Agriculture's Embarrassment

I grew up on the farm that I still own and treasure. I have represented and advocated for farmers for all of my legal professional life. At this point, however, I am embarrassed of the industry that I love so dearly.

Steven Pearlstein's column For the Farm Lobby, Too Much Is Never Enough, in today's Washington Post explains why.

As Pearlstein begins his article, no industry has more to lose from global climate change than agriculture. Many times have I argued that agriculture is unique because of its dependency on the weather.

Those who still want to hold farmers in special regard reference Jefferson and agrarianism, arguing that farmers' dependency on land and nature gives them a special appreciation for the reconciliation of self interest and public good. See, e.g., William B. Browne, Jerry Skees, Louis Swanson, Paul Thompson, & Laurian Unneverhr, Never Assume that Agrarian Values Are Simple, Sacred Cows And Hot Potatoes: Agrarian Myths In Agricultural Policy 7 (Westview Press 1992).

Scratch that theory.

As Pearlstein points out, despite agriculture's role in contributing to global warming, in the current version of the climate change bill, the farm lobby fought hard and obtained exemptions from much of the regulation that is imposed on other industries, and it received other significant concessions.

Nevertheless, the article reports that

Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation and the self-proclaimed "voice of agriculture," yesterday urged all House members to vote against the climate-change bill, claiming it would "result in a net economic cost to farmers with little or no environmental benefit."

Not all groups are so opposed. National Farmers Union and American Farmland Trust support the current bill. But, most are actively working against passage. FarmPolicy.com posted a listing of positions this morning.

The agricultural community should stop to consider not only its own long range interest in climate protection, but to consider the public good that we all need keep in mind in order to address the issue of climate change. And, if it really wants to be selfish, it can also consider the backlash that may well be coming. Pearlman concludes his article with the following:

The next time the world's most selfish lobby comes to Washington demanding drought relief, someone ought to have the good sense to tell them to go pound sand.

An industry so wedded to government support and special treatment should pick its battles wisely.

It is time for the agricultural industry to grow up and acknowledge that there are environmental problems that EVERYONE needs to work together to address.

North Dakota District Court Upholds North Dakota Statutes Restricting Entity Use in Production Ag

The opinion can be accessed here.

I've not yet had the chance to parse the reasoning, but I'll try to in due course. My initial thought is that the trial court does not distinguish the Jones case's "facial discrimination" reasoning. North Dakota's language is different, but I don't think those differences would be relevant to the 8th Circuit, unless North Dakota can make some further arguments about the geographical implications of complying with its law. I explain this in an article that is forthcoming in the Drake Journal of Agricultural Law: Corporate Farming Restrictions in a Post-Jones World.

May and June Agricultural News Items from Nebraska

Food, Inc.

A new documentary, Food, Inc., takes aim at "our nation's food industry" with particular emphasis on "exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA."

In a New York Times column called "Lettuce from the garden, with worms," Nicholas D. Kristof comments on Food, Inc. and the agricultural system depicted in that film: "More broadly, it has become clear that the same factors that impelled me toward factory-produced meat and vegetables — cheap, predictable food — also resulted in a profoundly unhealthy American diet." In criticizing "America’s health care system," Kristof believes that "one reason for our health problems is our industrialized agriculture system."

Herewith the preview of a movie that berates "bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad" as part of a system that yields "new strains of E. coli" responsible for "illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually" and that is associated with "widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults."

Agricultural Law authors on Twitter

Inspired by Susan Schneider's implementation of her Twitter account into her agricultural law LL.M. blog, I've blended Susan's Twitter updates with my own into an RSS feed called Agricultural Law Authors on Twitter. The result is a box in the sidebar of this blog that blends Twitter posts by — and about — AgLawLLM and J.C. Redbird.

For more information on Twitter and why you should take part in this social networking revolution, see The Cardinal Lawyer.

Jasmonic Acid Treatment on Seeds

The CleanTech Forum from Boston, Massachusetts recently reported on a new technology that may protect crops from pests. New UK Tech Protects Crops Without Genetic Modification, written by Emma Ritch reports that Becker Underwood has licensed a seed protection technology that involves dipping seeds in a substance called jasmonic acid. The article reports that :

The researchers found that dipping seeds in jasmonic acid would kickstart a plant's natural defenses against pests. Jasmonic acid, which is produced by plant leaves when attacked by insects, is known to help defend plants when it's sprayed on crops. However, spraying the acid tends to reduce plant growth, while dipping seeds in the acid doesn't create that side effect, the researchers said.

Early tests showed an 80 percent reduction in red spider mite attacks on tomato plants, 70 percent decrease in damage to sweet peppers by aphids, and 38 percent reduction in caterpillar attacks on maize. Becker then conducted large-scale trials in the U.S. that showed similar promise.

The technology is drawing attention in Europe in particular because it does not involve genetic modification.

Fat liver

"Animal-rights advocates have made a big deal about the way the ducks are force-fed to produce the enormously swollen livers from which the foie gras is made." And now Bob Herbert of the New York Times looks "at the plight of the underpaid, overworked and often gruesomely exploited farmworkers who feed and otherwise care for the ducks."

At issue is whether New York will award certain rights to farmworkers, "including the right to at least one day of rest per week and . . . the right to bargain collectively."

Grandma May Have Had it Right: Lard Returns to Favor

Slate Magazine recently published its Food Issue. Among an interesting collection of articles, is
Lard: After Decades Of Trying, Its Moment Is Finally Here, by Regina Schrambling.

The article points out that lard's fat is also mostly monounsaturated, has a higher smoking point than other fats, causing food to absorb less grease when fried in it, and it is minimally processed. Paraphrasing Michael Pollan’s mantra, “your great-grandmother surely cooked with it, so you should, too.”

And, the article notes, "add to that the new awareness that what you eat matters environmentally—if you are going to eat an animal on a planet at risk from too many humans raising too many animals to eat, you have to eat the whole thing. Lard is just about the last stop before the squeal when pork producers are extracting every savory bit from a pig."

Don't buy lard at the grocery store, though, as it is is likely to be hydrogenated. Try the farmers market or a specialty meat store.

My family's pie crust recipe always called for lard. Like many of my generation, I wrongly rejected that as unhealthy. However, the shortening that we switched to was full of trans-fats. And, my pie crust, not made with lard never tasted so good.

Rhubbarb is great on the farm this time of year, a plant that grandpa used to affectionately call the "pie plant." Maybe I'll just have to give it another try. . .