Obama White House Appoints Former Monsanto Lobbyist to FDA

Change?? (4.00 / 3)

What ever happened to the campaign slogan "Change you can believe in"?

It should have been "the more things change the more they stay the same".

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by: jgoodman @ Wed Jul 08, 2009 at 00:41:56 AM CDT

Ha! (4.00 / 2)

So true, ain't it?

You see this yet? http://www.californiareport.or...
Tragic.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Wed Jul 08, 2009 at 00:45:12 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

You would know about this quote (4.00 / 2)

From the first comment...

Recent environmental anlayses[sic] show that larger farms are more sustainable and better for the environment because of their scaled ability to mitigate environmental impacts. Furthermore, no entity in the state has been more aggressive at pushing costly experimental mandates on farmers that have forcing small farmers out of business than has CRPE.

I thought the exact opposite was true. Complete idjit? Shill?

Yankee Frugality: use it up, wear it out, make it last, or do without.

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by: Anonymous Bosch @ Wed Jul 08, 2009 at 01:03:12 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Just read something like that today... (4.00 / 1)

Check this out (really interesting article, marred by a shortsighted "economist"'s comment, 5th down from the author herself in the comment section) -

With his permission, I'm passing along some interesting comments from Robert Whelan, an economist at Portland's ECONorthwest (sent by email).-Leslie Cole

"Growing food on small plots of land close to Portland may sound sustainable to us, but all it really is is a high cost specialty form
of agriculture that targets people that can afford to spend a lot of
food. Yes it delivers better produce and more interesting produce at
that. But it is not any more or less economically sustainable than big
farms that can deliver broccoli at prices half that of what you and I pay local farmers.
"Those big farms in Arizona and California are sustainable. They deliver products here at a lower cost because it takes fewer inputs
(the combined costs of land, labor, capital, supplies, and energy) to
make them than would a small farm in Canby. What they cannot do well is make specialty crops or deliver products that spoil quickly, like
good strawberries. They obviously cannot deliver freshly picked
produce. But what they do is grow good food cheaply so that more
people can afford it.
"Finally, on efficiencies, note that the energy spent to deliver
produce from local farms is not necessarily less than it is for large
farms.
"In short, if something is more efficent, it is more sustainable."

Now, The Oregonian is a right-wing rag in the first place, and is sadly our only statewide daily paper... but this is the first time these tools have infiltrated the comments on the (otherwise wonderful) FoodDay pieces.

Has Mr. Whelan ever heard of a thing called water, and the problems of growing America's produce in a f&$&)ing desert?!

"In short, if something is more efficent, it is more sustainable."

Yeah, if you're only concerned about the earth lasting another 20 or 30 years, tops...

What a dipshit.

"Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization." - Eugene V. Debs

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by: JayinPortland @ Wed Jul 08, 2009 at 01:24:51 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

How does one argue for better food (4.00 / 1)

if the only criteria is cheaper price? [rhetorical]

The article was very informative. (I wasn't asking this question of the author.) I've read that we used to spend 25% on food and now it's only 10%. Doesn't seem like the gain is worth the price paid in poor health [understatement].

Nor, as you point out - water - are comparisons or words like "sustainable" arguable when external costs, (which have been THE free pass big business has never had to pay for,) like pollution and environmental destruction are factored in. If big business had to pay for all its external costs, instead of foisting those costs on taxpayers, their products might just not be cheaper or sustainable. (I have to laugh at the efficiency/sustainable bullshit.)

What if King Corn was made to recapture all the pesticides and herbicides and fertilizers that leached off the land? How cheap would King Corn be then?

Yankee Frugality: use it up, wear it out, make it last, or do without.

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by: Anonymous Bosch @ Wed Jul 08, 2009 at 02:25:26 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

And fwiw... (4.00 / 2)

She was much too kind to Winco - that is one of the most depressing places on the planet that I've ever been to.  I used to live right next to one in 2007 back when I lived in Outer NE Portland, and only went in for a cheap 6-pack of Full Sail or Deschutes when I had no other options in walking distance (they're open 24 hours)...

It is humanity supersized, with all that that implies.

16-lb. packages of factory-farmed chicken for like $4; 488-oz. bags of potato chips for 39 cents; wilted, slimy and nasty pesticide-and-fossil-fuel-soaked produce (I don't know which store she went to, but it certainly wasn't the one on NE 102nd!) for 19 cents a pound, etc...

"Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization." - Eugene V. Debs

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by: JayinPortland @ Wed Jul 08, 2009 at 02:43:03 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

"I'm being poisoned!" (4.00 / 2)

"But, hey, at least the poison's cheap."

How can you argue with crazy people?

Yankee Frugality: use it up, wear it out, make it last, or do without.

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by: Anonymous Bosch @ Wed Jul 08, 2009 at 02:48:32 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Ha! (4.00 / 3)

How can you argue with crazy people?

I guess you can't!

And with that, I'm off to bed.  Gotta be up at 6 to call around desperately for some work, any work.  Been a (relatively) good month so far, in that August's rent is already half-paid; but of course it could be much nicer these days, eh?

Welcome to the Brave New World!  We have always been at war with ThePlanet...

"Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization." - Eugene V. Debs

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by: JayinPortland @ Wed Jul 08, 2009 at 02:54:54 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Interesting (4.00 / 3)

I grew up with the Oregonian, and considered it a very left wing paper. Things were better when the Oregonian and the Journal were both around. At least there was some competition.

I think one of the big problems with the Oregonian, at least back when I was still reading it, was that they got rid of a lot of the actual reporters and started running a lot of stuff from the AP, Reuters, etc. Perhaps they're getting better now as afar as having actual original reporting vs reprinting national articles written by others, it's been over 10 years since I bought a copy.

Regarding locavores as elitists - explain to me how supporting local business is elitist....

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by: Joanne Rigutto @ Wed Jul 08, 2009 at 14:21:27 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Interesting #2 (0.00 / 0)

Also, hard to call the Oregonian a state=wide paper when it no longer takes subscriptions outside the Portland metro area.  Eugene Public Library now gets it in the mail, at least one day late.  There are no more vending sites here, either.  (Not sure but the Sunday edition may get here on Sunday...)

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by: chimene @ Fri Jul 10, 2009 at 00:18:04 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Well, here's hoping... (4.00 / 2)

Ms. Hamburg ignores all of his "advice".

Yeah, I know that's not how it works, but we can "hope", right?

"Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization." - Eugene V. Debs

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by: JayinPortland @ Wed Jul 08, 2009 at 00:57:20 AM CDT

The beatings will continue (4.00 / 2)

until morale improves.

Yankee Frugality: use it up, wear it out, make it last, or do without.

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by: Anonymous Bosch @ Wed Jul 08, 2009 at 01:15:39 AM CDT