Yep...this —>> “By the way—we’re giving Iowa agriculture a license to pollute (and kill an ocean 1500 miles away) and they still can’t make money on hogs. What’s wrong with this picture???”
Chris, I think you have hit the nail on the head (again), but I remain as concerned as you are that the nearly ubiquitous subservience to Big Ag and its primary proponents [not farmers, but the Big Ag investors living fat (figuratively) and far away from the effects of their profit maximizing efforts] are the dominant impediment to meaningful and effective remedies. As you know, Wendell Berry, still fighting the good fight at age 90 from his multi-function diversified farm in Kentucky, highlighted what appears to be the primary problem - the relentless consolidation of farmlands and operations into mega-sized industrial operations with absent owners and focused on single crop production - a trend championed and facilitated starting largely in the 70s by Earl Butz's Ag Dept (when I was in high school). The resistance to production controls through mandatory regulations is strong in part due to the transformation/replacement of the people who control these lands from resident owners to management employees whose total incentive structure is short term profit and operational efficiency maximized through cost controls and their resulting bonuses. Without mandatory regulation of nitrate use and runoff, to name just one area, we remain on the path to environmental catastrophe. The stewards are gone, the single-commodity producers now rule.
As you know, so many economic problems, these included, are complex and interrelated. Gasoline prices and availability affect ethanol programs and production, which affect feed prices and availability for livestock, which affect processing plant production and employment, which affects demand for animal protein products, etc., in a cyclical, spiralling manner. The complex character of these issues facilitates the avoidance by politicians of all stripes of involvement, through advocacy or action, of any real solutions.
It is not just money in politics - although Citizens United was a godsend to agribusiness (as well as to moneyed interests everywhere seeking to maximize cost avoidance) - the causes include the near-term focused self interests of people involved with and dependent upon the ag industry. You cannot blame people for thinking of their family first when it comes to their ability to put food on the table, educate their children, buy and keep a home, and generally stay safe. In light of that hard reality and its susceptibility to manipulative corporate propaganda, any solutions to the longer term, downstream problems will have to include measures that protect the near-term interests of the affected families. Otherwise, we shall be doing nothing but shouting into the wind as we continue to watch the tragedy of the commons play out in front of us.
I support fully efforts to control nitrate pollution from ag operations, but also the other even more poisonous pollutants generated and released indiscriminately into our environment by ag, petrochemical, mining, heavy manufacturing and other industries that privatize profit while socializing substantial costs of their productive processes. This complex set of problems will have to be adressed as you propose - by first reordering our priorities and holding our government representatives to task - an effort that will require at the outset revising our representatives' (and candidates') incentive structures by funding alternative political organizations and support designed to counter the effects of big money interests in our politics. May we all become and remain focused on our community interests in addition to our own.
This war will never be "won" - since it is energized and provisioned by greed and the desire to control - but there are battles to be won if we can marshal the forces of social responsibility. It is the task of every generation.
So lovely and enjoyable to read compared to the local newspaper. The local newspaper does have one function , It soaks up cat pee in the bottom of the kitty litter pan.
You can thank Lee, Gannett and the other vultures that are gnawing on the marrow of the dead for-profit newspaper industry for that. They perpetrated a crime against American Democracy all in slavish (and not even that successful) devotion to "shareholder value."
my uncle was a lifelong farmer in rural southern MD, farmed conventionally: tobacco, corn, soybeans, winter wheat for commodities. Kitchen garden for food. Loved the farm so much he once chased a surveyor for a mega transmission line (for electricity) off the property by getting his shotgun (they didn't put the line through HIS farm). He put the entire farm into the MD farm conservation program (it will NEVER be developed into a bedroom community for DC workers like other now defunct farms in the area). He lost one kidney to cancer, got back on the tractor, lost the other kidney and his life when the cancer came back. At least the smaller farms in MD have the ability to convert to organic/regenerative methods due to the proximity to people who want to eat food that isn't contaminated. In the Heartland it will take the commitment of the megacorporations that buy the commodities to help farmers transition to better methods before those "conventional" farming methods kill the soil and the farmers....
Bravo from this lifelong urban dwelling Democrat. Every self entitled prick needs some deflating no matter what party they belong to. Maybe YOU should run for office just to get what you say wider attention!
