Dad to NYT re wasteful American "farming"
My superhero Dad wrote the following letter to the New York Times today (reproduced here with his permission):I am very distressed to find that your November 9 article "Mountains of Corn and a Sea of Farm Subsidies" does not include the word "waste". Instead, the article's author describes American agriculture as "efficient". Is it efficient to produce a crop that no one wants, just because the government will pay you to grow it?
Who benefits from this "efficiency"? Not the farmers who are constantly driven out of business because they cannot or will not manipulate the subsidy system to produce such waste. Not the people of Louisiana whose marsh lands fill up with silt from Iowa that destroys the natural flood control on the Mississippi delta. Not the farmers of Africa who are constantly driven out of business as the American government dumps corn on their local markets priced below the cost of production. Not the future generations of American farmers in the Midwest who will be left without the heritage of some of the richest soil in the world.
We have Congress, the President, and the agribusiness corporations that pay them to thank for generating this marvelously efficient system. They must be proud that American farmers produce more waste more efficiently than any other farmers in the world. I am not so proud.
Who benefits from this "efficiency"? Not the farmers who are constantly driven out of business because they cannot or will not manipulate the subsidy system to produce such waste. Not the people of Louisiana whose marsh lands fill up with silt from Iowa that destroys the natural flood control on the Mississippi delta. Not the farmers of Africa who are constantly driven out of business as the American government dumps corn on their local markets priced below the cost of production. Not the future generations of American farmers in the Midwest who will be left without the heritage of some of the richest soil in the world.
We have Congress, the President, and the agribusiness corporations that pay them to thank for generating this marvelously efficient system. They must be proud that American farmers produce more waste more efficiently than any other farmers in the world. I am not so proud.