We MUST prevent bad behavior from the U.S. Senate

From the Heartland, Margot McMillen writes: Kathy Ozer, from the National Family Farm Coalition, wrote that “The votes on the Senate amendments will be no earlier than Monday as they didn’t reach an agreement last night.” She was talking about votes on The Senate Continuing Resolution spending bill, which should have nothing in it except items pertaining to spending. Instead, it contains two bad riders that would protect bad corporate behavior and hurt independent farmers, environmentalists and consumers. One of these riders would actually encourage corporate concentration in the livestock industry, and eliminate competition. For an idea of what that would mean, see the article in the Atlantic that follows the chicken industry, which was the first to become dangerously concentrated. Nowadays, there are few inspectors and regulations, because the corporations can pass any stupid laws they want. People are getting sick and the epidemic of urinary tract infections has been traced to bacteria on chickens. How stupid can we get? The “biotech rider” (section 735) would protect biotech companies from any kind of regulation if they want to try out some new kind of genetically modified crop on the land. Now that 50% of farmland in the U.S. has “superweeds” that cannot be killed with an ordinary herbicide like Roundup, there’s no telling what the biotech companies are cooking up to plant and then spray with who-knows-what. It’s a scary situation, for sure. If the rider passes, federal courts, who have occasionally stopped the planting of illegal crops, would have no authority to stop the planting of these illegal crops. The rider was originally part of the Farm Bill that didn’t pass last year, and then it was attached to a house appropriations bill and now has appeared from the senate side. There will be a vote very soon, maybe tomorrow, rushed through to get it approved before planting season. These biotech companies, with their bins of experimental seeds, are just itching to get more income streams going and they want to plant them this year. Senator Tester is leading on the challenge to these riders and he needs us to give him cover. RAFI is working on a petition regarding the GIPSA rider and the Center for Food Safety has the biotech rider. Go to those websites and help them out. Here are the links: http://rafiusa.org/takeaction/urgent-action-alert/ http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/1881/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=9982

Another Monsanto Protection Act

From the Heartland, Margot McMillen writes: Well, here’s a piece of crap. The Senate Continuing Resolution spending bill, which should have nothing in it except items pertaining to spending, contains the “biotech rider” (section 735) that would protect biotech companies from any kind of regulation if they want to try out some new kind of illegal, hazardous invented crop on the land. Federal courts, who have occasionally stopped the planting of illegal crops, would have no authority to stop the planting of these illegal crops. The rider was originally part of the Farm Bill that didn’t pass last year, and then it was attached to a house appropriations bill and now has appeared from the senate side. There will be a vote very soon, maybe tomorrow, rushed through to get it approved before planting season. These biotech companies, with their bins of experimental seeds, are just itching to get more income streams going and they want to plant them this year. The Center for Food Safety is leading on this issue and has petitions on their website to sign. Here’s what they say: “There are two asks: 1) urge your Senator to oppose the biotech rider and support any amendment that would strike the rider, and 2) Tell Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Mikulski that she should not support the biotech rider. Feel free to use this as a template: http://bit.ly/DumpTheMonsantoRider (feel free to call it either the “biotech rider” or “Monsanto rider”)” You, dear reader, must help strike this amendment. Call, write or e-mail your Senator right now. That’s the only way we can get Senators to take this situation seriously.

Lobby Day in Missouri

From the Heartland, Margot McMillen writes: Today was “lobby day” for the Missouri Rural Crisis Center. The capitol was packed with citizens working for one issue or another. Lots of farmers came with our group and another group of dairy farm supporters appeared. There were also a good number of folks from the faith community working on Medicaid expansion, a larger-than-usual contingent of motorcycle riders, but I don’t know what they were working on. Our farmers seemed to have good luck talking to the Senate. As I listened to the reports from the various little teams, I heard more optimism than usual. Senators and staff were all ready to talk, and they understood how bad the bills—especially HJR 7 and 11—were. We were joking—but it’s not really funny—that if HJR 7 &11 passes, a corporation could put a Confined Animal Feeding Operation with hogs or turkeys in the middle of St. Louis. Or, funnier still, in the neighborhoods like Clayton and Ladue where the big Monsanto execs live. There’s a big dead zone in St. Louis where the auto plants have moved out and the sites leveled, a big brown zone, and it would be perfect for a bunch of stinky hogs. Talk about your urban agriculture! Anyway, it was a good day and we’ll see what happens. March 12, 2013.

Dairy: The most fragile agriculture

From the Heartland, Margot McMillen writes: Sad news today. Another dairy processor, in Monett, has announced they’re shutting down. They can’t get enough milk to keep the plant going, because farmers have stopped keeping cows. I had a talk with Dave Drennon, Missouri’s dairy industry scorekeeper, and he says our state was #2 in the nation in numbers of cows back in the late 1970s. The city of Springfield was nicknamed “little Madison” after the Wisconsin capital. Our location was perfect for dairy—lots of grain in the north part of the state and pasture in the south. Now the grain is going to make ethanol for cars instead of milk for people. We’re #25 and falling. We “import” 60% of the milk we use in the state. We’ve laid off hundreds of thousands of workers in the dairy business, from farmers to processors to veterinarians to builders and fixers of equipment. All of those workers did business in their local communities, so every layoff has a ripple effect. Tomorrow at noon, the University is to make a report to the legislature on the economic impact of losing dairy farms. I hope they pay attention. That’s enough for today. March 11, 2013.

