Democrats In California Declare War On Farmers

Investor's Business Daily ^ | 5 March 2012 | Editorial

[IBD editorial writer]

Politics: To leftist food scolds, eating more vegetables is important. So why are California's two Democratic senators having a cow about a water bill that would let their Central Valley's farmers grow more veggies?

House Republican Devin Nunes' Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Water Relief Act (H.R. 1837), which passed easily in the House last week, was the first standalone bill to address the persistent problem of arbitrary state decisions to deny water to the farmers of the Central Valley. It's a good bill.

But not to the more obtuse Democrats.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein has denounced the Nunes bill as "a recipe for disaster," and — after years of doing nothing — is trying to work up some sort of alternative bill to please her radical environmental backers.

Democrat Sen. Barbara Boxer, meanwhile, has been howling about the bill too.

That's a bit ironic, since she brags on her website that she introduced the "Healthy Food in Schools Act" in 2010 that "would improve nutrition in school-provided meals by offering more fresh produce to students."

[IBD editorial writer]

More for our farmers. Democrats don't make a connection between decently treated farmers and cheap available produce. They don't think there's a connection.

[Iron Munro]

Democrats don’t see a need for farms or farmers.

Thsy can just get their veggies at Whole Foods.

[BfloGuy]

USDA reports that 2011 imports of vegetables into the U.S. soared 13% to $7.8 billion, while U.S. vegetable exports rose only 6%. Imports rose the most in precisely the crops the Central Valley excels at — tomatoes (up 19%), avocados (up 59%), carrots (up 55%) lettuce (up 25%), cauliflower/broccoli (up 34%).

U.S. tomato exports, by contrast, fell 6% in 2011.

I'll be waiting for FreeRepublic's contingent of government-prone-protectionists to demand tariffs on vegetable imports all the while ignoring why it is we're importing in the first place.