Eat Me!

Hoo boy, VDH does a straight-up demolition on one of the major waste-of-cash subsidies in the budget:

We need a drastic reset of agricultural policy. The use of prime ag land to grow corn for ethanol biofuel makes no sense. Why divert farmland for fuels when the world’s poor are short of food, and there are millions of unfarmable areas in Alaska and the arid West, as well as off the American coast, that either are not being tapped for more efficient gas and oil or are only partially exploited?

When North Americans do not fully utilize their own fossil-fuel resources, two very bad things usually follow: First, someone in Africa, Asia, or Russia is far more likely to harm the environment in order to provide us with oil; and second, precious farmland is diverted to growing less efficient biofuels instead of food — and billions worldwide pay the price.

I do b'lieve the boy has made a very cogent point. But that's just me.... End them now. No more agri-business subsidies. Folks must eat, but food stamps were supposed to fill the gap. ADM already sucks enough public cash... One or t'other. Kill ag subsidies or food stamps. your choice. The market will adjust.

Finally, the United States is supposed to be the world’s premier free-market economy, based on the principles that competition is good and that entrepreneurs freely reacting to markets create more wealth when unfettered by government red tape. Why, then, would the conservative agribusiness community want government intrusion that warps world food markets, ends up hurting the global poor, and contributes to an unsustainable national debt?

In the next few years, conservatives are going to have to cut entitlements and social spending. To retain their credibility, they must apply the same standards of fiscal responsibility to agribusiness that they apply to other areas.

Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now??