I don't know why you see that comment about Iowa as a snark. He's merely stating that farm policy is complex and pointing out that many politicians like to oversimplify it. What I hear from this congressman is that he wants to defend your families ability to own a family farm by cutting subsidies to agribusinesses. My grandparents owned a farm (which on their death was sold to their neighbors since neither of their children had an interest in farming as a profession), and I remember my grandfather on several occasions complaining about farm subsidies. I definitely do not believe that being anti-farm subsidy means being anti-farmer.

Although I'm definitely no expert, he sounds like he's done a lot of thinking about this, has provided a list of ideas on the topic, and therefore deserves constructive criticism where you think his ideas could be improved upon.

I think domestic ag is far from dead, some people will pay extra for locally-grown produce, which also tends to be fresher, and chances are, even cheaper. If you have a pick-your-own type arrangement, you can even cut out the middleman, and sell direct to the customer. What's interesting about farming is you have to have a discussion about water tables, water rights, groundwater pollution, and the tendency of developers to try and purchase agriculturally zoned land upon which to construct another megamall or equivalent commercial construction project, housing project, whathaveyou, and also the small fact that typically, once land has been so altered, there is little or no chance of it ever being recovered to its undeveloped state.
Ergo, it's wise to let fields fall fallow that are not actively in use, or even to sow waste crops that will simply be tilled under for soil improvement purposes. Getting people interested in getting dirt under their nails is a great way to get people 'back in touch' with what happens pre-grocery store, and also on the path to a generally healthier diet, as it is generally recognized that foods that are less commercially processed tend to have a slightly higher vitamin content and nutritional value. Additives and preservatives are all good and fine, but if you have the capacity for garden-fresh vegetables, fruit fresh from the tree, you should try to get out and grow your own. Save 3-4 trips to the grocery store per year=time well-spent. Spending a little more time outdoors never killed anyone either...less time in front of the Xbox, more time behind the rototiller...

I think you missed blueball's point. I thought he was talking about the love he had for his family's land and farming traditions. He knows that when soul is lost, it isn't restored by legislation or scholarship....

While reading blueball's post, I was reminded of the native americans who were forced onto reservations by the US government-- ending their way of life and displacing the power of earth with our power.

Perhaps, because I am an ad adhoc libertarian, I felt his loss of freedom and our country's loss of freedom too...

I read the "Food and Farm Bill of Rights" and it seemed so cliche as well as heartless, like a modern industrialized farm.

To boldly go...

Corvid

I think that one of blueball's points was that you simply cannot make a decent living by farming unless the farm is huge and takes advantages of efficiencies by producing one crop across vast acreages. He's saying that it's just not economically feasible to downscale farms, make them multicrop operations and serve only local markets.
.
I don't know. I spent some time biking through the countryside in the Netherlands about 20 years ago and saw lots of small, multicrop farms. It was very pleasant for me, the tourist, and, knowing the Netherlands, I suspect the farmers were doing all right. But I imagine these farmers got massive subsidies.
.
Knowing the United States, I despair. And if I read blueball correctly, I sort of have to agree with him. There's just no chance in hell that we're ever likely to have a decent farm-and-food policy, and family farms can survive only if they get huge and industrial.
.
Frankly, I think almost any kind of discussion about decent social or economic policy in the United States is little more than a distraction. It's as if we were sitting at the base of a mountain absolutely loaded with the most precious ores and gems and discussing what we'd like to do with all this potential wealth, without ever actually producing the dynamite to blast it out.
.
Same with Washington and most of our state capitols, which have been completely captured by concentrated wealth--mainly corporations. Our government, our wealth, our futures are all embedded under tons of corruption that we somehow have to blast away before we can seize them in our own hands.

bluebell is evidently too polite to point this out, but the name is bluebell. I'm not sure what you two are thinking about...

some people are anal and others aren't. I apologize for any harm done.

To boldly go...

I just meant to say that some people don't sweat the small stuff. I give kudos to bluebell for staying cool.

It came out kind of funny though, no pun intended!

To boldly go...

It's interesting the discussion about agri-based motor fuels. The careful investigation that we don't read about is that ethanol fuel is only viable because of government subsides. And this government funded fuel is only moving the costs from the pump to the tax bill. But wait, haven't you noticed, beef is sure getting expensive because the corn that once fed beef now feeds cars so you get to pay twice, cool heh.

But the congressmen are screaming from the well,"We have to reduce our dependance on foriegn oil." Well, I'm telling you it ain't gunna happen. We buy foriegn oil cause it's cheap. Iraqi oil only costs a dollar to get to the well head. Our system (read oil companys) won't allow us to pay ten times more to meet the needs of foriegn policy, certainly the Vice President won't.

I don't think that agri-fuels are the future. The change must be more fundamental. The fuel for the near future should power a 1 liter hybred that gets 60 plus mpg. Further on we must move to electric or fuel cell. On a recent trip to Europe I noticed many small efficient autos that should be in our market but in the words of Chrysler Corp, "We can't make money on a car like that." Maybe just maybe instead of funding the production of ethanol we should fund the production and tax breaks for truly efficient small cars and fund farms to produce food.