We Should All Become Locavores

Now link

Please click on the link above and watch a fantastic recent segment of Now on PBS. If you don't watch the program Now on PBS, you are missing some fantastic stuff. Of course, it was much better when it was run by Bill Moyers, but it is still pretty good. This recent version hits us right between the eyes relative to our review of Deep Economy and the idea of converting our local tobacco economy to a local food economy. Now this is the sort of thing I wish our local IDEA would work on. Do we all benefit exclusively by the addition of another industrial facility? Would we not also benefit from strong movement toward a sustainable local economy via identifying and encouraging local farmers to raise food for local consumption? I certainly think so.

At the same time, our Congress is contemplating the annual farm bill. As usual, it is loaded up with subsidies for corn and corn syrup and hydrogenated oils. Read more about this at link
then get mad and contact our Senators McConnell and Bunning and tell them not to dare vote for a bill full of such blatant subsidies for companies like Archer Daniel Midland and Cargill! Here is the note I sent them both:

Dear Senator McConnell-

Please show some leadership and oppose this $288 billion gift to the likes of Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill! We do not want cheap high-fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated oils! We want farmers to grow food for us to eat, not higher profits for the corporate farms that are poisoning our food chain!

Yes, I know there are a few token dollars in the bill to support farmer's markets and other local food initiatives, but they are only tokens. The real thing happening here is another chance to shovel my tax money into the pockets of the already wealthy. I am fully aware of this and will work tirelessly to make sure others do as well. At a bare minimum, you must support the amendment by Senators Dorgan and Grassley to cap annual payments to any one farmer at $250,000.

Please step up to this opportunity to reclaim our food supply from the clutches of corporate greed. We will all be watching.

Feel free to cut/paste/use this as you will to send them your own message. It is not easy to email our Senators today. They have disabled their public email addresses and substituted forms you have to use to email them. Of course we all know how they hate to be bothered by we plain constituents! Just Google "Senator Jim Bunning" and "Senator Mitch Mc Connell" and go to their sites where you can click on the "contact" link to get a message to them. I am certain that the lobbyists have a much more direct route to them, but, maybe we can change that too!