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 Stories About: politics AND legislation AND agriculture AND industrial ag AND ag subsidies
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Author |
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Section |
Agro-sham
Bush and farm policy 'reform' |
Tom Philpott |
17 Apr 2008 |
Gristmill |
| In the farm bill debate, the Bush administration has joined Environmental Defense Fund, The Environmental Working Group, and other Big Green groups in taking a 'reform' position: subsidies are bad, so let's cut them. I've been arguing that this position amounts to no reform at all, because it doesn't address the underlying problem of U.S. farming: the relentless pressure on our farmland from chemical-intensive agriculture -- an arrangement that in the end benefits ag ... |
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| Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, George Bush, industrial ag, legislation, politics (all these topics) |
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Farm subsidies: beyond simplistic outrage
Gourmet magazine points the way toward a green and smart farm policy |
Tom Philpott |
28 Mar 2008 |
Gristmill |
| In Thursday's Wall Street Journal, there's a detailed article about the farm-subsidy mess. It can be summarized as follows: 1) the government-engineered ethanol boom has driven up farm-commodity prices; 2) farm incomes are sharply up; yet 3) the government still makes subsidy payments in the billions per year; and thus 4) it's time to cut the subsidies.The logic is impeccable. And surely, payment caps should be much lower and blocked from going to high-income farmers an ... |
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| Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, industrial ag, legislation, politics (all these topics) |
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Pretty much business as usual
The Senate Ag Committee's Farm Bill |
Tom Philpott |
26 Oct 2007 |
Gristmill |
| No jaded observer will be surprised: The Senate Agriculture Committee yesterday released its version of the 2007 Farm Bill, leaving the subsidy mechanisms in the 2002 bill pretty well intact. I'm still trying to chase down details of the proposal, but here are a couple of tidbits. The big news is that the version contains a ban on meatpacker ownership of livestock. This is (potentially) huge. Currently, dominant meatpackers like Smithfield Foods and Tyson also raise ... |
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| Topics: politics, legislation, agriculture, industrial ag, ag subsidies (all these topics) |
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Paying the Farm Bill
Why federal farm support deserves a fresh look |
Tom Philpott |
23 Jan 2007 |
Victual Reality |
| Note: Over the course of three weeks, as Congress begins discussion of the 2007 farm bill, Victual Reality will be devoted to analyzing the political economy of farming and teasing out an agenda for a socially and environmentally sustainable farm policy. It's more exciting than it sounds, we swear! [Read the first installment below, the second installment here, and the third here.] Like a barnyard sow ... |
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| Topics: ag policy, ag subsidies, agriculture, industrial ag, legislation, politics, Victual Reality (all these topics) |
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