Embrace the Freedom to Make Bad Choices
Posted: December 9, 2009
Agriculture is broken. Our food is making us fat and killing us. Farming is horrible for the environment and I am having a bad hair day!
Who are these elitist whiners that seem hell bent on convincing us all that we are doing things wrong when it comes to feeding ourselves, clothing ourselves and even fueling our cars. To listen to this loud and often pompous minority you would think the sky is indeed falling Chicken Little…or maybe I should free range Chicken Little or even say Lettuce Little to be more politically correct.
Ok bozos, listen up….U.S. agriculture is a finely tuned machine that is the envy of the world because we are productive, increasingly efficient, and are improving our environmental footprint every day. I don’t have to read or believe the tripe you are selling just because you have wrestled the public megaphone away from the real experts.
In the past 25 years, U.S. farmers have been able to boost corn production by more than 40% due to improved varieties, better production practices and equipment advances, all while reducing their environmental impact. These and other similar advances have enabled hundreds of people, especially in developing countries, to greatly improve their diets.
So, note to Michael Pollan, Martha Stewart, Michael Mohr, Tim Searchinger and all the other self proclaimed experts in the world who wouldn’t know a cow pie from a moon pie if they were ankle deep in it…lots of people read romance novels, watch Real Housewives of (choose your location) but nobody takes any of it seriously. The unwashed masses think you are mildly amusing too.
You might generate a good discussion over the water cooler or prompt a laugh or two, but at the end of the day, nobody is making life changing decisions based on your self -proclaimed expertise.
Here are some real facts to facilitate your next discussion regarding our largest and most important industry:
98 percent of farms are family farms; corn yields have doubled since 1970 on fewer acres; amount of land to produce a bushel of corn down 37 percent; energy used to produce a bushel down 37%; emissions per bushel down 30%…and on and on.
The truth is we need to double food production by 2050 to feed our growing world. And we are well on our way to doing so while using the same or fewer resources.
The real food experts promote eating in moderation and from the four food groups because it is the wise thing to do, makes us healthier and with some exercise will increase our life span. With that said, get off my over fed backside. I hope your 15 minutes of fame are about done. This is America where if I choose to live on a diet of Nachos, Chicken wings, and a lard sandwich I can do so with a clear conscience.
I like going to bed each night knowing I have spent another day on this planet with freedom of choice, even if that means exercising bad choices. I sleep peacefully knowing that this Republic still works and those of the nay saying ilk are wasting a lot of energy constructing a food fad built on false assumptions. The American public is very good at smelling a rat.
For myself and the rest of the overfed masses I intend to protest too. I will not write a manifesto, blow up a state-of-the art research facility that could save thousands of lives, or even wear a funny mascot costume of biotech corn or a cute pink piggy. I intend to eat Ding Dongs and wash it down with soft drinks loaded with high fructose corn syrup until I have to buy a bigger size of pants. Democracy is cool and somewhere in the fine print of the Constitution it must say something about freedom to eat what I want, right after that freedom-of-speech-thingy!
Jody Donohue Said,
December 9, 2009 @ 8:57 pm
When did personal responsiblity vanish? When did we decide that an animal had an equal worth to a human? When did America become a land of having someone else’s agenda pushed down your throat? When did a fact morph into something someone thinks or believes rather than the truth?
When the crazy food activists have accomplished their goals, maybe someone will sue them to bring back Twinkees and Happy Meals so they can get some variety to their nuts and berries.
Cindy Said,
December 9, 2009 @ 10:28 pm
Mark, if you are having a bad hair day, we are all in SERIOUS trouble!
DonEWG Said,
December 10, 2009 @ 2:18 pm
The point your missing is that Americans don’t have a choice in the billions of our tax dollars that go to subsidize corn and other commodity crops, and the pittance fruits, vegetables and organics receive in federal support in comparison.
When our tax dollars bankroll the continued consolidation of the farm sector and fund the production of only five commodity crops, then there is something wrong. Talk about having something pushed down your throat.
