By: Daniel Hanson

Daniel Hanson — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 18:59:12 +0000

The damage of the current farm program is far greater than wasted tax dollars. The program is forcing all the producers to over produce at all costs. The payments that even the smaller procducers need to make a living are based on Maximum Yeilds. This means that Farmers big and Small are rewarded for sacraficing soil health for maximum yeild. I am refering to the damage caused by the excessive use of commercial fertilizer that contains large amounts of Hydrogen. The cheapest source for Nitrogen is Anhydrous Amonia or NH3. Producers have put tons and tons of this product on the soil anually to recieve the maximum yeild. This causes a dramatic change in soil PH and the overal health of the soils. It kills soil microbes and even causes Aluminum to become plant available. Not to good for anybody if you keep up with the medical studies. In the Pacific Northwest we are currently in the mid to upper 4s in soil ph and dropping fast. We will hit the wall and the soil will not produce. One only needs to look at Brazil to see the efects of adding Hydrogen the soil. Thousands of acres of rain forests in the 3.5s that will not grow anything. Farm policy should support sustainable farming practices like crop rotation and green manure crops that build the soil not destroy it for maximum wheat yield. The costs for repairing damaged soils will be astronomical. And yes it will be necesary as we already know that cheap imported food is not always safe and will not always be available.

By: Cheryl Hori

Cheryl Hori — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 21:50:24 +0000

I completely agree. Farm subsidies were originally designed to help small mom and pop farms. now 80% of farm subsidies are going to large corporations including fortune 500 companies, celebrity farmers (ie Ted Turner) and even some memebers of Congress. Remember what Dante said "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Comments on: A Clear Choice

By: Daniel Hanson

By: Cheryl Hori