We homesteaders are among the citizens who pay a good deal of attention to the programs and operations of both state and federal agricultural departments because they can directly affect us (for good or ill). We often make use of our state ag departments’ extension services for education in things like beekeeping, land use, community …
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Farm Policy
USDA Sued Over Salmonella
The US Department of Agriculture [USDA] is being sued by the Center for Science in the Public Interest [CSPI] in an attempt to force the agricultural watchdogs to treat antibiotic resistant strains of salmonella bacteria as adulterants that would prevent the sale of tainted meat to the public. The complaint is specific to four strains …
Bayer & Monsanto Killing Bees
The numbers are in, and they add up to devastating. Bee Informed Partnership this month released its preliminary report on honey bee colony losses in the US for 2013-2014. The partnership, along with the Apiary Inspectors of America [AIA] and the USDA have been surveying beekeepers for 8 years in an attempt to get a …
Senate Passes Outrageous New Farm Bill
Yep. As of this writing, February 4, 2014, the U.S. Senate has passed a new Farm Bill that has gone way out of its way to exclude any real farmers as well as more than two million people who rely on food stamps to eat, and channels all the supposedly ‘saved’ money back to Big …
Politicians Harming Americans. Again.
Major Issues in Farm Bill Negotiations After costing the nation plenty to pointlessly shut the U.S. government down for two weeks beginning October 1st, the Republicans in the House and Senate are now back at their job of desperately seeking ways to hurt as many Americans as possible. Seems nobody was impressed by the shutdown …
“Protect America’s Pollinators Act”
H.R. 2692; 2013 The extermination of our priceless honeybees is proceeding apace, with devastating ramifications. Back when CCD – [Colony Collapse Disorder] first hit the news in 2006/7, it was reported that we were losing a third of our honey bee colonies every year [33%]. Today that figure it up to 45.1%, nearly half. Many …
How ‘Food Security’ Killed the Farm Bill
The grand rivalry of political philosophies and established systems of government known as the good ol’ Cold War offered for many years the stark differences between Communist-style 5-year plans for food production, and Capitalist-style Big Agribiz dominated mega-farming. Sure, Big Agribiz has long been subsidized directly by public money (taxes paid by average citizens) just …