I admit not knowing the name of the Agriculture Secretary. I learned recently, though, that there’s a farm bill wending its odd way through our national legislature. Doesn’t that sound like something our Agriculture Secretary ought to attend to? Actually, the farm bill affects us all, comes up for renewal every five years, and is entirely within the purview of the Agriculture Secretary.
George W Bush’s second Agriculture Secretary, Mike Johanns, was very involved, in a new way, in learning about Americans’ views about the farm bill:
The son of a dairy farmer, Johanns’s flagship initiative on farm policy was to travel the country listening to farmers and ranchers. His department held 52 forums in 48 states to gauge opinion on legislation, and Johanns personally attended about 20 of those meetings. By the end of the consultation process, USDA had elicited 4,000 comments. Speaking to his main constituents “on the tongue of the wagon,” as Johanns put it, was a popular move out on the wheat farms and cattle ranches, according to industry representatives, and important preparatory work for advancing new legislation.
“The problem with changing farm policy is that you’re up against very long-established and entrenched set of interests who don’t want the policy to change,” said Ralph Grossi, president of the American Farmland Trust. “The normal criticism of politicians is that they don’t listen — he went out and saw farmers. That added a lot of credibility to the positions [the administration] has taken on the farm bill.”
How much rich, creamy credibility was added to the Bush Administration’s positions by Mike Johanns’s listening? So much that he’s leaving Washington before the farm bill even passes the United States Senate. Why? He wants to run for the Senate seat Nebraskan Chuck Hagel is giving up next year.
“I’m getting back to Nebraska as quick as I can,” he said.
Is that responsible?
“It is completely irresponsible for the Secretary of Agriculture to leave his post right in the middle of negotiations in Congress over the next Farm Bill,” said Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D), a senior member of the Agriculture Committee and one of several lawmakers to release statements condemning the resignation.
I don’t know much about the farm bill. As I pointed out, I didn’t even know the name of the Agriculture Secretary. But one thing I recognize: the rock-solid BushCheneyCo approach to government, and that is: Heckuva job.
Related posts:
- Mike Johanns Approves of Insurance Plans On the Exchange Covering Abortion
- Pryor on Filibustering Health Care: “I Don’t Think You’ll See Me or Any Other Democrats Do That”
- Lieberman-Graham Threaten to Shut Down Senate, Add Detainee Photo Suppresion Amendment to FDA Tobacco Regulation Bill
- Is Blanche Lincoln Against Taxpayer-Funded Insurance for Big Ag, Too?
- A Blue Dog Strategy for Passing the Kucinich Amendment
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Zed
Hallo, hallo, hallo!
TEDDY!
And this is surprising for what reason? Asking a Republican to actually do what he/she was appointed and confirmed to do is like putting a load of firewood outside a termite mound and asking them not to eat it.
Wahoo!
#2 again….
I will always try harder…
Me gotta go now?
Bustednuckles @ 6
Peepee time again?…
ticktock @ 5
I was second on the last thread…!!! ;-)
CTuttle @ 8
The Buffalo Bills of the National Zed League.
farm bill?
reward ADM and other big ag
CTuttle @ 8
Pardon me…
My outburst was not regarding #2 consecutively speaking….
I am speaking in reference to my life in general….
burnspbesq @ 9
Heh, I’ve accumulated a tidy sum of Zeds…!!! :P
Jonathan @ 10
Largess for the largest!
long been the motto in the Department of Agriculture
Just another instance illustrating the Bushco approach to government – it’s purpose is solely to enrich its participants, and set them up for their next, money-making job.
They are not in it to run the government.
The Farm Bill has always been one of the biggest pork fests of the Appropriations cycle… Corporate welfare in it’s purest form…!!! ;-)
Who needs the Secretary of Agriculture when we have all those well paid lobbyists on the job?
bg @ 16
keep the minutes?
bg @ 16
It’s his/her job to make sure that the well paid lobbyists’ requests get included in the budget the president sends to Congress.
CTuttle @ 15
The free trade folks do have a bit of a blind spot when it comes to agriculture, don’t they?
Mr. Mike Johanns is sure a dodgy little critter….
I wonder if this little bit of slight of hand will be omitted from his resume as a hopeful run for the Senate?….
Looks to me like Johanns is running AWAY from the Farm Bill the administration wants, because he doesn’t want to have to defend it. I can guess: The administration’s farm bill will privatize everything, and make it easier for agricultural corporations to take over family farms. It will also continue federal subsidies to major agricultural corporations that were meant to go to family farms, allowing them to rake in billions of taxpayer dollars with little risk or work.
