The latest on farm subsidies

Personally, I'm outraged that my tax money goes towards farm subsidies. Now, don't get me wrong, I want to see the [legendary] "family farm" succeed, but farm subsidies tend to go to the larger, super-profitable, monoculture farms whose products don't benefit many Americans (unless you own stock in Monsanto, Cargill, et al.), and can in fact hurt consumers through their land-use policies and GM/GMO and E. coli-ridden products.

Here's some articles that should interest you:

Farm subsidies: Beyond Simplistic Outrage

Farm Lobby Beats Back Assault On Subsidies

Betting the Farm

If you, too, are pi**ed off, contact your agricultural committee state representatives.

Corn causing problems again

When will outdated monoculture corn farmers come to their senses and give up on growing thousands of acres of corn each season? And when will the government quit giving our tax money away (via subsidies) that really only benefit the big processing companies (like Cargill, Archer Daniels Midlands, Monsanto, et al)?

Well, hopefully the bubble will burst soon. A recent article in the New York Times seems to point to another wrench in their gears. (Unfortunately farmers are going to take the biggest hit when the bubble bursts; but again, time to adapt and move on.)

Here's an update.

[On the flip side, here's an article on cellulosic ethanol that sounds promising.]