Profits and Sustainability

Chris Clayton sees a gap between the aspirations of the sustainable ag movement and the realities of profit-seeking   From the summary of the NAS report being discussed:

This report recommends reaching this goal through two parallel efforts: an incremental
approach, in which ongoing endeavors to develop sustainable agricultural techniques
are expanded; and a transformative approach, in which multiple research areas are brought
together to design farming systems that balance the competing demands from the outset.

The first approach talks of stuff like "no-till" farming; the second is more utopian. I'm conservative enough to doubt our ability to come up with such a set of farming systems. 

For contrast see this post at Treehugger. There's discussion of a "sustainability index", but the discussions by the operator of a 4,000 acre vegetable farm focus on doing more with less. "More with less" easily translates to more profitability; the sustainability index could be a proxy for "more with less".

Silo Systems: Public Safety Comm Systems

In the past I've griped about the failure to enable public safety agencies to communicate with each other, suggesting there were interim measures which could work.  My gripe was based on limited knowledge; this post  Why Cops Don't Use Cell Phones provides another perspective.

Palin Over Obama Because Obama's Not a Thinker

John at Powerline

Elizabeth Warren's First Job: Find a Bureaucrat

Ron Lieber has a piece in the NYTimes offering Ms. Warren suggestions on what she should be doing. It's a list of policy issues, all very worthy of attention I'm sure.  My advice to her, however, is to get herself a bureaucrat. What would the bureaucrat do:

• determine the administrative relationship between the new agency and the Treasury Department.  Does it have its own budget and administrative personnel, or is it serviced by the Department? Makes a big difference down the road.
• roughly scope the size of the agency.  How many bodies at what grade levels can be/will be hired over the next 12 months?
• work on obtaining office space to accommodate the people. 
• work on setting up telephone system for the people.
• work on the budget/fiscal arrangements so people can be paid and travel can be done.
• work on the IT system for the agency.
• work on the personnel system for the agency--so the people can be hired.

She's Got It

No, it's not Ms. Hepburn but Sen. Lincoln, and it's not achieving the correct pronunciation for the "rain in spain" but getting an ad hoc disaster program out of the administration. 

Different Paths to the Good Society?

Via someone (probably Marginal Revolution or Yglesias, I forget), here's an interesting discussion at the Money Illusion of a metric for measuring a nation.  His discussion puts disparate countries in the top five, but as he says:

You can’t get much more different than Hong Kong and Denmark, at least by the criteria used by most people on the left and right.  But they all do at least one thing extremely well.  They all are exceptionally good at one of the three attributes of a highly successful neoliberal society.  Either they are highly civic-minded (Denmark, Sweden), or highly aware of the sorts of policies that produce economic efficiency (Singapore, Hong Kong) or highly democratic.  Switzerland had more national referenda in the 20th century than the rest of the world combined.  And it also seems that all three have very good governance.

One of the things which gets me about the more chauvinistic patriots in this country is the lack of recognition of different values and different paths.  I don't like Britain's libel laws, but it's a free country.  I don't like the US's gun laws, but it's a good country.  I don't like France's regimentation in certain areas (see Dirk Beauregarde), but it's a free country.  Governmental institutions are important but so is the nature of the society and the course of the nation's history.

Moveon and the Tea Party Movement: Parallels

Via a couple of bloggers (probably Marginal Revolution and Klein [Updated: Todd Zywicki at Volokh is one]) , this interesting piece in National Journal on the Tea Party Movement's organization. It's worth reading, both in the light of organization theory and politics.

The article includes a comparison of Moveon and the Tea Party Movement, both being ground up organizations with minimal national leadership.The last two paragraphs:

One hears again, there, echoes of leftist movements. Raise consciousness. Change hearts, not just votes. Attack corruption in society, not just on Capitol Hill. In America, right-wing movements have tended to focus on taking over politics, left-wing ones on changing the culture. Like its leftist precursors, the Tea Party Patriots thinks of itself as a social movement, not a political one.
Centerless swarms are bad at transactional politics. But they may be pretty good at cultural reform. In any case, the experiment begins.

Politicians and Disingenuous Criticism

Farm Policy quotes former Rep. Larry Combest:

“Hail and drought are all too common in these parts, which might explain why a local wheat, sorghum, and beef producer told the House Agriculture Committee in May, ‘Risk management, specifically crop insurance, is critical to Texas producers generally and especially those in this region of the state.’

“Too bad the U.S. Department of Agriculture slashed a giant chunk out of crop insurance just a few months later, leaving area farmers more vulnerable to Mother Nature’s whims.

I don't know how he gets the last sentence. Existing producers with existing policies aren't affected as far as coverage goes. The worst you could say is, by cutting back on crop insurance administration, companies won't service their policies as well or be as prompt in handling and paying claims. And perhaps down the line that will be true. But it's not true this year or next year (inasmuch as 2011 wheat policies have already been sold).

Interestingly, Farm Policy also reports the purchase of Rain and Hail Insurance by a Swiss insurer which operates in more than 50 countries.  They value R&H at more than book value, at 1.59 times book.

Reagan Not Transformational? The Case of Metrics

Via the NYTimes comes an article reminding us that Ronald Reagan was not a transformational figure.  It seems that ever since Reagan's campaign for the US to adopt metrics some Arizona interstates have been using kilometers on their signs and to determine the numbering of the exits. Now they're converting back to miles and some business owners don't like it.

Don't remember Reagan's campaign?  You just proved my point.  Actually, going by memory without sparing the trouble to look it up, I think it was his Commerce Secretary who probably pushed it.  May have been Malcolm Baldridge, who pushed for American industry to rationalize and improve their management in order to catch up with the Japanese in quality.

A certain breed of liberals, one with which I have a lot of sympathy, and a certain breed of businessperson have some things in common: most notably a faith in reason to improve human affairs.  The business people tend to favor big business, often with a little cooperation thrown in (otherwise known as "trusts", "cartels" "restraint of trade", etc.)  They were, in my youth, the country club Republicans who thought Barry Goldwater was too extreme and much preferred the Nelson Rockefeller, Bill Scranton brand of Republicanism.  The liberals take the same faith in human reason and the ability of people to run big organizations and put it to work in government.

Sometimes You Have to Acknowledge the Power of Markets

Technology Review says we may have a space bubble