A Golden Opportunity to Right some Wrongs via Government!

The entire nation seems enbattled in debates and even outright fights over the national budget once again. Its all over the newspapers and radio, and in most people's conversations. Will the temporary spending bills pass? Will their pet program get cut? Will anything ever change?

A little closer to home ... I ran across the following article pleading for help to keep the sustainable farming government program from being cut:

http://sustainableagriculture.net/blog/grassroots-groups-oppose-hr1/

Reading this ... brought me to a realization. This is NOT a time to be worried about loosing funding for government programs that could actually do some good... no... this is actually a golden and rare opportunity to actually change things! Let me explain...

The secret is in this paragraph:

In addition, no cuts were proposed for two of biggest line items in the agriculture budget – commodity payments or crop insurance – while conservation, renewable energy, loans for beginning and minority farmers, and feeding programs for low income families took big hits. The letter states: “In a year of relatively high farm income, the House has focused its cuts instead upon programs that protect the environment, increase economic opportunity, serve beginning and minority farmers, and ensure proper nutrition for low-income families.”


Lets think about this. Sure.. I can admit that perhaps the programs proposed to be cut are some of the few worthwhile programs in government today. But the news here is NOT that these good programs are about to be cut.. the news is that the "bad" government programs which actually cost much more money and cause a lot of damage are NOT going to be cut! What we should be demanding is not "Don't cut my program" .. no.. We should stand up and demand " lets cut ALL farm spending equally, including commodity crop payments".

What exactly are commodity crop payments? They are the root of many of the evils in our food system today. This is where the government takes tax money from you and I, and redirects that cash in huge amounts to a particular industry that uses unsafe and unsustainable methods. Since that industry can not survive on its own, the government has to pay our tax money to the producers to keep it going. Quite literally it is the government using our hard earned cash to support business that can not exist on its own because it simply doesn't make sense, doesn't work, and can't make a profit.

Why are commodity crops so important to be supported by tax money? Well.. because they are cheap due to the support of tax money! If the cost had to be based on actual production costs, the excessive quantities of this bad "food" would disappear, and the importance of having it would disappear, shifting to proper good foods! For instance.. corn subsidies. Corn subsidies keep the monocrop corn growers in existence as they are today, slowly destroying our growing land. It is only because this "food" is so cheap that we use it to feed animals that should never eat corn, and use it in most of the foods as chemically produced substances that are unhealthy. If corn was left alone to be grown as it should (without subsidized methods) then we wouldn't use it everywhere it shouldn't be, and food would become healthier, feed animals would be healthier, health care costs would go down, farming as it should be would become more important, and the government would spend much less!

So ultimately, instead of begging for money to support "alternative farming approaches" lets simply agree to loose those programs if and only if all farm subsidies are cut the same percentage. That way sustainable farming increases dramatically in importance and market value, food gets healthier, our lands become more fertile, and the government saves much more money. Who looses in that? Only a few corporations that control the farming operations that are subsidized. The actual farmers will be fine.. they are smart and resourceful. They can produce MORE food if we removed the tax supported subsidies.

Will food costs increase? Perhaps a little, BUT that will be quickly offset by reduced health care costs. This is the big trade off we aren't getting in America.. cheap food does not nourish us as a nation, it destroys health. That is paid for by raising health care costs. Who hasn't heard of the spiraling health care costs? It is easily solvable... not through better health coverage.. but through more nutritious food, as nature intended.

So lets take this Golden opportunity to say " go ahead and cut the good programs we love... just be sure to also cut those bad ones that are doing harm every day to the world our children will inherit".