Support Beef, Vote Obama?

Who knew the President was a steak man?  I thought he was one of those effete liberal crunchies?  Guess that impression was wrong.

I Think It's a Bubble

According to Illinois extension, farmland prices have gone from $3000 to $7000 per acre since 2000. 

Ode to the "Greedy Bastards"

Anyone want to write poetry--there's room to convert this Jonathan Bernstein post on "Greedy Bastards and Democracy" into poetry?  I think much, maybe all, of agribusiness and the food community would qualify as greedy bastards of some size or another.

White House Wheat

This year the White House garden has some wheat growing, planted this spring.  It puzzles me, because I've always thought of spring wheat as growing further north, but I guess they know what they're doing.  They've planted it in rows, rather than broadcast.  Again, I don't know why, because motherearthnews  definitely talks of broadcasting.

If I'd ever grown wheat, I might mock them as ignorant city slickers, but I never did, so I can't and won't.

USDA Is Number 2!

But unlike Hertz, in the old days, they don't want to try harder.

Government Executive says USDA has the second biggest gap in the job satisfaction scores between its leadership (SES types) and the rank and file.

The assumption is that the leadership is out of touch, but it's possible the leadership knows what a great job the department is doing while the rank and file is too busy doing it to know.

It's possible.....isn't it?

Naw

An NPR Anniversary Evaluation

Government Executive has a piece on Gore's National Program Review/Reinventing Government project, assessing how it looks 10 years later.

NYTimes on Pigford, Garcia, etc.

The Times has a front page article, their big story for the day, on the course of the various discrimination class action suits against USDA/FSA.  The writer apparently talked to a number of career employees, and found a number of cases of fraud.  The politicians and the lawyers come across unfavorably.

What's a Small Family Farmer These Days?

According to ND's new senator:
"“We have small farmers, small family farmers who must spend $1 million before they can even take a crop out of the ground. That is an average farmer in my State. That is how much it costs to engage in farming."

Faith in Congress and Computers

We had such faith in our institutions and the computer 45 years ago.  Technology Review reprints a piece from 1968 in which a political science prof predicted the future:

One can readily foresee a congressman sitting at a console in his office poring over computer print-outs into the late evening hours or over the weekend and cutting through the paper arguments and justifications of executive programs with penetrating lines of questions. The possibility of abuse also exists, but the weight of past congressional experience suggests that most congressmen will use such new investigative power wisely. In situations that invite adversary argument, alternative positions and points of view will be more thoroughly developed and cogently presented.

[updated to add title and link]

Best Sentence I Read Today

"Never take driving lessons on a stick shift from someone you're breaking up with". 

So writes Justice Sotomayor--as part of the divorce she got the car, with the stick, so her soon-to-be-ex was teaching her.

I recommend the book, though I've not finished it.