The Amish and the Environment

Seeking Simplicity is a blog by a mother who has moved into a former Amish home and is living mostly as they do (no electricity, wood stoves). It's partly "back to basics", but she had an interesting post here musing on the Amish and the environment. It includes the observation that there's an impact on the forests and this:

"Although we may think of the Amish as earth friendly, it is not always the case. Many whom we have met do have the belief that the land is to use –not that we should care for and cherish the gift. Thus, as we have noticed due to snow melt, piles of garbage and unsafe environmental practices litter our land."

Bipartisan Opposition to Obama on Direct Payments

From the Washington Times:

"We'll have to see what specifically the president is talking about, but we just finished the farm bill last year, and I don't think we'll open it up," said Rep. Collin C. Peterson, Minnesota Democrat and chairman of the House Agriculture Committee.

Likewise, the ranking Republican on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, said the farm bill, which lasts for five years, "should not be changed midstream."

"I believe it is premature to make any sweeping changes to the makeup of the farm safety net before we have even had the chance to implement the current farm bill," said Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia.

Will USDA Join "Virtual USA"?

Federal Computer Week has an article on a meeting between DHS and some Southern states, looking to share geo-spatial data:

"Officials say the goal is to make local- and state-owned geospatial data interoperable and usable across jurisdictions, with non-federal authorities maintaining control over the data and deciding what data to share.

The program was inspired by the success that Alabama had in using information gathered at a local level to aid first responders. The recent meeting was hosted by Alabama’s Homeland Security Department, which created Virtual Alabama. [Google link here and Alabama link here]That is a system built on Google Earth Enterprise software that allows authorities to create data mashups by quickly pulling together information from an array of sources across the state’s 67 counties and make it available to first responders. "

As usual, I'm torn between the thought some top-down direction would be a whole lot more efficient and recognition that, in the current state of today's weak federalized government, this sort of initiative is the best we can expect.

Why Good Government Fails

Humans are self-interested. For example, the Bush Administration had some touted initiatives. One was E-government, trying to make better use of the Internet in government operations through various efforts (i.e., usa.gov, regulations.gov, etc.) Another was PART --which stands for Program Assessment Rating Tool. Both were well-intentioned, although I've had my reservations with both.

But what happens--Pres. Bush and his people at the White House have a great idea. So they call up the departments and say: "do A, B, and C".

The department says: "Sounds like a great idea, do we get any money for it?"

Bush: "No, make it happen using the funds you have available".

Department: "Uh, okay, you're the boss"

House Appropriations Committee says: "Why do you need these dollars?"

Department: "Uh, we had to devote x man-years and $y to the President's great ideas"

House Appropriations Committee says: "But that wasn't our great idea"

All of the above is triggered by this note in the House Approp. Committee's statement on the appropriations bill for 2009 covering USDA:

"There is concern that agencies are being required, after appropriations have been enacted for other purposes, to support E-Gov and PART studies. This diminishes, delays, or eliminates the implementation of the activities for which funds were provided. Thirty days prior to any centrally determined charges being applied to any USDA agency that are different from those amounts displayed in the budget justification materials, the Department must submit a detailed explanation' to the committees of the amounts assessed and the method for determining diose amounts. "

FSA Still Wants the Bucks for MIDAS

From NextGov:

"No, it's not enough money," said Jim Gwinn, the agency's chief information officer...." "

Taitano said 60 percent of the stimulus funds will be used to stabilize the current systems and 40 percent will go toward the agency's modernization efforts. Farm Service is planning to pursue the rest of the modernization funds, about $200 million, through the appropriations process. Several lawmakers have expressed support for the additional funds.

USDA Deputy Secretary Merrigan

From this morning's Post:

"Kathleen A. Merrigan, former administrator of the agricultural marketing service at the Agriculture Department, was tapped to be the department's deputy secretary."

(Buried after discussion of the cars Obama's people drive.)

[Updated--Tom Philpott sings her praises.--Leahy, organic, Jim Hightower.]

School Nutrition Organization and Alice Waters

I was skeptical of the Alice Waters call for tripling the amount spent on school lunches. Here's what the School Nutrition Organization is calling for (apparently the people who work in the schools):

“Every school day school nutrition professionals must meet differing local, state and federal nutrition standards; provide quality, safe and healthful meals that kids enjoy; accommodate special dietary needs and food allergies of a diverse student body; all for less than $2.57 per meal,” said Dr. Katie WIlson, SNS, president of SNA. "The time has come to raise the meal reimbursement rate to an amount that reflects the true food, transportation, labor and benefits, training, equipment and indirect expenses necessary to provide a school meal."
The key legislative issues the School Nutrition Association (SNA) is advocating for as part of child nutrition reauthorization are to:

• Increase the per meal reimbursement by 35 cents for all meals in order to keep pace with rising costs and implementing the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
• Update the Federal reimbursement rates semi-annually to better reflect increasing costs.
• Expand the “free” meal category from 130% of poverty to 185%, consistent with the WIC income eligibility guidelines (eliminating the reduced price meal category).
• Provide 10 cents in USDA commodities for each school breakfast served.
• Grant the Secretary of Agriculture the statutory authority to regulate the sale of all foods and beverages on the school campus, consistent with the most recent edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (ending the “time and place rule”).
• Require the Department to implement a consistent, science-based national interpretation of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans for all school meals reimbursed by USDA.

Hypocrisy Watch

We're all hypocrites, but it's good to point out the failings of the high and mighty. Here in Slate Jack Shafer goes after Bill Moyer (for searching for homosexuals and planting questions while working for LBJ). Of course, we all grow up, sometime.

Titans Fight Over Money and Broadband

Today in the NYTimes Qualcom had an ad boasting their wireless broadband could reach over 90 percent of the population. Meanwhile there was a small news item describing IBM's quest for the broadband dollars in the stimulus package: broadband over power lines. They claimed it would work if there were 6 or so users per mile of line, although the speed of download was about 256K (as they point out, this might be 10 times the speed of a dial up modem).

Of course, if a farm has 1,000 acres in a block, it means it's more than 1 mile square (also known as a "section"), so I'm not sure how well IBM will do in the wide-open spaces.

USDA Caught Spinning

Not that USDA usually goes in circles, you understand, but Obama Foodorama caught Sec. Vilsack and NRCS out on their hyping of the garden.

(One comment on the idea of gardens at all USDA offices--mostly these facilities are rented, not government-owned, so USDA would need to get the landlord's permission. And I'm very skeptical of any top-down initiative like this--I've seen too many people full of enthusiasm for gardening in the spring, only to drop out by summer.)