Jones' idiom (egg-walkers, kerosene exfoliant, deer stand selfies, Minority Wilderness and more) is alone worth the read. Illegitimi non carborundum, Mr. Jones.
Ouch! Your piece hits hard, but also hits true! Iowa's waterways, Iowa's environment demand action that too few of those who wield some power will address. Nonetheless, for a broad host of other issues I will remain a member of Tribe D, but will also now try to demand accountability from them on the matters you raise.
But but but…. ANFers crowd prefer to cosplay as a minority of disenfranchised folks of simpler times while they rent out Ma and Pa’s land to pay for their homes in the south. Meanwhile Big Ag is continuing, nay accelerating, the decline of rural communities.
I'm looking for the politician or rule-maker who's willing to "make good trouble" (John Lewis) like you advocate for, Chris. But of my acquaintances who think similarly, none are willing to subject themselves to the ordeal to run for office. But I'll keep looking, and hope others do the same.
With climate chaos looming and driving refugees from tragic scenes of western fires, unbearable heat, water depletion and coastal flooding, it is a true irony that in places of potential refuge that the current inhabitants are being displaced and dispossessed of their rights and freedoms to a clean and healthy environment by undemocratic powers of industrial agriculture in the Midwest. "Warming the world" refugees meet "feeding and fueling the world" refugees.
Don’t use kerosene on your skin. I’m pretty sure it’s flammable. Use Lubriderm. And sunscreen. Take care of your skin ; it’s the biggest organ you have. And we need you.
Thank you Chris for your hard hitting, witty words. I wish I had your gift. Confession - I too worked the red pork tent when I ran for Secretary of Agriculture. I hated every minute of it but I was “porking” for votes. It was difficult and I don’t believe I gained anything from it. Lesson learned. Rob should have been at the iowa Farmers Union tent - we were telling the truth at that gathering.
Yep...this —>> “By the way—we’re giving Iowa agriculture a license to pollute (and kill an ocean 1500 miles away) and they still can’t make money on hogs. What’s wrong with this picture???”
Chris, I think you have hit the nail on the head (again), but I remain as concerned as you are that the nearly ubiquitous subservience to Big Ag and its primary proponents [not farmers, but the Big Ag investors living fat (figuratively) and far away from the effects of their profit maximizing efforts] are the dominant impediment to meaningful and effective remedies. As you know, Wendell Berry, still fighting the good fight at age 90 from his multi-function diversified farm in Kentucky, highlighted what appears to be the primary problem - the relentless consolidation of farmlands and operations into mega-sized industrial operations with absent owners and focused on single crop production - a trend championed and facilitated starting largely in the 70s by Earl Butz's Ag Dept (when I was in high school). The resistance to production controls through mandatory regulations is strong in part due to the transformation/replacement of the people who control these lands from resident owners to management employees whose total incentive structure is short term profit and operational efficiency maximized through cost controls and their resulting bonuses. Without mandatory regulation of nitrate use and runoff, to name just one area, we remain on the path to environmental catastrophe. The stewards are gone, the single-commodity producers now rule.
As you know, so many economic problems, these included, are complex and interrelated. Gasoline prices and availability affect ethanol programs and production, which affect feed prices and availability for livestock, which affect processing plant production and employment, which affects demand for animal protein products, etc., in a cyclical, spiralling manner. The complex character of these issues facilitates the avoidance by politicians of all stripes of involvement, through advocacy or action, of any real solutions.
It is not just money in politics - although Citizens United was a godsend to agribusiness (as well as to moneyed interests everywhere seeking to maximize cost avoidance) - the causes include the near-term focused self interests of people involved with and dependent upon the ag industry. You cannot blame people for thinking of their family first when it comes to their ability to put food on the table, educate their children, buy and keep a home, and generally stay safe. In light of that hard reality and its susceptibility to manipulative corporate propaganda, any solutions to the longer term, downstream problems will have to include measures that protect the near-term interests of the affected families. Otherwise, we shall be doing nothing but shouting into the wind as we continue to watch the tragedy of the commons play out in front of us.
