A CORN-FED CONGRESSMAN SLAMS ORGANICS

I’m fond of dogs, but there’s one breed that makes me gag: the Bush Dog Democrat. Bush Dogs evolved from the sadly not-yet-extinct DINO (Democrat in Name Only) and you’ll find them dutifully toddling along at the heels of our Heel-in-Command, taking the Decider’s side, and generally pooping on their party’s principles.

Take Collin Peterson, the Minnesota Democrat who’s chairman of the House of Representatives agricultural committee. This week, Peterson pooh-poohed the notion that the farm bill should offer more support for organic farmers, telling the Financial Times that organic farming’s share of the market is doing just fine and dandy without any assistance:

Well, he’s only head of the ag committee, and he did grow up on a farm, so it’s not unreasonable to think that Peterson might be conversant with the issues that compel so many consumers to seek out—and pay more for—organic and local foods.

Yet Peterson pretends to be puzzled by the boom in organic food sales, and can only conclude that those of us who frequent the farmers’ markets and pay a premium for organic foods must be morons.

This would be merely galling if Peterson were just some agribiz flunky. Coming from the head of the House ag committee, though, it’s appalling. Here’s the guy who has the power to rewrite our agricultural policies to encourage more sustainable farming practices, healthier school lunches, revitalized rural communities, better land stewardship—you know, all that crunchy granola stuff that forms the mainstay of the liberal elite diet—and he turns out to be, well, an agribiz flunky.

Peterson’s really steamed that we urban types even have the temerity to take an interest in the agricultural policies that our tax dollars pay for. Back in September, Peterson told the San Francisco Chronicle:

Actually, Congressman Peterson, it’s our business, and when it comes to what’s going on in agriculture, we apparently know more than you do, because you claim total ignorance of the many reasons why consumers are increasingly opting to go organic.

You could get up to speed pretty quickly by reading Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma—just out in paperback!—but I guess a “big city” professor of journalism (even worse, a west coast big city—Berkeley!) couldn’t possibly have anything to say that would be relevant to a rural regular Joe like yourself.

Well, OK, then, how about borrowing a copy of Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle from your local library? Kingsolver’s book offers a terrific crash course in this whole “eat local” phenomenon by which you profess to be baffled.

But then you strike me as the kinda politician who, like our latest presidential candidate, Stephen Colbert, doesn’t really like books (unless they’re by him.)

Maybe you’re more of a movie guy? If that’s the case, I can recommend a really great documentary about American agriculture. It’s called “King Corn,” and it opens in that big city where you sometimes work, DC, tomorrow night. Check it out!

King Corn will give you a much better grasp of how our misguided agricultural policies are feeding the obesity epidemic and polluting our air, land and water.

Haven’t got the time to sit through an 88-minute movie about industrial agriculture? No problem. You can learn about the dark side of factory farming from a fun little animated short called The Meatrix.

I know that you find our big city ways strange and foreign, but we urban types do have one thing in common with you simple country folks—we all eat. It’s just that some of us don’t want to eat produce that’s permeated with pesticides, and meats from CAFOs that require more and more manure lagoons, subsidized by our tax dollars.

We want clean food, clean air, and clean water. What’s dumb about that?