CONGRESS AND AG DEPT. GANG UP ON LOCAL SELF-SUFFICIENCY
and need I point out that this little gem is a product of a Dimocrat-controlled Congress?
from that radical rag, the New York Times:
….consumers who would like to be able to buy local fruits and vegetables not just at farmers’ markets, but also in the produce aisle of their supermarket, will be dismayed to learn that the federal government works deliberately and forcefully to prevent the local food movement from expanding. And the barriers that the United States Department of Agriculture has put in place will be extended when the farm bill that House and Senate negotiators are working on now goes into effect.
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I’ve discovered that typically, a farmer who grows the forbidden fruits and vegetables on corn acreage not only has to give up his subsidy for the year on that acreage, he is also penalized the market value of the illicit crop, and runs the risk that those acres will be permanently ineligible for any subsidies in the future. (The penalties apply only to fruits and vegetables — if the farmer decides to grow another commodity crop, or even nothing at all, there’s no problem.)
In my case, that meant I paid my landlords $8,771 — for one season alone!
THE CRY OF THE PEOPLE FOR BROCCOLI « DEEP GREEN PERSPECTIVE said,
March 8, 2008 @ 10:16 pm
[...] restroom for the use of the USDA inspectors. And when you factor in the way USDA regulations are designed to keep big row-crop producers from branching out into vegetables, and how firmly both the [...]