Farm Bill Update: Michael Pollan's NYT Op-Ed

Michael Pollan, author of Omnivore's Dilemma, had an excellent piece, "Weed It and Reap," in yesterday's Week in Review section of The New York Times.

Pollan gives an thorough summary of the fate of this year's farm bill, and he explains why the bill the House passed this summer and the bill that Senator Harkin will take to the Senate floor this week is probably about as good as it's going to get this year for farm bill and federal food policy reform. The political pressure for reform came together too late and without enough political force to make much of a difference against the organized efforts of agri-business.

In no small part thanks to Pollan himself, however, real reform got a better hearing than before.

Also, based on Pollan's argument, my own research and a few emails and comments about my recent postings, I want to amend my view of the Grassley-Dorgan amendment. I now see that it is a well intentioned attempt at meaningful reform to reduce subsidies to big, corporate farmers. While not as far-reaching as the Lugar-Lautenberg measure, the Grassley-Dorgan measure might stand a chance of passing by a slim majority. Here's a posting from the Blog for Rural American about the Grassley-Dorgan amendment.

Please contact your senators and ask them to vote for the Grassley-Dorgan and Lugar-Lautenberg amendments.