This week's Iowa Farmer Today has published Earl Butz's response to those who
call for a reasessment of the Fredom To Farm Act ( 1996 Farm Bill). Earl wants
to yammer about free markets being the solution to the ag crisis, but he can't
control himself and wanders off into this diatribe:
"The higher the degree of government involvement in pricing and marketing, the
deeper the economic pit in which the commodity wallows. Add to this the rising
political muscle of the ecologists, the pure-water boys, the "safe food"
lobby, the organic farmer, the animal rights groups, the conservation
fraternity, the consumer activist, and we have our work clearly cut out for
us."
Earl, I do hope you are the one who is going to do a lot of that work. Thanks
for springing out of your long retirement to do battle with them "pure water
boys" and those pesky consumers. The sooner you roll up your sleeves and start
putting out more of that sort of nonsense the better. Thanks for acknowledging
our power and in laying bare your own stupidity in one sentence. With enemies
like you, who needs friends? Earl, read my lips: " Game Over" .
You lose. What's got you so riled at them "conservation fraternity" folks? You
mean the NRCS? Or the Sierra Club? I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but
even you are part of the ecology, albeit one of the more ridiculous cultivars
which, for some "reason" seemingly responsible journalists want to give a
platform to.
What you got agin me, Mr. Butz?" Us organic farmers are as free market as you
can get. Don't get no check-off help, don't get no crop insurance, don't get
much help from the fellers at university. And on top of that, if you spray
your freaking chlorothalonil next to me, I am the one that has to move over
twenty five feet. How about you all move over, Butz?
Old "Get Out Or Get Big Butz" they used to call him down in Lafayette. Twas a
self-fulfilling prophecy, and you did everything you could to assure that
agri-culture became agri-business. Exactly how big do we have to get? Maggie's
Farm will look pretty awful one day. All the clones will be hustling twinkies
and plastic to one another in the metro, while the only thing in the country
will be Theme Parks, Livestock Facilities, Dumps and Desert.
What's got you so pushed out of shape, Mr. Secretary? You haven't been getting
newsclips from London on what's going down with your technofarm policy's
latest big bad mistake, now, have you? Best you be putting that head of yours
back in the sand where it belongs.
Steve Sprinkel
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