King Corn Update

Thank you to everyone who came out to see King Corn out of doors!!

I would also like to thank Kirsten for providing a nice edible arrangement, and for helping to get the word out about this event. Thanks to Victory Farms for growing such wonderful tomatoes in such variety as well.

It was great to see so many familiar faces. It was also great to meet and talk with some of you about supporting local food.

Well, for all of you who did come out to join us, my "update" is that the very next day, July 18th, NPR did a story on the Bush Administration's plans to do away with a 30 year old conservation program that protects "wild land" areas on private property. The Conservation Reserve Program was described as "the most successful private land conservation program in United States history." To the best of my understanding, this program works by paying farmers not to plow under, or put animals to pasture on or near ecologically important land features (wetland marshes, shady streams). According to the NPR piece, this program has 450,000 farmers currently participating . Among other benefits, the program has prevented 400 million tons of soil erosion, and resulted in the addition of 2.2 million ducks each year. Apparently, that is about how many ducks are killed off by hunting each year, so these areas are holding the balance.
According to the story, the Secretary of Agriculture's plan to be announced any day now, would allow farmers to keep the money they were paid to protects these areas, and then pay them again to turn the areas in corn fields, in order to produce more low grade commodity corn for beef, ethanol, and High Fructose Corn Syrup production.
Most interestingly, the individual that spoke in this piece for the farmers need to lift the wild area protections was the spokesman for "The American Meat Institute".