Flanking Big Ag

by Natasha Chart · 2009-02-10 15:59:00 UTC
Topics:

Tom Laskawy over at Weaver's Way Co-op has an inkling that Vilsack might have an interesting strategy to try:

... How's that for flipping the farm subsidy system on its head? The government will pay you to farm sustainably. Vilsack himself suggested as much in an interview in the Des Moines Register on the shrinking number of mid-size farms:

Increased payments to farmers for land-conservation measures should help keep smaller operations in business, and those farms also could get checks in the future for reducing carbon emissions, he said.

That would be downright radical. Its not a frontal assault on Big Ag - it is rather quite an elegant flanking maneuver. If you can start increasing the pot of subsidy money available for low-carbon farming, it strikes me as at least conceivable that you could start squeezing the old-school commodity crop subsidies without the same level of outrage (Collin Peterson notwithstanding) you might otherwise incite.

Tie all that in with a just-announced pilot project that will allow farmers who receive commodity crop subsidies to plant some of their acreage with vegetables (usually illegal) and you start to see the beginnings of where Vilsack might be headed. Giving commodity crop farmers a "way-out" of the subsidy system without having to go cold turkey combined with additional financial incentives to move toward sustainable farming? I'm now officially intrigued.

If we can win the future for sustainability without open confrontation, go team!

Natasha Chart
PREVIOUS STORY:
UN to Africa: Go Organic
NEXT STORY:
Join the Social Media Day of Action to Rid Girl Scout Cookies of Forest-Destroying Palm Oil

COMMENTS (2)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.