NCGA Response:
Actually, Americans do have a choice. They make it every election day. They can choose to support candidates who would carry out the reforms they want. And Americans don’t appear to be as upset about whether government should support farmers as certain special interests want them to be.
jon Said,
December 10, 2009 @ 6:23 pm
So…we should also be allowed to do whatever drugs we want to do, abort whatever fetus we want, marry whoever and whatever we want, abuse our dog so we don’t have to take out our rage on our kid, and basically do anything we want to as long as we personally can’t see the possible negative effects (to humans only, who are the kings of the universe) of it? Just tryin’ to understand ya’lls position pertaining to freedom.
DonEWG Said,
December 11, 2009 @ 1:41 pm
NCGA —
That’s a good point on the electoral process. Hopefully as people become more engaged in having healthy school lunches and more fruits and vegetables available to their kids in the face of an obesity epidemic, or seeing skyrocketing health care costs and conservation lands being plowed under for more corn, they will make it an issue at the ballot box.
However, voters don’t get much input into who sits on the Ag committees, which are filled with members representing the most heavily subsidized districts and states — in effect the subsidized ensuring more subsidies.
Also, individual citizens lack the financial power to hire top lobbyists, make lucrative campaign contributions and blanket the airwaves with deceptive ads.
Robyn Said,
December 11, 2009 @ 8:18 pm
I wonder if a few things have conveniently slipped from our minds about freedom in the U.S.? We don’t always have the freedoms our constitution allows us:
for example:
- in the post-WWII McCarthy-J. Edgar Hoover days, the politically-contrived ‘red scare’ led to the accusations/trials/imprisonments that ruined thousands of people’s lives for no true reason – right in our own supposedly non-fascist country! This rampage targeted people in government service, the arts, education, and union activists especially with a vengeance that was both unconstitutional and patently falsely-based. The trial verdicts were later overturned for most due to the unconstitutionality issue, but all it took was ‘the accusation’ to propel a cascade of media lies, community rejection, loss of employment, etc. If you ever wrote or spoke words that had suggested any kind of displeasure or disagreement with the U.S. government, you were potentially a target of these insane committees to determine “Americanism” and, of course, of the FBI.
Can you imagine living under the fear of being targeted – and how that would lead to mass abandonment of integrity & honesty in order to ’save’ oneself?
Thinking that could never happen again? Just take a gander at the Bush Legacy and the civil liberties removed under the threat of terrorism. Fear mongering was rampant, scientific integrity and independence was threatened and stolen, and we as a nation were (are) once again polarized by the followers’ belief that ‘if you aren’t with us, you are against us’ – this is living in fear… this is NOT freedom of speech, thought, written word, or anything else
Constant ‘the world is ending’ commentary against the current administration is not only unfair, but also highly hypocritical by the ‘King George-ites’ Mistakes will be made, no government is perfect…but extremism on either end of the political scale is devastating to the common good. The fact that opinion and belief that is not the same as what might be government-sanctioned currently is not targeted as “un-American” or “dangerous” by the current government is a good thing.
I am pretty much thinking that you still can eat whatever food you want – happy gorging!
By the way, my dad is an award-winning PA farmer, definitely contributing to the ‘envy of the world status’ of U.S. agriculture! In order to keep up the good work, and at 74 yrs of age, he has had to actually try to eat a healthy diet – he chose that all by himself and probably isn’t all that interested in Twinkies.
Becky Said,
December 12, 2009 @ 9:59 pm
I am an American, city girl, environmentalist, teacher . . .that married a farmer over 9 years ago. I also have a brain and continue to educate myself throughout my life rather than have news media become my instructor.
This is how I see it . . . pay for your taxes that partially subsidize farmers or (and believe me this would be a much better alternative for my life now), allow for a free market where the cost of production agriculture is paid for the true value of the commodity. Problem with this – Americans have no idea how much that would cost them and would be flabbergasted if they had to pay for the true cost of their food!