In an environment where anything can be "commercialized", and where all decisions must meet "economic factors", it is worth remembering not only that markets and economics are human-made notions, but that they are often manipulated by people for their individual benefit and not that of the citizenry of a country - or even of the world.
Monsanto sneaks into budget bill, faces farmer in supreme court
"In an unprecedented move, this makes GMO companies exempt from our judicial court system. Even if a court orders Monsanto to stop planting seeds until an environmental review is carried out, this bill overrules that. The USDA would be required to give Monsanto a temporary permit to keep selling, cultivating and planting those seeds while the review is conducted. So, even the federal courts wouldn't be able to stop Monsanto (or other GMO firms) from planting unproven, potentially dangerous crops if this bill passes."
Meanwhile, we incentivize corporate farming, a practice that does not seek to maintain the long-term value of the land, but the best - and most immediate - return on investment.
This graph on how we pay farmers should make you sick
"(page 261 of the report that the post links to) Today's agricultural commodity support programs are rooted in the landmark New Deal legislation that followed the agricultural depression of the 1920s and 1930s. These programs were designed to sustain prices and incomes for producers of cotton, milk, wheat, rice, corn, sugar, tobacco, peanuts, and other crops, at a time when a large portion of the U.S. population was engaged in farming. Today, less than 2 percent of the U.S. population is engaged in farming, and changing economic conditions and trends in agriculture since these programs began suggest that many of the original motivations for these farm programs no longer apply."
This corporatization of farming - subsidized by the government - has put us in a position where anything that we can do with surplus grown matter creates a profit opportunity....even when that opportunity makes no sense economically, scientifically, or ecologically. For years, we have known that ethanol requires more energy to produce than it delivers, but because we needed somewhere for the excess crop production to go, no one questioned the value.
Days of promise fade for ethanol
"Nearly 10 percent of the nation’s ethanol plants have stopped production over the past year, in part because the drought that has ravaged much of the nation’s crops pushed commodity prices so high that ethanol has become too expensive to produce.
A dip in gasoline consumption has compounded the industry’s problem by reducing the demand for ethanol."
Instead of picking winners and losers through corporate subsidy, we should be focusing on more and more "performance metrics" that we want our marketplace to meet. Those that can meet them at the lowest price point will "win" and those that cannot will "lose"....but at least innovation and the best ideas will have a shot. Time and again, when faced with a "must improve" mandate, we always meet or exceed the target - and at much lower cost than predicted. In the case of new fuel-efficiency standards, we are currently set to meet them by 2025. My prediction is that we will meet them by 2020, if not sooner, and likely exceed them.
Cars in the U.S. are more fuel-efficient than ever. Here’s why.
"...a new report from the Environmental Protection Agency offers the most detailed breakdown yet of this trend. The EPA is a particularly helpful source on fuel-economy because the agency tests how cars and trucks actually perform in the real world — rather than simply looking at what the laws say."
I could not let the election of a new pope go by without a link to what it might mean for the Catholic Church's stance on the environment. He does not speak for all Catholics, and certainly not for all people of all faiths, but it is hard to argue with his statement - regardless of your religious affiliation.
Pope calls for church austerity, wants to focus on poor
"On climate change, the Pope remarked, 'Right now, we don't have a very good relation with creation.'"
Happy Friday!
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