Riding the coattails of the fiscal cliff bargain, the 2008 Farm Bill—three months past its “renew by” date—got a nine-month extension shortly after New Year’s Day. The extension could have included funds to preserve programs that help rural America and rebuild a food and farming system around the challenges of the 21st century. Instead, the policy—concocted in backdoor fashion without any public input—might as well have been written by lobbyists from the crop insurance, finance and agrochemical industries.

Clueless about Food and Agriculture? Why Everyone has a Stake in the Farm Bill Fight

YouTube - How It All Ends

See previous post. This is a follow up with the devils advocate:

YouTube - How It All Ends

The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See : TreeHugger

This may be the most important Video you'll ever see!!!! Think life or death for you, your family, your children and grandchildren, humanity.

Please watch this video!!!! Can you refute it? Can you gamble on it? I have put this "pass on" post under more tags than any other post. PLEASE, pass it on to everyone you can.

The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See : TreeHugger

What is in Cheney's Secret Papers?

The Pap Attack!!!

AlterNet: Blogs: Video: What is in Cheney's Secret Papers? [VIDEO]:

From the article:

"Mike Papantonio of Air America's Ring of Fire and GoLeft TV talks about how Dick Cheney has become the poster child for Republican secrecy, corruption, and failure. Mike Papantonio of Air America's Ring of Fire and GoLeft TV talks about how Dick Cheney has become the poster child for Republican secrecy, corruption, and failure. "

Conservation program funding may be slashed

Another "bright idea" from the Bush administration.

From the Union of Concerned Scientists:

The president's proposed budget would prevent new enrollments in 2007 and 2008 in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), which pays farmers to keep environmentally sensitive lands out of production. The CRP is part of the food and farm bill, the sprawling bundle of legislation currently being debated in Congress that, among many other provisions, subsidizes commodity crops like corn and soy and maintains the food stamp program. According to the Washington Post, CRP funding was cut to encourage farmers to plant corn for ethanol production—despite concerns from environmental and hunting groups that cultivation of these marginal lands will increase erosion, damage water quality, and reduce wildlife habitat. A University of Tennessee analysis found that eliminating CRP contracts as they expire would cost taxpayers an additional $32.6 billion by 2015 in subsidies to prop up commodity crops if the land was converted to crop production. By contrast, expanding the CRP from its current 34 million to 45 million acres would save $12.7 billion. Read the Post article, or the University of Tennessee study (pdf).