Johanns spent time talking with people who have dirt under their fingernails, and knows that they will be over-ruled by Washington polls who look like Karl Rove and “Alvin”.
IMHO, of course.
Bob in HI
those here at FDL yuk, laugh, and lampoon
meanwhile, rove plots
i’m not in favor of violence
but i am, at this point, in favor of revolutiion
whatever that entails
think: 1969
This may be OT, but evidently, Tucker Carlson is displeased with FDL.
I know everyone here will give this the gravity and prompt attention this deserves.
-S
Teddy, this is a great post, and I do not wish to offend, but the following was EPU’d and I would like it to be seen:
“I have a modest proposal.
Regardless of how FDL and Blue America respond to Blue America (and other) Democrats who voted to suppress free speech, I would like to see the Blue America candidates who voted AGAINST censure come on FDL and explain why and how they mustered the courage to do so.
Maybe they can give us some perspective on the issue, and describe what kind of pressures they were subjected to and how they were able to withstand those pressures. That would give us some talking points with which to confront those who voted to suppress free speech: “If these good Democrats were able to vote against this travesty, why weren’t you?””
Jonathan @ 22
Sons of Liberty
Strategerie @ 23
***
And what, pray tell, is the basis for Mr. Carlson’s beef? So to speak.
twȝk @ 25
i buy it
Jonathan @ 22
Right behind you sir….
Wait a minute…
I almost forgot…
Now where did I put that damn thing?….
Looking, looking, looking….
(Under the bed) Yeah! I found it!….
Now I’m ready….
I’ve got my big f*cking club (pardon me)…
Not that I would use it….
Jonathan @ 22
Nobody’s stopping you from starting your own blog, d00d.
So much more is included in the farm bill!
Food Stamps, School lunch programs & the Rural Broadband Initiative! Just look at all the items included in the Bill:
Commodity Programs
Conservation
Trade
Nutrition
Credit
Rural Development
Research
Forestry
Energy
Horticulture and Organic Agriculture
Is there a perchance link to Carlson’t mad at FDL.
It would be ever so much appreciated.
Most large farmers are Republican. And most Republicans are against social spending. Except for huge ‘farmer welfare’.
thunder at 29
i like it here
just trying, honestly, to throw some red meat into the arena
Oklahoma kiddo @ 32
Pretty damn convenient, huh?….
If not welfare, what would you call “price supports”?
Oklahoma kiddo @ 32
IIRC Brownback’s family lost some or more of their family farm to Reaganfarmonomics. What has he learned? not.one.thing.
Jonathan @ 33
it might be red but it lacks meat ;)
I read somewhere recently an average farm laborer with two or more years experience in AR earns 9.50 per hour…and that was supposed to be impressive.
Tell that idiot Carlson there is a mens room in Minnesota that needs his immediate attention.
Elliott @ 36
CD @ 26
We’re HATERS. The entire Left is nothing but HATERS.
Shorter Tucker: Mom! Is not fair!
-S
Oklahoma kiddo @ 35
…or Farm Subsidies…!!!
Oklahoma kiddo @ 32
this seems to be a theme where we replace “except for huge ‘farmer welfare’” with “except for spending that personally benefits me”. sigh …
demi @ 40
I’ll reiterate:
It’s not there job to Learn Anything.
(I’ve never gotten an answer to why sometimes comments go to La La Land.)
tw3k
I’ve never, ever, been a commie.
But I’ve begun to wonder — just contemplate — whether Karl Marx was 100 years ahead of his time.
Bustednuckles @ 39
Hahahahaha!
He should find that bow tie he used to wear when he does…..
So one of the guy that played a significant role in the creation of al qaeda has requested another $190 billion from the American debt slaves in order to murder more Arabs for Israel?
Bustednuckles @ 39
I don’t think the state of Minnesota has ever done anything heinous enough to deserve a visit from Mr. Carlson, have they? Then again, I’m sure there’s a video clerk somewhere that needs a good talking-to.
-S
Jonathan @ 45
And why would that be?
Too many men (in my family) and not enough time….
Oh well…
Got more crap (pardon me) that I have to attend to….
See you-all later….
xoxoxoxoxo….
twȝk @ 49
Because I believe the great experiment in capitalism that is the United States has come to an end.
twȝk @ 49
Just Imagine…!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xjw-l673UI
Strategerie @ 48
what is this Tuckery?
punaise @ 53
Imagine growing up with the first name “Tucker”
Strategerie @ 48
They voted Norm Coleman into the Senate.