Parade list hides fact that corporate CEOs make so much money

By Marc Jampole

Parade Magazine just came out with this year’s edition of “What People Earn,” which catalogues the jobs and earnings of about 80 people across the country.

Surveying a mere 80 people doesn’t provide statistical certainty that the results reflect realty. In fact, the 80 people could be said to people an imaginary Parade universe, which we can otherwise call the alternative world of work that Parade wants us to see it. Some readers think I cover Parade too much, but it is the most well-read magazine in the country by virtue of it being included as part of the Sunday issue of virtually all daily newspapers. In its quiet way, Parade is one of the most influential arbiters of values and mores in the mass media.

So  how does Parade’s survey do when it comes to reflecting the real world?

Not well.

For example, about 60% of the people surveyed by Parade make under $75,000 a year, whereas in the real world about 88% of people earn $75,000 or less according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

In Parade’s world, the most common way to earn $75,000-$125,000 a year is to work for the government in some specialist or managerial capacity. I couldn’t find easy statistics on what percentage of people earning from $75,000-$125,000 work for local, state or federal government, but I can’t imagine that it’s anywhere near the 55% of all employees in this salary segment that we see in Parade’s alternative world of work. Could the subliminal affect of seeing all these well-paid government workers be to make the lower wage earners think that government workers are unfairly paid? Now wouldn’t that play right into the right-wing program to foster resentment against unionized government workers.

Surely the less moneyed readers couldn’t resent any of the nine people in the survey who make more than one million dollars a year. None of the million-dollar earners, by the way, earn less than $8.0 million. 

 

Why no resentment? Because they are all celebrities—athletes or entertainers.  Typically, we admire celebrities and only resent what they earn in comparative terms—(as is: LeBron James doesn’t deserve to make more than Tom Brady, for example). 

Among the million-dollar earners on Parade’s list there is not a single CEO of a big company, nor any professional investor or investment banker, nor any very successful physician or attorney.   By contrast, the Parade survey lists only owners and executives of businesses as earning between $125,000 and $1.0 million, and all of these earn considerably less than $500,000.  It seems to me that the message here is that business owners and executives don’t make outsized amounts of money—they only make a little bit more than the average Jane and Joe.

Parade’s alternative world of work, then, is a meritocracy in which to reach the top you have to have a lot of talent in some very specific areas—athletics, singing, dancing, performing.  While Parade’s world is primarily rich and poor/lower middle class, there is actually a higher number of people in the middle and upper ends of middle class income levels in Parade’ s world than in actual life. The Parade world also seems somewhat fairer than the real world because there are no bosses making millions and tens of millions of dollars a year while their employees work for almost nothing. There are no investment bankers manipulating the finances of companies to skim off profit while workers lose ground to inflation. The only business owners we see are close to being regular and hard-working guys and gals.

All we have at the top of Parade’s alternative world of work are the mythical gods and goddesses who the mass media erect as role models showing us how we should live our lives, the alpha and omega of our value system—the celebrity.

Kurt Schaefer's legacy

From the Heartland, Margot McMillen writes: In the last week, Columbia’s representative Kurt Schaefer has met with several constituents from his district. Folks from the environmental community, health community, rural life and faith communities have all had the same experience: Kurt has been well, curt. Meaning abrupt, brisk, brusque, rude. Some folks have called him “belligerent” and “confrontational.” One friends told me, “I’m so glad you weren’t there, Margot.” Although I’ve been in lawmaker offices where the rep or sen was out-of-control, the descriptions I’m hearing, and not just about Kurt, are truly appalling. It indicates the level of pressure these guys are under. The pressure between what they’ve promised their funders, like the Farm Bureau, Monsanto, Cargill and other corporations and their own personal own moral codes about what is right for the future. After all, these lawmakers have families and friends who will be affected forever. When these political gangs dismantle environmental regulations and allow more pollution to affect our burdened waterways and air, their families will pay with increased amounts of water-borne diseases, asthma, and other unpleasantness. If they disallow the health initiatives like Medicaid that would create a healthier future for our children, their families will pay with higher costs, more health problems and mental health problems. We will soon see, because of past policies, epidemics that no one can cure. And these guys know how to fix the problems by building policies to take us into the future. They know that they’re standing in the way of solutions. They know that their corporate funders are putting dirty money into campaigns by manipulating tax codes. They know that if government puts resources into creating energy-saving devices and alternative energy sources, they can build a safe future and turn back some of the problems we’re seeing. It is sad to see lawmakers under so much stress. That’s all for today. Happy Daylight Savings!!