or to one hard-working immigrant farmer who plans to farm full-time?