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| A happy successful American farm family...You are looking at an endangered species |
U.S. Senators John Thune (R-S.D.) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) today introduced common sense legislation, the Preserving America’s Family Farm Act, to prevent the Department of Labor (DOL) from enacting its controversial proposed restrictions on youth working on family farms.
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| Obama Administration U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, actively trying to destroy American family farms for partisan political purpose Hilda Solis also calls Tea Party members "Teabaggers" |
Last year, DOL Secretary Hilda Solis proposed rules that would restrict family farm operations by prohibiting youth under the age of 18 from being near certain age animals without adult supervision, participating in common livestock practices such as vaccinating and hoof trimming, and handling most animals more than six months old, which would severely limit participation in 4-H and FFA activities and restrict their youth farm safety classes; operating farm machinery over 20 PTO horsepower; completing tasks at elevations over six feet high; and working at stockyards and grain and feed facilities. The language of the proposed rule is so specific it would even ban youth from operating a battery powered screwdriver or a pressurized garden hose...As Gateway Pundit notes: Yes it is that bad. This is also no accident.
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| Democrats like their farmers poor and dependent on government |
Rural farm families are good for the environment in a way corporate agribusiness can never be, which is reflected in the misleading review of The Omnivore's Dilemma by the New York Times:
Pollan finds his hero in Joel Salatin, an "alternative" farmer in Virginia who will sell his goods only to local customers. A cantankerous self-described "Christian-conservative-libertarian-environmentalist-lunatic," Farmer Joel has ingeniously marshalled the rhythms and symbioses of nature to produce a bounty of food from his hundred acres. For example, his cattle graze a plot of grass for a day or two and are then succeeded by several hundred laying hens, which not only nibble on the clipped grass but pick grubs and larvae from the cowpats, thereby spreading the manure and eliminating parasites. The chickens' bug-laden, high-protein diet results in fantastically flavorful eggs, while their excrement enriches the pasture with nitrogen, allowing it to recover in a matter of weeks for the cows to revisit.
Salatin seems to have found the secrets of sustainable agriculture. The shocker is that he doesn't want to be part of any national solution. He's an off-the-grid crank who hates the government, home-schooled his kids and declares to Pollan: "Why do we have to have a New York City? What good is it?" But Pollan, a nice-guy writer whose awe of Salatin is palpable, lets the farmer off lightly, saying that his provocative words "made me appreciate what a deep gulf of culture and experience separates me from Joel — and yet at the same time, what a sturdy bridge caring about food can sometimes provide."
If I have any caveats about "The Omnivore's Dilemma," it's Pollan's tendency to be too nice...I read The Omnivore's Dilemma and found Joel Salatin to be a hero in it. For good reason--because what he is doing is heroic. That New York Times writer David Kamp read the same material and went out of its way to degenerate Mr. Salatin reveals the New York Times and Mr. Kamp's bias and hostility. Mr. Salatin took a worn out Virginia farm and managed to convert it by organic farming practices and intensive hands on management into a productive profitable operation that not only benefited his family but the environment and the surrounding community. These are the same principals that lefty hero Aldo Leopold promoted in A Sand County Almanac (which Mr. Salatin has on his book shelf). What is upsetting the New York Times is Mr. Salatin (through Mr. Pollan's book) explains how regulations by the Department of Agriculture are hindering family farms and farmers. Leftists especially do not like that message in a book like The Omnivore's Dilemma, which is popular with the Whole Food/NPR crowd that is part of the Democratic Party base. Mr. Pollan (to his credit) notes some of that lefty hostility and bias in the book (Pollan invites some friends to visit the farm and they are shocked the Salatin's have a Christian fish symbol on their home).
Do the Democrats and Leftist care that they are destroying small farmers and hurting the environment? Of course not, they only care about power.
I'm a Democrat who hates Obama, gives to groups like FarmAid, and grew up partially on a farm. You can't pinhole all of us.
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