Victor Davis Hanson Ping !
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Posted on 12/09/2004 6:08:11 PM PST by quidnunc
Fresno, Calif. – President Bush's selection of a new secretary of agriculture, Gov. Mike Johanns of Nebraska, comes as American agriculture is at a dangerous crossroads. Despite government subsidies and technological advancements, the United States could soon become a net importer of food for the first time in about 50 years.
In part because of Nafta and globalization, consumers often find that it is cheaper to eat tomatoes from Mexico or dried fruits from Asia or Africa than what is grown a few miles away. Meanwhile, especially in the fast-growing states of the South and West, medium-sized farmers find that selling their land is more profitable than cultivating it. Here in the San Joaquin Valley, amid some of the richest farmland in the nation, new houses dot the vanishing agrarian landscape.
The Freedom to Farm Act of 1996 proved laughable. Although it was supposed to reduce government interference in agriculture and let farmers make more of their own decisions about what to plant, the law never really succeeded in weaning anyone off anything the government had to offer. The present administration sent $13 billion to roughly 700,000 American farms in 2002.
Apparently the idea behind such subsidies was that globalization had allowed foreign farmers — with inexpensive labor costs, few environmental regulations and little government oversight — to dump cheap produce on the American market. That flood promised not merely increased competition, but the ruin of American agriculture altogether.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at victorhanson.com ...
FYI
If you despair that hostile countries now have us by the balls because we're dependent on foreign oil, just wait until we're dependent on foreign food!
Hanson needs to read my book.
The socialist price controls imposed on farmers is outrageous. It is very hard to make a profit marketing a product that has only one or two buyers.
CRP programs pay for non productive lands that are set- aside, supposedly for future generations production.
Once the land is set-aside, it very rarely can be returned to it's prior use because of government land use restrictions signed off on when the farmer takes the CRP check.
Environmental burdens placed upon farmers is reducing output and driving up costs of production. Those increased costs cannot be recouped because the buyers remain the same. Diesel fuel is almost double what it cost 2 yrs ago. Corn is selling for $1.70 a bushel. It sold in 1965 for $1.70 a bushel. Factor in inflation and the farmer should be getting over $10.00 a bushel just to keep up with inflation and taxes.
If we sign off on our food dependence to foreign nations, then what will stop them from exerting pressure on America by cutting off food exports if they (or the UN) decide America has to do their bidding and America disagrees?
There are some in government who want us to be totally dpendent on them for our well being. Taking away our ability as a nation to provide for our needs is crushing the concept of freedom. The demise of family farms is just a small part of the socialist plot to overthrow America's freedom.
Oh, come on...Minnesota just had its THIRD billion-bushel corn harvest in a row. In spite of homes popping up in the middle of fields everywhere.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson resigned last Friday, warning of a potential global outbreak of the flu and health-related terror attacks. "For the life of me, I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply because it is so easy to do," he said.
Not a good thing, IMO.
Well said.
From here on out, it's all about National Security. Those that don't get it, will be sorry when the shelves are empty and we're begging the UN to send us food.
Even worse, when our grandchildren become ill from eating vegetables grown with pesticides ruled unsafe for use on foods for human consumption here in the US (which are regularly used elsewhere) or when these same precious offspring become ill from eating meat grown with growth promotants commonly used in other countries, but not registered for use in the US,,, we will wonder exactly WHAT we've done to ourselves. In our greed for cheap food (imported) we could easily do ourselves in.
When the shelves in the supermarket are empty, my deep freeze and canning cellar will be full. One of the most important things we can pass on to our Grandchildren is teaching them to grow and process their own food.
One last thought. A safe dependable food supply is vital to maintaining National Security.
I bet he would read it. Send him one.
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON 12/08/04
DOBBS: This debate over what is effectively assimilation in this country is the at center of our Face Off tonight. Joining me from Dallas, syndicated columnist with the Dallas Morning News, Ruben Navarrette. He says Latinos are making strides in assimilating into this country.
Victor David Hanson disagrees, saying we're allowing immigrant groups to vulcanize and to separate from our mainstream population. He is a senior fellow from the Hoover Organization, joining us tonight from Palo Alto, California. ~snip~
DOBBS: The cultural right. Victor Davis Hanson, is that you?
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON, SR. FELLOW HOOVER INSTITUTION: I don't know. That's kind of a buzz word. But the problem is we've never had in the United States 13 million, 10 to 13 million people here illegally. Nor have we had a situation where the host has lost confidence in the powers of assimilation so that we have people who go to school and learn in two languages.
People always -- immigrants spoke their native language for a while. But because of the sheer number of people, we're having a constant pull now of first and second generation people who simply don't speak English.
By any historical marker we know what happens in places like Iraq with Shi'ites and Kurds and Sunnis, or in Rwanda or the Balkans. Anytime a person owes their allegiance to a particular language or language or tribe rather than as a nation as a whole, you start to unravel these very precious, historic bonds that keep us together. We're a nation, not cultures, but of different races that have one common culture. We're really the only successful multiracial society in the history of civilization. ~snip~
DOBBS: Victor, this issue is boiling up, as I said to Ruben, this cultural right stuff, I think personally, is nonsense. I think the cultural left is also nonsense. I think what we have, if I may say, and I would love to hear your thoughts on this, and yours as well, Ruben, we have a bunch of people with a vested interest in this subject that are distorting the reality for all of us who are not directly involved in that first or second generation of immigration into this country whether legal or illegal.
And by that, I mean, we have unions that are trying to bring in cheap labor to be exploited, frankly. We have corporate America who want to bring in cheap labor to be exploited. Both are benefiting.
And we're not even beginning to control our borders, let alone our schools or the cultural institutions, including church's, including our schools. And there's a tremendous problem.
How do we deal with it?
HANSON: I agree with you. I don't see this as a political left or right. My experience in talking to a variety of people, it's a class issue. People who are in the halls of corporate American, people in the Chicano studies departments, people in journalism, people in politics who don't live with the reality every day tend to think it's not a problem. People who try to go to school in the public schools, assimilate, they want this.
Some of the success stories Ruben is referring to came in spite of, not because of, a lot of the leadership in the Latino community that fought tooth and nail, bilingual education and ethnic identification.
One of the reasons that we're starting to recover our confidence in the melting pot in California is that the people rose up and said, no more bilingual education. They said no more ethnic identification for jobs, we're all here as Californians. And now we have this ironic Orwellian situation that, with the powers of popular culture and the revolt of the people, they've started to bring back this idea. And all of a sudden spokesmen say, see it's working. It's working despite people in the past who have tried to separate us.
DOBBS: Victor Davis Hanson, Ruben Navarrette, we thank you very much. We hope you'll both be back as we continue our examination on this. And we know you will continue to examine the issue from your perspectives, almost daily.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0412/08/ldt.01.html
Aired Dec. 8, 2004
IIRC, you're a fan of this author.
BTTT!!!!!!!
Let me know if you want in or out
I often appreciate VDHs foreign policy positions. I have some definite differences with his positions domestically. Rather than saying that the SecAg pick good people, I would like to see his proscription...what those good people ought to do. I'm not sure I'd agree with it, but I would like to see it.
Home gardening is still an excellent alternative to purchasing grocerys at the store. Hybrid seeds are a problem however. With a limited number of producers, seed stock is patented and illegal to re-plant as a second generation crop. This is especially true for corn, beans, and other food stocks planted by farmers. But take notice that most garden variety items are also hybrids now.
Seed stock could be a problem to obtain if current trends continue, or there is drought or other weather related issues. Stock up on old varietys if possible. they may not be as disease resistant etc, but better than nothing at all by a long shot.
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