Understanding Government

Usually I look at the Food section of the Washington Post to see recipes for great dishes I will never make, or read reviews of restaurants I’ll probably never see the inside of.  But this week the Post’s foodies took a stab at serious journalism on the question of the future of food, and I just couldn’t stay away.

Tim Carman reviews a Post-sponsored conference at Georgetown University on malnutrition, obesity, and world hunger with the same strategy he generally uses for Washington’s we try harder restaurant scene:  sprightly comments about the appetizers, a weightier look at the main dishes, and then — do you have room for dessert? — a sweet finish.   Overall, it left me hungry for more something a bit more insightful.

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Scott Walker

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is known nationally for a budget law that significantly weakened public employee unions. But there are other ways Walker seeks to implement his anti-government employee philosophy of governance. Jason Stein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Walker wants private contractors, not state and county employees, to determine who is eligible for the federal food stamp program. But privatization worked disastrously in the two other states that tried it, and it will result in the loss of federal money.

Currently Wisconsin has 800,000 participants in its about $1 billion a year food stamp program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. (more…)

David Fahrentold shoots across the bow of some government programs that never die — including a subsidy in the Ag Department for promoting U.S. farm products overseas, a long-time exchange program for Asian journalists at the University of Hawaii, and a program that pays for abandoned coal mines to be cleaned up even though most of the worst ones have already been handled.  His reporting reveals the cynicism that goes into supporting these programs, which are usually the pet projects of certain legislators (the Univ. of Hawaii program is a long-time favorite of Hawaii Democrat Daniel Inouye).  Similar projects supported by senators Robert Byrd or Ted Stevens or Rep. John Murtha were recently shelved, saving taxpayers millions.  But it looks like that only happened because, with all due respect, these legislators died.

Does someone else have to die before these programs get cut out of the budget? (more…)

For the most part I’m opposed to the environment-related cuts in the respective 2012 budgets proposed by the Obama administration and Congress, but this one has some merit. Rick Barrett of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Congress is threatening to eliminate the $2 billion conservation reserve program — a program (run out of the Ag Dept.) that pays farmers not to grow crops, with two very different goals:  keeping commodity prices artificially high and protecting land inhabited by wildlife.

It seems like there could be less expensive ways to protect wildlife (would wildlife sanctuaries be cheaper than subsidies?). Accustomed to federal support, the farmers who benefit from the program have an “I want cake but I also want pizza!” attitude where they are against cuts but also want to start using the land to plant high-profit corn and soybeans.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is shocked, shocked by the divide between organic farmers and agribusiness on the question of GMO foods, as Lyndsey Layton reports in the Washington Post.  “Each side is so passionate, [a]nd each side is convinced that it’s right.  Vilsack, named “Governor of the Year” by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (nice URL grab, guys!), has been on the side of the big guys before, and recent rulings allowing unrestricted farming of genetically-modified alfalfa and other crops show how he walks, no matter how he talks.  Still, you shouldn’t believe that this is a David and Goliath fight. (more…)