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Recent Sustainer Blogs
By Brad Wilson at Oct 13, 2011
While I strongly support the values of the Center for Science in the Public Interest's "Food Day," (October 24, 2011,) I find fault with the way they implement those values. I find that they misunderstand farm and food justice issues in the farm bill, leading them to present false information and analysis, and to advocate against their own values. An email response from a(n unnamed, by me here,) staff person working on Food Day illustrates specific ways that they misunderstand these issues, and I then respond to those specific misunderstandings.... (More) Comments (0)
By Brad Wilson at Sep 21, 2011
Here's another of my critiques of farm subsidy myths. This one is US PIRG, which gives themselves a black eye.... (More) Comments (0)
By Brad Wilson at Aug 12, 2011
Farm Aid Founders Willie Nelson and Neil Young have taken strong stands on farm and food justice issues, especially economic justice. We see this in Neil's 1985 full page letter to President Reagan, in an article on rural wealth creation in which Willie features Eddie Albert, and in the documents of the Farm Aid Congress.... (More) Comments (0)
By Brad Wilson at Jul 30, 2011
Christian Parenti's recent article, "Reading the World in a Loaf of Bread," addresses an important crisis: food poverty. Unfortunately, his thesis leaves out the part where low farm prices, not high, were the main long term cause of the problem. This then points his readers toward some very wrong policy advocacy positions. I present this missing side of his thesis, and show how the two sides represent 2 horns in the savage dilemma that is the true crisis.... (More) Comments (0)
By Brad Wilson at Apr 18, 2011
Online progressive and other articles and blogs typically give false analysis of the food poverty crisis. They suggest that it's only caused by a few recent years of higher prices, and not by the decades of low prices, for example. This then leads to the solution of returning to those low farm prices that really caused the poverty in the first place. According to the FAO report, "The State of Food and Agriculture 2009: Livestock in the Balance, "80 percent of the ... undernourished people live in rural areas." Here I (Brad) illustrate the problem of what we're being told, and what we're telling each other, on this crucial issue. My online comments point to a variety of oft repeated myths and omissions, leading to false advocacy, advocacy against the rural poor of the food crisis. You can read my full comments by following the links.... (More) Comments (0)
By Brad Wilson at Apr 01, 2011
The Africa Group at WTO has expressed concerns about farm prices along the lines of the Food from Family Farms Act of the National Family Farm Coalition (US). In contrast, groups like ActionAid and the Environmental Working Group misunderstand these concerns, and fail to address both sides of the farm and food price dilemmas of the global food poverty crisis.... (More) Comments (0)
Balance Budget with NFFC Farm Bill
By Brad Wilson at Mar 05, 2011
The family farm justice movement offers a strategy to get more benefits from the farm bill AND spend less on it. The secret is in the market management tools developed for the New Deal farm programs. No Commodity Subsidies are needed, but with price floors and ceilings and supply management, including reserve supplies, the program has long been known as a powerful, private sector economic stimulus. In contrast, without this, damage is done in many ways, and much more money is needed for the Conservation Title, Credit Title, Research Title, Rural Development Title, Nutrition Title, Trade (food aid) Title and Misc (disadvantaged farmers) Title.... (More) Comments (0)
By Brad Wilson at Dec 03, 2010
This is a 2008 rebuttal to the United Kingdom's "OneWorld Guide" on "Trade and Poverty." Today the guide has changed, but the errors are the same. They continue to take a neoliberal position, offering as farm policy solutions mere subsidy reforms, and none of the needed reforms. This is not well written and edited, but I'm posting it anyway. It contains some key references I haven't posted elsewhere, and I'm trying to draw some quick attention to the failure of Europeans on these matters, with my very limited resources.... (More) Comments (2)
By Brad Wilson at Dec 03, 2010
Frustrated Europeans want to kick butt against the incredible absurdities of European and US farm policy. Believe me, I can relate! Unfortunately, like most similar groups in the US, they miss the mark. I provide some corrections, to try to bring our enormous movement together onto the same page. Basically I find that I must kick some kickAAS butt, to stop them from unknowingly worsening the very crises they obviously oppose. Hopefully they, and those who hold similar views, will appreciate the straight talk and debate.... (More) Comments (3)
By Brad Wilson at Nov 19, 2010
Here is a comprehensive set of reasons for effective reform of the Commodity Title of the U.S. farm bill. They're worded as one giant platform plank (with a lot of "whereases"). The purpose of this blog is to demonstrate (and again footnote) the importance of good commodity title policy. A related purpose is to show that commodity subsidy reform, by itself, fails overwhelmingly at addressing the wide range of huge concerns related to the Commodity Title. If you're only for subsidy reform, but not for these policies, you're an advocate for corporate agribusiness. ... (More) Comments (2)
Petition Pollan to Support Harkin-Gephardt
By Brad Wilson at Nov 07, 2010
I've started a petition to Michael Pollan through Change.org. It calls to him in his position in the food movement, where he has a large bully pulpit. I call for him to lead food movement leaders back on course, now prior to the major work for the next farm bill. All of this is documented at my zspace blog, and in a video attached to the petition, and continued at my YouTube channel.... (More) Comments (0)
By Brad Wilson at Oct 28, 2010
During work on the 2008 farm bill, it was common to hear progressive advocates and mainstream media argue that the farm bill was originally intended to be temporary. Reasons why that argument does not make sense are presented.... (More) Comments (0)
Europe Misunderstands Farm Subsidies
By Brad Wilson at Oct 22, 2010
Europeans are working to expose the injustices in their Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). This is much like the work of the Environmental Working Group here. Unfortunately, they make the same errors, focusing on subsidies, which are not the key problem, and missing below cost gains, which are much bigger, and which have huge real world impacts. I document why, though their values and intentions are great, they're wrong in actual facts and solutions.... (More) Comments (0)
UK Guardian Misunderstands Ethanol
By Brad Wilson at Oct 22, 2010
Farm bill, commodity title issues are almost always misunderstood these days, and Ed Pilkington of the Guardian in the United Kingdom, is no exception. You'll find here my standard arguments and documentation. I'm posting this to encourage dialogue with Europeans on these matters. See also the companion piece about Europe, also posted today.... (More) Comments (0)
By Brad Wilson at Oct 20, 2010
On the occasion of the death of Shel Trapp, a master organizer from Chicago, I'm posting this piece of creative writing. In the piece Trapp is the "Master of the Geni," and Joe Fagan, recently retired from Iowa CCI, is the "Guru." Perhaps you had to be there to fully enjoy this, but you may also find clues to the mystery of organizers like Trapp and Fagan. It could be called "the spirituality of organizing," or "the genius of organizing." Those who knew Trapp first hand, especially as "novices," (me in the story,) should recognize him here.... (More) Comments (0)