I suspect that they have learned from their mistake (unlike Brownback), and they are going to vote him out.
Jonathan @ 33
Even with all this discussion of pork(the other white meat)?
Elliott @ 54
it would be tiresome.
punaise @ 57
lmao!
Jonathan @ 51
Jonathan,
It’s just Too Open Ended a statement.
You are provocative, I know I misspelled that.
But, dude?
I refer to Tucker as *ucker.
I’m trying to move the furniture in my brain around to find something that I think we discussed a while ago and that was the connection between some major US policy and the failure of Mexican farms and the increase in over the border crossings from Mexico. Was it NAFTA or was it the US Farm Bill? Or both?
OT, technical question – can anyone tell me how to link to a specific FDL comment froma previous thread?
I found that link for Cassie, but don’t know how to link to it, but I’ve seen it done. Help?
punaise @ 57
It would tucker me out.
Bob in HI
Hey, Naomi Klein’s being interviewed on NPR (or isit PRI?) Marketplace – the business show. She mentioned Blackwater, New ORleans, etc.
This show used to advertise itself as about “capitalism with a human face.” Guess the re-thug board objected to even paraphrasing a Communist phrase
Strategerie @ 23
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Sorry – but I take my laughs whenever and wherever I can these days. ;~)
Teddy!!!!
I’m not sure, but I heard a while back that the bill had language that every single owner of every single head of livestock, poultry, etc., including horses, have to pay a “tax”….to register the whereabouts and transfer of all of their stock. That is a huge amount of $$. I don’t know if it is still in the bill…but I suspect…
Also, anything like this type of bill must benefit Monsanto and crew somehow, otherwise they wouldn’t have bothered. Ugh.
tejanarusa @ 62
Click on the number then copy that url from the address bar.
burnspbesq @ 19
How many small family farms do you think they’ll do in this time? Isn’t this when they reward consolidation and corporate farm ownership and punish the little guy?
demi at 59
the U.S. from its inception was a country — a people — with a huge continent at its disposal.
vast areas, filled with resources, including animals
and what did the american people over generations do with this wealth?
concede it to corporations
yes, certain corporations have served this country well — think Kaiser in WWII
at this point, IMO, capitalism has failed
capitalism has depended always on free markets
the markets today are skewed
and americans are screwed
all you need to know about the farm bill
vegetables are not included
In the upside-down world of farm programs, California produces twice as much food as any other state, but mostly without crop subsidies because fruits, nuts and vegetables are ineligible. Fresno County alone produces more food than South Dakota, but South Dakota gets more than 10 times as much federal crop money.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/…..mp;hw=farm bill&sn=002&sc=464
We are going to look at the debate which begins in about an hour. I am going to try to be objective. Actually, my candidate will not be on that stage. I hope all the candidates do well. Though I would really like to see some contrasts between them illuminated.
tejanarusa @ 62
You need the link that is embedded in the number in the upper right corner of the comment. Right-click on that number, and then choose “copy link location”.
For some reason, Wordpress makes copying the number difficult unless you start before the “Quote this comment” line in the previous comment.
Bob in HI
ifthethunderdontgetya @ 55
Seriously, though — what’s a little Senate seat when confronted with the specter of Tucker Carlson menacing the good people of Minnesota?
-S
I think it’s safe to say that Agriculture Secretary has probably not only not read the new farm bill but has no interest in ever reading the farm bill.
katherine Graham Cracker @ 70
is ketchup?
good evening friends.
The Farm Bill is Insufficient
Let’s start this post out right. The Farm Bill is not just about farms: it’s about giving eaters real consumer choice, putting healthy food in school cafeterias, taking care of the people that grow and prepare our food, and ensuring access to food stamps. It’s about our tax dollars. It’s about our environment. It’s about all of us.
The Farm Bill is re-enacted every five or six years and re-allocates funding for the trade of agricultural products, nutrition programs, commodity subsidies, and so forth. It has far reaching implications for our agricultural systems and local communities. As it is, unsurprisingly, it most benefits those that least need it and harms those that do.
Though billions of dollars are provided for farm subsidies, very few farmers benefit. That’s because the vast majority of money goes to recipients (usually Big Business mono-cropping corporations) that grow crops like wheat and corn in bulk.
Two-thirds of America’s farmers—and 92 percent of minority farmers—produce fruits, vegetables, livestock and other farm products not subsidized by the taxpayers.
