Spot-on: Business as Usual

I have a lot of respect for Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor for much of Bill Clinton's presidency. For an economist he generally seems to have appreciation of the effects of economics on the little guy. But he missed the point of much of the debate over the 2007 Farm Bill when, on Tuesday's Talk of the Nation, he argued that a concern for family farms was misplaced because Big Ag is producing so much food so efficiently.

You can read the complete article at Spot-on.

Technorati: Food | essay | kevin d weeks | spot-on | food bill

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Spot-On: Safer By the Half-Dozen

Meat inspection - and by extension, food safety - were back in the headlines last week. And, once again, you've got to wonder what it is that government regulators, consumers and farmers are getting out of the nation's inspection system.

Before announcing that it was going out of business Topps Meat recalled 21.7 million pounds of frozen ground beef after 27 people became ill as a result of eating some that was contaminated with our old friend E. coli.

You can read the complete article at Spot-On.

Technorati: Food | essay | kevin d weeks | seriously good | spot-on | food safety | recalls | farm bill

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Spot-On: Status Quo

My two friends, "Mellani" and "Mike" raise grass-fed sheep on 50 acres of organic pasture set in a wooded farm in Missouri. They had a record-breaking 38 lambs born this year, which, on the face of it, sounds great. But not so great actually. The problem is, they really don't have a market for their lambs (nor the cattle or hogs they used to raise before the market price dropped below the production price). It's eight hours round trip to the nearest large city where they might be able to sell their "crop" but that isn't practical.

The local market is too small to adequately support even their current production - the result is they're cutting back on the number of ewes and, so, lambs next year...

You can read the complete article at Spot-On.

Technorati: Food | essay | spot-on | food column | food commentary | farm bill

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Spot-On: FAIR or Foul

Like many of our social programs, what's now known as the Farm Bill got its start in Roosevelt's New Deal legislation during the Great Depression. During this period crop prices frequently dropped below production costs and sometimes even fell to zero — literally. Farmers, even successful farmers (in the sense of producing a good crop) were losing their farms. So the government stepped in and offered farmers a choice, the government would establish a target price for certain commodity crops, crops that could be stored for long periods (such as rice, wheat, and corn). If market prices dropped below the target price farmers could take out a government loan to cover the cost of storage for their crops until prices recovered, or, if prices stayed low too long, they could keep the money and let the government keep the crops.

You can read the complete article at Spot-On.

Technorati: Food | essay | spot-on | farm bill | food column | food commentary

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Spot-On: Should You Care?

The food press is all over it, but no one else is paying much attention to the so-called farm bill coming up for renewal this September. True, the bill isn’t relevant to everyone. Those who don’t eat or drink to stay alive needn’t pay much attention. But if you do count those activities as central to your continued well-being then a few moments of consideration might be worthwhile.

Read the complete article at Spot-On.

Technorati: Food | essay | spot-on | food column | food commentary | farm+bill

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