Wow, it’s been over a month since I did an Ag Speedlinking post! What can I say, life’s gotten busy has spring as (oh so slowly) approached. Speaking of spring…Mad had a track meet today and at one point it hailed on us. Hailed! They ran anyway. Onto the links!
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This Earth Day an unlikely foe: Biofuels
“As we are rushing to fill our fuel tanks with corn, we are affecting the global price of food and contributing to the destruction of the forests and other vital natural systems we meant to protect. Misguided biofuel mandates are actually exacerbating environmental harms and causing human suffering while failing to truly deliver energy independence.”
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New farm bill lacks development money
From the Des Moines Register
“What good does it do if we keep giving more money to farmers but they don’t have any towns, they don’t have churches, they don’t have hospitals, they don’t have schools, they don’t have water?”
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Rethinking farm bill subsidies crucial
“What can we citizens expect if the proposed $300 billion farm bill is signed into law? …More than $4 billion in permanent disaster assistance to growers in the Northern Plains. The brainchild of Montana Democrat and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, this is essentially a trust fund to guarantee income to farmers plowing up prairies and grasslands — lands prone to drought and erosion — to plant corn and wheat. Many observers fear a second Dust Bowl.”
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