What’s more, subsidies are tied to crop production, so the largest 10 percent of subsidy recipients collect 70 percent of all subsidies. While some subsidized farmers collect more than $2 million a year, most subsidized farmers collect less than $200 a month.
The bill offers no incentive to farmers and ranchers that grow and produce food for the “natural” food market, which makes it harder and harder for them to compete and make a living.
Most farmers seeking federal assistance to develop energy on farms, reduce the use of pesticides, raise “grass-fed” beef, or make the transition to organic food production are turned away. Current farm and food policies also provide little incentive to develop links between local producers and ordinary consumers, such as farmers’ markets, and large institutional purchasers like schools and hospitals.
The goals aren’t even beneficial to those that pay to reach them.
The number of farms has continued to decline and many pressing rural economic and environmental challenges have not been met. Subsidies have little or no effect on food prices, and some farm policies that limit imports or production increase food prices.
And the Food Stamp Program suffers under these policies as well.
So take a stand alongside organizations like Oxfam. Reform the Farm Bill. You have about a month to convince congress to do the same.
katherine Graham Cracker @ 70
I thought I heard a discussion recently that there was a new proposal for some kind of tax break or other encouragement to vegetable farmers. Can’t remember where I heard it – an interview somewhere…Can’t cite a thing for support.
nevermind
Jonathan @ 22
Yeah, I was thinking that now is probably the time when we should be giving serious consideration to how well Mike Johanns will stack up against our potential candidate, Bob Kerry. Who is this guy, what makes him tick, who does he know? That sort of thing.
Ketchup is a fruit, or a dessert, I believe.
Here is something about the livestock registration…the math would be staggering. Must be one way W thinks he’s gonna fix his “deficit”, short of a lobotomy.:
http://findarticles.com/p/arti….._n16862201
who is broadcasting the debate tonight? msnbc?
The Dems will probably vote for the bill, screw the farmers, and lose a bunch more support.
Boneheads. Sigh.
tejanarusa @ 77
TexBetsy @ 82
Yes.
Christy’s upstairs with
“extremely partisan individuals”
FunnyDiva
http://www.firedoglake.com/200…..ent-996097
I know Cassie’s doing her homework – I may not be here when she comes back -
TexBetsy, would you mind pointing her here? (If she’s still interested-her question was about Ahmadinejad).
Now, to see if this linky works:
LS @ 83
this has been a *heaving sigh* week, what went left?
tejanarusa @ 87
thanks. will do.
bg @ 80
1. have you heard about ketchup?
2. shock and awe my feckin’ ***!
3. disaster capitalism? si signor!
Who is going to run against Mike Johanns, Teddy? Is there a declared democrat yet?
bg @ 80
Dessert topping, and a floor wax.
(I tried to find a youtube of this, could not :(
As near as I can tell, the Dept of Ag is virtually useless, so the guy may as well move back to Nebraska.
The Ag sector of the economy is hugely important, but it’s treated like the seventh stepchild of American governance. In my local area, FEMA is currently ‘revising’ its maps to alter a ‘flood fringe’ area — just so happens that making the flood fringe narrower will allow a brainless mega-developer to put a Wal-Mart within 100 feet of a river that floods every ten years. Farmland is the easiest, cheapest land for predatory developers to buy up. So much for our food supply…
And the dairy farmers who risk losing their flood insurance and livelihoods…? FEMA doesn’t give a rat’s ass about them — and the Ag Dept may as well not even exist, as this is the THIRD time in 8 years that I’ve watched this crap occur in my local area. (Once for an auto dealership, twice for big box retail. Everyone loves cheap bottomland, and the farmers can’t compete economically with car dealers or Wal-Marts.)
US Ag policies (like most federal policies) are incoherent. They are sabotaged by the highway builders (Dept of Transportation) and subdivision/economic development interests (related to Housing and Econ Devel). Many Ag producers also run into problems with the Bureau of Land Management (Dept Interior), and the Energy Dept isn’t exactly helping our food producers (i.e., allowing oil drilling to occur on the ’subsurface’ of range lands is not good for ranchers, to cite only one example).
If you pay around $3.50 for a latte, I can safely reckon that the dairy farmers MAYBE made around $ .30 (yeah, 30 cents!) for the milk in your latte. But probably less.
What’s happened in the ag sector is just appalling. The next (Dem) president needs to figure out how to create coherent Ag policies. It’s a ‘hidden’ problem but extremely serious.
And don’t even get me started on immigration’s implications for Ag… (!).
