I’m not sure what it says about me when the two elderly women at the local convenience store breathlessly inform me of a new soda offering, it must mean they respect my refined palette. PepsiCo has released two of their favorites in a new mixture (or is it old) sans the much maligned high [...]
Archive for April, 2009
27 Apr
Felonious Floating?
I don’t know Mr. Griswold, turns out he’s a popular rodeo cowboy, and that’s not a circle I run in, so forgive me for having to learn of his plight from a national ag columnist. I do plan on finding out more about him today. It turns out ‘horse dentistry’ is illegal in [...]
23 Apr
HR 875, Part Duex?
Overlawered.com has posted yet another comprehensive report on the developments in Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009. It appears that Representative DeLauro is busy altering the bill to protect “small” producers, and ease the criticism from hordes of organic farmer types, worried that their favorite farmer’s market will soon be shut down.
Personally I still [...]
21 Apr
So they weren’t crazy. They were first.
When I first started hearing about HR 875, it was through alternative agriculture sources, and Nigerian style email messages. I started giving the concerns over it more weight as it started showing up more frequently. Reason has a very good article that not only lists some of the hype and concerns over the [...]
20 Apr
Malthusian Fantasy Camp or Preemptive EMP Planning?
There’ a NYT story making the rounds today on the Transition movement, which is survivalists and hippies trying to take their communities a few steps back, an trying to wean themselves off of energy and modern society. All well and good, and no harm done, but for their sake I hope there’ a Supercenter [...]
14 Apr
Ask the “experts”? Update
Mother Jones has set up a Q&A forum with some “food reform experts” so I thought I’d break the mold of statist solutions and ask them how they see the eventual unintended consequences of their well meaning legislation.
How many of you acknowledge the eventual bad consequences of well meaning legislation? Current laws already make [...]
10 Apr
Prohibited Pie
Won’t somebody stop the madness, we can’t have all this uninspected food going around! A story, (taken from the HitNRun) regarding the menace that is charity food stuffs. From WSJ, the story of the crackdown on unregulated baked goods, and how our benevolent government has saved us from yet another food borne scourge. I feel [...]
10 Apr
Friday Zen: Coming Changes
This non descript hilltop is only shown for context, it already looks different and will get a new addition in less than a couple of weeks.
7 Apr
When they outlaw small farms, only criminals will have small farms
A double dose of similar stories today, both dealing with the regulatory hurdles that hinder economic diversity on small farms that would like to snag some of that retail dollar for themselves.
The first, (which I’m stealing outright from oklavore) details the problems faced by a pair of former Minnesota dairy farmers, and the trouble they [...]
6 Apr
What, Me Worry?
Grassley says farmers shouldn’t worry about IRS verification
Friday, April 3, 2009, 1:50 PM
by Julie Harker
Farmers concerned about sharing income information for farm payment eligibility shouldn’t worry. That’s according to Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, “It would be just the USDA contacting the IRS and saying is this farmer’s income above or below this level.”
A new prerequisite [...]
