NewsTrust - Farming - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

FEMA should conduct preparedness drill in the Green River Valley

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - By Dave Reichert, Adam Smith - Oct. 05 (Opinion) - The Federal Emergency Management Agency should augment local efforts to respond to the risks associated with the storm damage to the Green River Valley and Howard Hanson Dam, write U.S. Reps. Dave Reichert and Adam Smith.

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Why there are pathogens such as MRSA in our pork

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - By Nicholas D. Kristof - Mar. 25 (Opinion) - Five out of 90 samples of retail pork in Louisiana tested positive for MRSA — an antibiotic-resistant staph infection — according to a peer-reviewed study published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology last year. Regardless of whether the bacteria came from the pigs or from humans who handled the meat, the results should sound an alarm bell, for MRSA already kills more than 18,000 Americans annually, more than AIDS does.

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Where Policy Grows

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Jane Black - Mar. 24 (Advocacy) - Iowan Dave Murphy Is Challenging the Corporate Farming Of America

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The Trouble With Subsidies

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Newsweek - By Fareed Zakaria - Mar. 22 (Opinion) - I'm certainly not going to defend those AIG bonuses. But the trouble with populist outrage is that it bubbles over, sweeping from one justifiable issue across to many others. Waves of populism are now working their way through the American government on several fronts. The area I'm most worried about is trade, where populism leads to protectionism. The scandal of the moment, the bailout bonuses, will pass; in a year or two (one hopes) the U.S. government will no longer own banks and insurance companies. But protectionism and trade wars, once started, are hard to reverse.

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Corn as a Health Issue

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By George F. Will - Mar. 08 (Opinion) - Tom Vilsack, Iowa's former governor, calls his "the most important department in government," noting that the Agriculture Department serves education through school nutrition programs and serves diplomacy by trying to wean Afghanistan from a poppy-based (meaning heroin-based) economy. But Vilsack's department matters most because of the health costs of the American diet. If Michael Pollan is right, the problem is rooted in politics and, in a sense, Iowa. Pollan, author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "In Defense of Food," says that after World War II, the government had a huge surplus of ammonium nitrate, an ingredient of explosives -- and fertilizer. Furthermore, pesticides could be made from ingredients of poison gases. Since 1945, the food supply has increased faster than America's population -- faster even than Americans can increase their feasting.

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No Lunch Left Behind

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Alice Waters, Katrina Heron - Feb. 20 (Opinion) - THIS new era of government bailouts and widespread concern over wasteful spending offers an opportunity to take a hard look at the National School Lunch Program. Launched in 1946 as a public safety net, it has turned out to be a poor investment. It should be redesigned to make our children healthier.

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U.S. has its own melamine problem

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Post Intelligencer - By James E. Mcwilliams - Nov. 27 (Opinion) - For all the outrage about China, what U.S. consumers and government agencies studiously fail to scrutinize is how much melamine pervades our own system. In casting stones, we've forgotten our own house has more than its share of exposed glass.

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The Corn Isn't Green

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Slate - By Robert Bryce - Nov. 13 (Opinion) - The ethanol producers and the flex-fuel-car advocates are wrong because their solution replaces only part of the crude-oil barrel and won't reduce demand for that entire barrel in any meaningful way. Here's why.

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Livestock Antibiotics: It is our diet

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Post Intelligencer - Jun. 11 (Editorial) - As the Seattle P-I's Andrew Schneider reported, routine use of antibiotics in livestock feed could be fueling resistant bugs. The Pew Commission of Industrial Farm Animal Production recently recommended banning antibiotics' use to promote animal growth rather than to treat infections. Doctors limit kids' antibiotics. Though agribusiness would squeal, farm animals need controls, too.

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The Rich Get Hungrier

Wed, 28 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Amartya Sen - May. 28 (Opinion) - WILL the food crisis that is menacing the lives of millions ease up -- or grow worse over time? The answer may be both. The recent rise in food prices has largely been caused by temporary problems like drought in Australia, Ukraine and elsewhere. Though the need for huge rescue operations is urgent, the present acute crisis will eventually end. But underlying it is a basic problem that will only intensify unless we recognize it and try to remedy it.

