The New Republic

I love my farmer neighbors, and their brethren across the country. They loudly espouse the virtues of self reliance, while lining up for egregious subsidies for feed grains and ethanol even while making record breaking profits; they benefit from an entire nationwide service (Agriculture Extension) set up specifically for taxpayer funded R & D and education on their behalf, while lining up with Grover Norquist to gut state budgets that support the land grant universities through which it is offered; they lean heavily toward the Republican agenda, but demand the right to hire undocumented immigrants, or depend on them to bring their meat to market; and they bask in the glory of a job that is tightly bound in their own mythology and the public's mind with the healthful outdoors, while drenching the countryside with pesticides, and fouling our air and water with pig shit and chicken shit, and ... well, you get the idea. I grew up on a farm (or ranch, depending on how you look at it). These people are my roots - brothers, sisters and neighbors ... but man, as a group, they lean toward being self-important hypocrites. And, the Democrats and Republicans alike still line up to pander to them. What a country.

- IowaBeauty

December 4, 2011 at 7:53pm

The farm dust/bullshit thing got me to thinking: bullshit, i.e. actual feces of cattle, is another farm commodoty whose regulation might send many rural antigovernment types (and agribusiness titans) into conniptions, and yet cow and pig feces is truly hazardous waste in need of government controls. When cow shit contaminates water used to irrigate salad crops such as lettuce and spinache that people are apt to consume without cooking, you get outbreaks of enterohemorrhagic E coli that kill people and put others on dialysis. And when Hurricane Floyd dumped twelve inches of rain on eastern North Carolina in half as many hours and all the "pig lagoons"--read "cesspools"--from the state's factory farms were overtopped, it was the pig shit as much as the flood waters that rendered 50,000 odd homes unihabitable. There were many houses where the water damage alone would have been recoverable but the shit got so deep into the structural materials, it just wasn't worth fixing it. (This happened to a patient of mine.) You just couldn't get rid of the smell, and even if technically speaking the house was save to live in, who would ever want to with that stench pervading everything?

- AaronW

December 4, 2011 at 8:05pm

"they lean heavily toward the Republican agenda, but demand the right to hire undocumented immigrants " In Alabama that tidbit is biting them harshly. I love it when someone gets exactly what they screamed for.

- tmmats

December 4, 2011 at 9:03pm

I hate it when Republicans treat us like we're stupid with things like "Mission Accomplished" or "Not intended to be a factual statement" or "death panels." Romney looks to be in that category with his equivocating pretensions. He will probably campaign on the big dust problem.

- Nusholtz

December 4, 2011 at 9:41pm

At least he's not a drooling idiot - this counts with Republicans.

- WandreyCer

December 5, 2011 at 9:19am

I honestly don't know why we're even calling these agricultural industrial complexes "farms." Well, I do, it's marketing. But still.

- miceelf

December 5, 2011 at 9:52am

Precisely, W. There are only two in the circus who don't drool: Mitt and Jon Huntsman.

- liberalref

December 5, 2011 at 9:56am

At this point in time, I doubt that there are many farms in Republican-leaning states that don't also contain "open-pit mining, lead smelters and chemical and industrial facilities", or some combination of the foregoing. So it's clearly a win-win for Republicans to push this sort of legislation.

- wildboy

December 5, 2011 at 12:24pm

What is it with you libruls that just keep hating on the God-fearin', boot strappin', salt of earth, real 'Mericun dirt farmers? As I mentioned on Noah's earlier post, dust farmers are the unsung job creators in America. I think the GOP's non-regulation regulation busting law is a step in the right direction to help America's dirt farmers expand and create even more jobs. Who wants to screw around with commodities crops like corn, sugar beets, soy or pork bellies when dust and dirt-by-products are where it's at. Why weed, when you can simply scrape the precious top soil off and wash it out to sea with erosion measures and bad soil conservation (yet another intrusive regulation we need to stop) Today's dust farmer is just one subsidy payment away from complete retirement. How can we say more regulations is what is needed. These job creators are backbone of 'American Life"© and need all the help they can to expand their mom and pop 'C' corporation into new markets. Why stop at farming dust, when you can have an open pit mine, concrete mixing plant and lead smelter while you farm dust. Today's dust/miner/smeltering farmer can and should get the help they need to expand. Think of the trendy products waiting for market exploitation. Aggravated asthma, low visibility, smog, poor air quality, dust storms! All of these are growth markets for jobless Americans. Another market for dust farmers is turning all of that bullshit from other farmers into the next commodity crop. The new meat substitute marketed as the crappy-patty can mean new sources of protein for the world. http://www.naturalnews.com/032715_turd_steaks_human_waste.html I think libruls need to get off their 'clean world, safe food' hatin' ways and get on the industrialized raping bandwagon that's made America what it is today...the birthplace of that awesome saying 'Eat My Dust!'

- singlspeed

December 5, 2011 at 1:14pm