I support fully efforts to control nitrate pollution from ag operations, but also the other even more poisonous pollutants generated and released indiscriminately into our environment by ag, petrochemical, mining, heavy manufacturing and other industries that privatize profit while socializing substantial costs of their productive processes. This complex set of problems will have to be adressed as you propose - by first reordering our priorities and holding our government representatives to task - an effort that will require at the outset revising our representatives' (and candidates') incentive structures by funding alternative political organizations and support designed to counter the effects of big money interests in our politics. May we all become and remain focused on our community interests in addition to our own.
This war will never be "won" - since it is energized and provisioned by greed and the desire to control - but there are battles to be won if we can marshal the forces of social responsibility. It is the task of every generation.
So lovely and enjoyable to read compared to the local newspaper. The local newspaper does have one function , It soaks up cat pee in the bottom of the kitty litter pan.
🤣😂🤣
You can thank Lee, Gannett and the other vultures that are gnawing on the marrow of the dead for-profit newspaper industry for that. They perpetrated a crime against American Democracy all in slavish (and not even that successful) devotion to "shareholder value."
my uncle was a lifelong farmer in rural southern MD, farmed conventionally: tobacco, corn, soybeans, winter wheat for commodities. Kitchen garden for food. Loved the farm so much he once chased a surveyor for a mega transmission line (for electricity) off the property by getting his shotgun (they didn't put the line through HIS farm). He put the entire farm into the MD farm conservation program (it will NEVER be developed into a bedroom community for DC workers like other now defunct farms in the area). He lost one kidney to cancer, got back on the tractor, lost the other kidney and his life when the cancer came back. At least the smaller farms in MD have the ability to convert to organic/regenerative methods due to the proximity to people who want to eat food that isn't contaminated. In the Heartland it will take the commitment of the megacorporations that buy the commodities to help farmers transition to better methods before those "conventional" farming methods kill the soil and the farmers....
Bravo from this lifelong urban dwelling Democrat. Every self entitled prick needs some deflating no matter what party they belong to. Maybe YOU should run for office just to get what you say wider attention!
Jones' idiom (egg-walkers, kerosene exfoliant, deer stand selfies, Minority Wilderness and more) is alone worth the read. Illegitimi non carborundum, Mr. Jones.
Ouch! Your piece hits hard, but also hits true! Iowa's waterways, Iowa's environment demand action that too few of those who wield some power will address. Nonetheless, for a broad host of other issues I will remain a member of Tribe D, but will also now try to demand accountability from them on the matters you raise.
But but but…. ANFers crowd prefer to cosplay as a minority of disenfranchised folks of simpler times while they rent out Ma and Pa’s land to pay for their homes in the south. Meanwhile Big Ag is continuing, nay accelerating, the decline of rural communities.
At least my oncologist has a steady clientele
This article is another example of “inconvenient truth.”
I'm looking for the politician or rule-maker who's willing to "make good trouble" (John Lewis) like you advocate for, Chris. But of my acquaintances who think similarly, none are willing to subject themselves to the ordeal to run for office. But I'll keep looking, and hope others do the same.
A great article. I appreciate the information so that I can speak intelligently about water quality and rural health (literally).
With climate chaos looming and driving refugees from tragic scenes of western fires, unbearable heat, water depletion and coastal flooding, it is a true irony that in places of potential refuge that the current inhabitants are being displaced and dispossessed of their rights and freedoms to a clean and healthy environment by undemocratic powers of industrial agriculture in the Midwest. "Warming the world" refugees meet "feeding and fueling the world" refugees.
Well said my friend!
🤣👏🤣👏
You nailed it!
Don’t use kerosene on your skin. I’m pretty sure it’s flammable. Use Lubriderm. And sunscreen. Take care of your skin ; it’s the biggest organ you have. And we need you.
Rob Sand and Dem chairperson Rita Hart were on Iowa Press on Iowa Public Television recently. Crickets on water quality.
Thank you Chris for your hard hitting, witty words. I wish I had your gift. Confession - I too worked the red pork tent when I ran for Secretary of Agriculture. I hated every minute of it but I was “porking” for votes. It was difficult and I don’t believe I gained anything from it. Lesson learned. Rob should have been at the iowa Farmers Union tent - we were telling the truth at that gathering.