Comments bharshaw has made

His article doesn't specify his methods, but Bruce Babcock of Iowa State  here says: "Although agriculture contributes about 6.7 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, it faces no future emissions cap under the House bill."

I don't get that clear a message from your link. Looks to me as if EU has banned the product rBST, but not the beef from dairy cows treated with it. I've Googled "rBST beef" and not gotten authoritative answers. But  this link (a footnote) has the observation that products from rBST-treated cattle are allowed into both the EU and Canada, even though the hormone itself is banned from EU herds.  (BTW, the Atlantic_Foods link doesn't seem to work.)

US Competitiveness

I think you're oversimplifying. Just because big producers get big bucks, it doesn't mean the money is as critical to them as smaller producers. And just because a producer is big doesn't mean they are necessarily efficient.

 USDA Economic Research Service a while back did a study on cotton cost of production--there was a wide range of costs. If I remember, a sizable portion of our US production had a cost of production <$.50 (roughly the world market price).  The truer generalization would be to say, while our larger and more modern producers of field crops can compete, the smaller and less efficient producers would likely go bust.On Picking the battles will be key to reforming food policy posted 10 months, 1 week ago 3 Responses

GMO's Results

From the U. of Ill's "Farmgate Blog" (http://www.farmgate.uiuc.edu/) comes a summary of a study of seed corn costs (with 2004 data):

The WI trio examined seed corn pricing in Illinois in 2004 to illustrate how stacked traits were actually priced:

• Conventional seed corn averaged $88.33 per bag.
  
• The Bt corn borer trait added $20.49
  
• The Bt rootworm trait was alone worth $27.28.
  
• One herbicide tolerant trait was priced at $14.51, another at $6.83.
  
• Double stacking of corn borer and rootworm traits added $35.51.
  
• Triple stacking of corn borer, rootworm, and herbicide tolerance added $37.30.
  
• Quadruple stacking added $39.45 for corn borer, rootworm and both herbicide tolerant traits.
  
• The market power of the seed company added over 8% to the price.

Sunlight in Vertical Farms

I wonder if he's ever tried growing vegetables inside the house?  If I recall my physics, the intensity of the sunlight coming through the window diminishes as the square of the distance.  (John Phipps has also identified this minor problem in the plan.)On Sustainability a big theme at the World Science Festival posted 1 year, 5 months ago 17 Responses

What Determines What Farmers Grow?

An individual farmer decides which crops to grow based on many factors, many of which are long term (area of country,climate, type of soil, experience, cropping patterns, yields, prices)and some short term. Right now, as shown in this excerpt from   the Uof Ill extension website , market forecasts are the big thing on their mind:

"Price relationships have changed between corn and beans since the USDA intentions report, says marketing specialist Jim Hilker at Mich. St., and he says it favors corn now, but weather is still a threat for a reversal. He says producers need to keep more in corn than the USDA forecast, because the US will have less carryout at the end of the year.

Hilker says make some forward contracts if you can to lock in prices for your 2008 corn. Recognizing the fact some elevators will not offer forward pricing, he says farmers may have to use the options market. He knows put options are expensive, but offer downside protection from deep drops. He also says selling a call option reduces the cost of the put.

Regarding soybeans, Hilker says, "If you look at new crop soybean prices only being twice new crop corn prices, versus a more normal 2.3-2.5, even with the high fertilizer prices, that means higher returns to corn per acre for most producers." And he adds, "It is hard for me to explain soybean prices given the projected world stocks. Does the market know something we don't?

Now, I've seen estimates, maybe from the same site, that the ethanol mandate raises the price of corn by about $.40 a bushel (corn is currently $5-6, used to be $2.50/2.80 was pretty good). So yes, the ethanol mandate has raised corn prices and no, I won't argue it makes much sense.  But consider--you, by following Pollan, end up arguing that a farm lobby that supported farm programs since 1933 has supported low corn prices while now they support high corn prices (through the ethanol mandate).  The fact is the farm lobby has always opted for price stability and higher prices (not necessarily compatible) and Pollan and others misinterpret the history of farm programs, particularly in the 1970's. They also assume, wrongly, that farm programs are always effective in reaching desired ends--they aren't.On How Congress is shortchanging our health and sweetening things for the food industry posted 1 year, 7 months ago 10 Responses

And After the 1970's, the 1980's

I wonder how well Dan predicted the events of the 1980's.

In 1983 a conservative Republican President stretched the law to its limits to approve the largest land diversion program in our history. (The 1983 payment-in-kind program.)

Boom and bust is feature of agriculture. We may have $20 wheat today, but not tomorrow.On Thirty years ago, high crop prices caused environmental destruction, too posted 1 year, 7 months ago 6 Responses

Bad Milk?

I'm no scientist, nor have I read the Dupuis book, though I did grow up on a dairy farm. But if she focuses on distillers (or brewers) grain as dairy feed and a cause for bad milk, her focus is too narrow. Thoreau has a famous quote: "Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk." The context was the pervasive practice of watering milk.  The first hit from Googling "watering milk" was a NYTimes article from 1871 on an arrest for the offense. Also see this site: http://tenement.org/encyclopedia/diseases_marasmus.htm
As a result,an extensive set of rules and milk inspectors grew up to ensure the quality of the milk, testing cows for TB and brucellosis, refrigerating milk, etc.
Seems to me, as mammals, it's as important for nursing mothers to eat right as for cows.  An important difference between beef cattle and dairy--there's an economic incentive for the dairyman to maintain the health of the cow for several years; for beef, the idea is to "finish" the steer whose life expectancy is months, not years.On More on feedlots and distillers grains posted 1 year, 11 months ago 10 Responses

Apples and Oranges

You're really comparing apples (dollars of sales) to oranges (acres of production). Even in California, most of your acres are going to be field crops, like cotton and rice, where there's little demand for organics.  A better comparison would be to compare the percentage of organic fruits and vegetables sales and the acreage of organic fruits and vegetables.On If organic food is so popular, why are so few farms transitioning their land? posted 2 years, 8 months ago 21 Responses