June 18, 2011 01:01 AM UTC

Mr. Tipton--Kids or Stink Bugs?

• 3 Comments
• by: ClubTwitty

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

Original Title-GOP House Guts Food Safety, Rural and Food Aid to Benefit Agribusiness

UPDATE Conservation programs also hit, in extended text

In the continuing saga of ‘money for our supporters is not really government spending’ being wrought in the GOP House, Colorado’s R-delegation is in lock step with wealthy hobby farmers and big agribusiness but not so much with consumers, residents, or the landscape at large.  

Passing with 19 GOP defectors–none from Colorado–the ‘Farm Bill’ continues massive subsidies that primarily benefit agribusiness and well-heeled landowners (often at the expense of the small farmer) while gutting food aid, food safety, land conservation programs, and rural aid.  

It seems like only yesterday that the tubz were abuzz regarding a virulent and deadly strain of E Coli  spreading through food supplies.  (Actually, it was yesterday–with a new outbreak hitting France).  

Perhaps the Members were pre-occupied with another Member’s member, so are unaware of the reckless stupidity of slashing America’s already inadequate food safety system, which the CO GOP delegation just aided and abetted–according to the article in the DesMoines Register (top link).

The bill fails to fund increased food inspection efforts authorized by Congress as a result of a sweeping overhaul of the FDA, which regulates products other than meat and poultry.

Somewhere around 100,000 Coloradans depend on the Women, Infants, and Children supplemental food program, one hit particularly hard, according to a story posted to the Food Logistics–Information for Grocery and Foodservice Distributors and Manufacturers website:

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., slammed the bill,

“The Women, Infant and Children (WIC) program, which provides nutrition assistance for low-income pregnant women, mothers, and their young children, has been gutted by over $650 million and other nutrition programs for seniors and those in need are woefully underfunded,” DeLauro said in a statement.

She also said funding for the Food and Drug Administration was cut by more than $280 million, which she said will put families at risk.

Kids, food safety?  Bah!  There are wealthy landowners that need tax breaks to be job creatin’  

In a victory for the farm lobby, the House rejected, 228-186, a cut that targeted wealthy farmers and landowners by tightening the eligibility limit for subsidies to $250,000 in adjusted gross income.

The new veranda will require day laborers and that hedgerow needs trimmed.  

As far as helping small, value added agriculture, the kind that is growing in parts of Colorado, in locations like Palisade Wine Country and the North Fork Valley?

In a rebuff to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the House voted to stop him from spending money on the administration’s Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative, which promotes local foods and small-scale agriculture.

How about preparing our nation’s food supply for changing weather patterns–like increased flooding or prolonged drought?  

The bill also would stop the USDA agencies from taking steps involved in adapting agriculture to global warming.

Conservation programs also take a hit. Ones that even the most obtuse skeptics should not find hard to recognize as successful.

WASHINGTON, June 16, 2011 PRNewswire-USNewswire — The U.S. House of Representatives’ approval today of nearly $1 billion in cuts to USDA conservation programs in the agriculture appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2012 is bad policy that the Senate needs to fix, according to a leading conservation group.  

“We realize that Congress faces tough budget choices, but making draconian cuts to voluntary conservation programs that help farmers and ranchers provide all Americans with cleaner air and water, more productive soils and habitat for wildlife is penny-wise and dollar-foolish,” said Sara Hopper, agricultural policy director for Environmental Defense Fund and a former staff member of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

In May, Sens. Udall and Bennet sent a letter to Senate agricultural committee members highlighting the importance of these programs to Colorado:

Today, Mark Udall announced he, along with Senator Michael Bennet, sent a letter to Senate agricultural committee leadership and appropriators highlighting the importance of conservation programming in the 2008 Farm Bill and the role it continues to play in enhancing Colorado’s agricultural economy and conserving one of Colorado’s most valuable natural resources – water.

Conservation programming refers to federal programs authorized under the 2008 Farm Bill that assist producers and landowners in practicing conservation on agricultural lands to protect wildlife habitats, air quality and, especially important in Colorado, water resources.

The letter notes:

The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and related programs such as the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program and the Environmental Quality Incentive Program’s Agricultural Water Enhancement Program are critical to ensuring that Colorado’s agricultural sector can remain vibrant and be an active participant in overcoming the challenges the arid West faces in water conservation.

Not only has conservation programming been beneficial in water conservation, the programs have also assisted producers in utilizing new technology and production techniques to remain in compliance with environmental standards that protect wildlife habitat and air quality.  According to the non-partisan Congressional Research Service, the CRP alone has helped reduce soil erosion by 622 million tons over a quarter of a century.

But for House Republicans, back in DC with Colorado so far away, its easier to just go along with the crowd I suppose. On a more local note–local to a state far away, apparently–Mr. Tipton and his CO GOP colleagues do think spending federal dollars on studying stink bugs is worth your money, according to Leesburg Today:

U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-10-VA) said the bill includes new directives for the four research agencies of the USDA to identify and develop effective stink bug control methods. The USDA also would be required to work collaboratively with state partners to identify and implement controls for the stink bug infestation.

So while Mr. Tipton (and Lamborm, Coffman and Gardner) is doling out US Treasury largess on East Coast stink bugs, hobby ranchers, and agribusiness–Colorado consumers, Colorado kids, Colorado small farmers, and Colorado’s  rural communities, might wonder what’s in it for them.  

Let’s just hope its not a deadly strain.  

(Unless noted otherwise, quotes are from a column by Philip Brasher at the DesMoines Register).