It wasn't too long ago when I just went along without questioning our government officials and their policies. I figured that with the collection of some of the best minds in the country assembled in our nations capital there was no way that they would intentionally harm our country. Oh how I have learned how big business (equals big donations) drives our nations most important policies.
Farm policy today is harming our nation. Yes it maximizes production but at what cost and to whose benefit? One would think marketplace efficiency in farming would be beneficial as most efficiencies are in business and economics. On the farm, we stopped rotating crops,we feed our cattle corn, as a matter of fact some companies advertise their beef is corn fed. Interestingly enough, cows are meant to eat grass (natures solar collectors) in large pastures where grazing improves soil quality. Instead we grow massive amounts of corn which farmers sell to the large agribusiness at a loss and then we pay them subsidies. Corn is not natural in the diet of our beef. It harms their health by upsetting the natural balance in their digestive systems. We have to feed them antibiotics to keep from getting too sick. We have the beef stand in their own manure most of their lives eating a caloric rich diet to fatten them up for market with virtually no exercise.
When was the last time you drove past farms in the Midwest where you saw fields of tomatoes or green peppers? I can tell you it's since the corn subsidies took over our farm system. Agribusiness buys corn that farmers sold at a loss that was subsidized by our tax dollars so they could buy CHEAP raw materials to turn into high fructose corn syrup and other chemicals. When was the last time you drove past a pasture of cows in the Midwest? It's all corn now or soybeans. The cows are no longer stay on the farms they are sent to the concentration camps to be fattened on a diet they cant really digest.
By fattening the wallets of agribusiness, we as a nation are polluting our ground water and streams with excess nitrates and other petrochemical. (nearly 30% of all oil imports go into the farm in chemical fertilizer, pesticides, and transportation) We are severely polluting the land around these livestock businesses with feces so concentrating that nature can no longer properly recycle the waste. The soils are becoming so depleted that more petrochemical fertilizers are required to keep the crops growing. Iowa alone has lost 2 inches of its rich topsoil in the quarter century through improper crop rotation.
It's time to look for policies that will protect the land, and hence the real farmer, so that our generations to come will have a healthy food supply that is grown in their own country.