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Farm Bill: Buying votes

Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Post Intelligencer - May. 13 (Editorial) - The best hope is for a small House margin that would encourage and support President Bush in sticking to his veto threats. Then, a year or two extension of the existing farm bill would allow a new president and Congress to start over from a fresh point of view. By focusing on food consumption, the next Congress could create a bill for the public, farmers and the environment, not wealthy interests and voting blocs.

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World food balance tips toward crisis

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Post Intelligencer - By Paul Krugman - Apr. 09 (Opinion) - Where the effects of bad policy are clearest, however, is in the rise of demon ethanol and other biofuels. The subsidized conversion of crops into fuel was supposed to promote energy independence and help limit global warming. But this promise was, as Time magazine bluntly put it, a "scam." This is especially true of corn ethanol: even on optimistic estimates, producing a gallon of ethanol from corn uses most of the energy the gallon contains. But it turns out that even seemingly "good" biofuel policies, like Brazil's use of ethanol from sugar cane, accelerate the pace of climate change by promoting deforestation. And meanwhile, land used to grow biofuel feedstock is land not available to grow food, so subsidies to biofuels are a major factor in the food crisis. You might put it this way: People are starving in Africa so that American politicians can court votes in farm states.

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Farm Bill: Only paper reform

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Seattle Post Intelligencer - Feb. 17 (Editorial) - By the middle of next month, Congress and President Bush are supposed to finish work on a new farm bill. Amid all the push for reforms that reduce subsidies to the rich, promote conservation and improve nutrition, a great robbery of the public's money, health and hope appears likely.

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Penny Foolish

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 11:00:21 -0800

New York Times - By Eric Schlosser - Nov. 29 (Opinion) - THE migrant farm workers who harvest tomatoes in South Florida have one of the nation's most backbreaking jobs. For 10 to 12 hours a day, they pick tomatoes by hand, earning a piece-rate of about 45 cents for every 32-pound bucket. During a typical day each migrant picks, carries and unloads two tons of tomatoes. For their efforts, this holiday season many of them are about to get a 40 percent pay cut.

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Farm bill comes a cropper

Sun, 21 Oct 2007 10:23:36 -0700

Boston Globe - Oct. 21 (Editorial) - The farm bill that Congress cobbles together every five years or so has more effect on the nation's land and water than most environmental bills. Farmers, ranchers, and private foresters own more than half of the country's open land. The farm bill could promote wise use of this resource and limit the amount of petroleum-based fertilizer and pesticides that end up in the country's waterways. Or the bill can encourage the overproduction of crops like corn, soybeans, wheat, and rice that underpin processed-food production and the fast-food industry. The subsidies for these food crops and cotton drive down international prices, hurting low-income farmers in places like Africa. They also leave inadequate funds for food stamps, conservation, and aid to vegetable and fruit farmers in small-farm states like Massachusetts.

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Asian parasite killing Western bees: scientist

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 14:01:22 -0700

Reuters - By Julia Hayley - Jul. 18 (Interview) - A parasite common in Asian bees has spread to Europe and the Americas and is behind the mass disappearance of honeybees in many countries, says a Spanish scientist who has been studying the phenomenon for years.

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Organic Farms Produce Same Yields As Conventional Farms

Thu, 14 Jul 2005 00:00:00 -0700

Reuters - By ScienceDaily - Jul. 14 (Comment) - Organic farming produces the same yields of corn and soybeans as does conventional farming, but uses 30 percent less energy, less water and no pesticides, a review of a 22-year farming trial study concludes. David Pimentel, a Cornell University professor of ecology and agriculture, concludes, "Organic farming offers real advantages for such crops as corn and soybeans." Pimentel is the lead author of a study that is published in the July issue of Bioscience (Vol. 55:7) analyzing the environmental, energy and economic costs and benefits of growing soybeans and corn organically versus conventionally. The study is a review of the Rodale Institute Farming Systems Trial, the longest running comparison of organic vs. conventional farming in the United States.

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