494766 Sat Mar 01 10:20:21 -0800 2008 3 33 Food Media and News 0 3449573 Op-ed in today's NY Times about the ways that farm subsidy laws penalize farmers for growing fruits and vegetables instead of commodity crops: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/01/opinion/01hedin.html?em&ex=1204520400&en=1850d11a7a2d5f01&ei=5087%0A It's enough to make me bang my head against a wall. Sat Mar 01 10:20:21 -0800 2008 138816 jlafler 1 3449633 Our food subsidy program is truly insane! I had no idea. Anne Sat Mar 01 10:50:57 -0800 2008 3449573 12541 AnneInMpls 1 3455564 AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! that's jack hedin from featherstone farm who wrote that article!-- another excellent, innovative, tiny local organic farm getting the one-two punch. first (last year) the dikes break, his whole farm is underwater & he loses a ton of crop revenue, he's out in the fields harvesting carrots & potatoes by hand with a basket & shovel because the ground is too muddy to get equipment in, his crops rot in the fields before they can get hand-harvested & he's at risk for losing his organic certification because of possible contamination from the floodwater & he can't supply any of his msp restaurant and co-op accounts, then just as stuff is growing again, this!!! WTF??!! particularly considering that the neighbors jack rents these 25 acres of growing land from are retired and semi-retired farmers who don't farm their own land anymore, but who may have been considering getting their land certified before they sell or pass on their farms-- what a big discouragement for them to consider growing actual food crops, when the demand here in the cities' could NOT FREAKING BE MUCH HIGHER, nor the asking price/profit for the farmer be better? why not kick this little farm while it's down? after all-- along with gardens of eagen, at different times of the year featherstone supplies pretty much ALL of our locally grown certified organic salad and veggies????!@*&^&%@?@?@? SOUPKITTEN. . .MAD!!!! GRRROWL!!! *&^&)*&^%*#$@!!!!! Mon Mar 03 12:31:00 -0800 2008 3449573 46030 soupkitten 1 3456294 Another example of how special interests wield much power in our government. This is the reason I shop at our local farmers' market and join a CSA every year. Mon Mar 03 15:21:34 -0800 2008 3449573 67610 Suzy Q