Those of you who listened to the podcast of my interview with Alan Jennings know that toward the end of the interview I confessed to snickering about his organization's plan ( Community Action Committer of Lehigh Valley) to take over the farmer training at the Lehigh County owned Seed Farm. Those who follow this blog know that I oppose Farmland Preservation, because it is a ridiculous disconnect with the reality of food production in 2018. It is however politically correct for urban liberals to think that if as much farmland as possible stays available, there will be an endless banquet of environmental bliss, with organic food no less. Alan sees it as an extension of food for the poor, sort of another ladder step in the food pantry mission. Low income food issues are because of money, not food production shortfalls. These liberals of course are ignorant of the long hours and hard work which goes into farming. They are also ignorant of the economic reality of competing with large scale agriculture.
Now, unless Alan wants to gift each of his graduates with a farm at our expense, they will either be a farm hand, or at best a sharecropper. What is really scary about Alan's plan is that it has the endorsement of the Republican controlled Lehigh County Commission. They are apparently so vote craven, that they go along with such nonsense.
The only practical program assisting farming is Clean And Green. Unfortunately, the Morning Call ran an expose on the program featuring photographs of large expensive houses, surrounded by farmland. While the program limits tax reduction to only the land actively farmed, the photographs give the impression that the tax breaks are going to people who don't need it. I suppose the liberal paper thinks that those involved in agriculture are supposed to live in shacks. Worse yet, the paper thinks that their story is a masterpiece, has has been running it on their website for months.
photocredit: Dorothea Lange, Son of Sharecropper, 1937
Mike,
ReplyDeleteEvery thought, idea, or program that springs from the liberal mind is a good one, full of virtue, good intentions, generosity,and genuine compassion. Conservative ideas/opinions/thoughts are clearly sprung from callous, grasping, selfish, hateful hardened hearts.
Every liberal seems to believe that so it must be true, and remember, they are such kind, compassionate people, how could they be wrong.
with land costing 20K an acre, how do you turn your farming student into a farmer? YOU DON'T, that's why the program is a joke. However, people don't let reality get into the way, especially when the taxpayers foot the bill.
ReplyDeleteI believe that focusing this discussion on liberal vs. conservative ideology is a mistake. The real question in my mind is whether Alan or CACLV have any understanding of best farming practices and the capacity to teach those skills to anyone else. Issues such as the understanding of plants, animals, soils, agricultural financing or even the mechanical maintenance of farm machinery are not subjects that follow from political biases of any sort. They are things gained from some combination of experience and up to date techniques taught at good agricultural schools. If what Alan is suggesting is simply for his organization to be the administrative home for needed and unduplicated agricultural training provided by real experts, the idea may have merit just as high school level vo-tech schools have merit. If however the required level of ag expertise is not part of the package and/or that base of knowledge and training is already better provided elsewhere this idea should not be supported.
ReplyDeleteWhile I vehemently disagree with framing farmland preservation as a rich urbanite's game, I agree that this shift for the Seed Farm is a boondoggle. Starting a specialty farming operation (e.g. organic veggies or pastured beef) can be very lucrative if done right. But it takes a skilled and high agency farmer with access to starting capital. "Underprivileged" folks from the city are not, in 99% of the cases, going to make it as a farmer. This ain't 1850 where you're homesteading a plot of virgin land. Farm training operations like the Seed Farm are vital for new farmers, but what mission are they persuing now? Farm training or virtue signaling?
ReplyDeleteThis is another version of entitlements brought to you by the far left. Everything is wonderful as long as the taxpayer is paying the freight. I have to laugh, or should say cry, when I see young utopian voters help elect a far left candidate who thinks everything should be paid for by the government; even if there is no means to pay for it. In truth, this is all part of the "Great Society" brought to you by the liberal, rich, Lyndon B. Johnson & Company.
ReplyDeleteFarm preservation is a joke. Nobody has forwarded any empirical evidence to illustrate its success. Its anther tool used by the "do gooders" who know what WE need at the government's expense.
I used to read a book "HENNY PENNY" to my kids and then my grandaughter. It is the best simple explanation of why communal enterprises don't work. Henny Penny asked repeatedly for farming help. No one wanted to do the hard work. But when the crop was ready to eat many wanted a bite. But Henny Penny said she did all the work and she would just eat the corn by herself.
ReplyDeleteAll the do gooders and politicos should read this childrens book before jumping into government farming. It ain't gonna work.
I have decided to revert to my normal policy of not allowing anonymous comments. I encourage those who wish to express their opinion, but not reveal their name, to establish a pseudonym here with google. Their identity will remain unknown to both myself and the readers.
ReplyDeleteNowadays, it is astonishing that Henny Penny has not been smeared and branded as a Racist Hater and that every single solitary last copy of her book was not burned at the last national convention of the proud Democrat Party, I must say.
ReplyDeleteRespectfully,
ROLF OELER
What's with you people and this 'Henny Penny' thing? This story has nothing to do with 'The Little Red Hen. The one I'm sure you're referring to.
ReplyDeleteMy advice is-- if you wanna make liberals look dumb try not to make yourselves look stupid in the process.
I was wondering when someone would catch the difference between "Henny Penny" and "The Little Red Hen" stories HA!.....PJF
ReplyDelete