Bush is interested in globalization and energy markets; too bad he can’t seem to see how either of those might relate to our food supply.
We’ll pay in blood for Iraq, and in hunger and huge price increases for the way we’ve treated our farmers, ranchers, and orchardists like sh*t the past 30 years.
I can tell stories about apple orchardists taking their crops to the Co-op in fall and actually being handed bills for ‘payment due’ on their prior years’ crop. In other words, more than one farmer has actually PAID to feed you.
Bush and Cheney should be impeached solely on the basis of the way that food producers have suffered. It’s absolutely criminal. And every dime higher in the price of fuel (for farm machinery, as well as fertilizers) puts more food producers at risk for going bankrupt.
What’s happened to food producers in this nation is absolutely criminal.
I can’t imagine why anyone who cares about our rural farmers could even stand to be in the same room with either Bush or Cheney, but I suppose that simply shows how frustrating I find the incompetence, incoherence, and inter-agency sabotage that happens in D.C.
So, now the Democrat in the race can run against Johanns as a man who left a very important job in the middle of an intensely important negotiation and, therefore, can’t be trusted to stick around if he’s elected as Senator.
Just keep hitting that theme as hard and as often as possible.
I’m afraid Rachel Maddow is out of her gord.
Oh, kewl! Bob in HI, te k–thanks for the help! Love to learn something new.
katherine Graham Cracker @ 70
Wow. Why don’t the California farmers get this out? Or better, why don’t their senators and reps?
Betsy, thanks!
readeroftealeaves-
Can’t disagree with your take on the way farmers (as opposed to big ag) are treated.
The insanity of using good agricultural land for building on first struck me in my twenties, living outside Philadelphia, in a hugely fertile part of southern Bucks County that was rapidly developing. There were still some small vegetable patches left, and therefore wonderful begetable stands everywhere – ah, those Jersey beefsteak tomatoes – best anywhere!
Then I found myself in rural Oklahoma, and learned more about how farming works. All of it completely irrational, yet apparently unstoppable. Sad.
TexBetsy @ 76
Bless you for this comment, TexBetsy. Especially the parts that I’ve left inline here. What’s happened to our rural economies, or anyone who wants to farm, really highlights the fact that this administration, and the corrupt munitions corporations, have so completely controlled our government’s priortities, budget decisions, and agenda that a latte will cost $5, but we’ll get to pay taxes for Blackwater contractors to raise hell in Iraq.
If you view US government through the eyes of the rural food producers, it is corrupt beyond what the mind can actually absorb.
And although it’s profoundly tragic and dangerous, it’s maybe not all that surprising that hopelessness translates to high rates of alcoholism and alarming increases in meth use.
When you treat people like sh*t even though they feed you, and your ‘news’ focuses on Britney Spears, or some dead almost-actress, it’s clear you’ve lost your mind entirely.
But Dems have failed to support Ag producers strongly enough. That needs to change — pronto!
tejanarusa @ 98
It would be completely rational if someone took a couple weeks to clear their schedule, focus on this issue, and remain focused on it.
And then align OTHER AGENCIES around the food supply.
You can survive without roads.
You can survive without Stealth bombers and high tech weapons.
You can even survive without urban planning.
Without food, you’re a goner.
You’d think that a nation as ’smart’ as ours would START with the food supply, connect that to public health, then connect that to education (much of medicine, biotech, and a lot of math actually comes out of farming)…
All it would take is interest, focus, and commitment.
But then, Oregon wheat growers, Idaho spud producers, Washington beet groweres, and Montana lentil producers aren’t perhaps exactly in the Abramoff and Norquist level of swank lobbying in D.C.
Hmmmm… who’s a congressperson going to spend time with? Mr Big Bucks Telecom, or my local dairy producers who are burning equity as they try to run a viable business?
This nation is blindly idiotic, and we’ll pay for our greed and stupidity — unless we clean up our act. It would take clear thinking, clear storytelling, and passion. But once you encounter the people in the ag sector, the passion comes pretty easy once you see what they’re up against.
It’s mind boggling.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 35
Um, uh, er, maybe uh kickbacks?
readerOfTeaLeaves @ 100
Very EPU’d. What you, tejanarusa, and others have said here.
Please read “Collapse, How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive” by Jared Diamond (ISBN 0-713-99286-7) and connect for consequences even more unimaginable considering the enormous complexities involved. (It may be the fact of complexity of a system that acts to obscure the reality of need for change to the system for those living in the system. Just a thought.).