IF ONLY THE UR WERE SERIOUS ABOUT IMPROVING OUR IMAGE IN THE WORLD...:

Time to re-examine, re-invent the ag department (Alan Guebert, Nov. 14, 2008, The Land)

One of the more astute observations on the role of government in farm policy ever uttered was offered by then-congressman, later (from 1991-93) secretary of agriculture, Ed Madigan.

“The majority of farmers,” Madigan, a moderate Republican, told me in a September 1984 interview between campaigning around his central Illinois district, “just want to be left alone.” So, added the Ranking Member of the House ag committee, “I leave ’em alone.”

Twenty-five years and hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars later, Madigan’s leave-’em-alone admonition remains as true as it is unheeded. A generation of expensive, expansive policy has delivered a corporate food machine whose chief features are fewer farmers and bigger beltlines.

If for no other reason than pure curiosity, you gotta wonder if American farmers and ranchers would be better off had Madigan’s view held sway. It didn’t and the U.S. Department of Agriculture is, arguably, one of the most complex machines in Washington.

...nothing would demonstrate his bona fides better than getting ride of our ag subsidies.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 24, 2008 7:38 AM