This past week had important events scheduled every day ending with a very busy weekend.  Here is a brief rundown of the highlights of the week:

The first major joint debate between the 2 candidates in the 5th Congressional District was held on Tuesday at the CBICC luncheon.  The event was broadcast later that evening on PCN.  The feedback I’ve received is that the debate clearly showed the contrast where I stand on the important issues, both regional and national, and where my opponent stands.  The important topics addressed included healthcare, the Iraq war and the growing crisis of increasing gas and energy costs.

First, a recommended podcast for your wavering ostrich. Frank Schaeffer, whose Crazy for God tells of a journey from helping found the evangelical right, to enthusiastic support for Barack Obama. One perspective - recognizing the profound  commitment made by our military men and women vs. how they've been betrayed by the Bushite Cabal. Schaeffer sees parallels between the Obama-led youth movement and the best instincts of those who sign up to serve.

Speaking of ostriches, let's look past the struggles for the Democratic nomination at the big picture.  Care for another look at my own two sets of suggestions?  First, a few neglected policy planks that the Dems have missed so far (some of them sure winners), and second a fully-fleshed-out list of arguments to split that honest-but-reluctant conservative uncle of yours away from a movement that has thoroughly betrayed him, couched in terms a conservative might understand.

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And now... our feature: "Corn, Ethanol, Farms, Food and the Logic of the Granary."

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Laconic, I'm not. Oh, I try, but get me started on politics, and how our proto-Fascistic overlords are trying to squeeze the last drops of worth from the working class as we  blindly and passionately fight about God, gays, guns, and which millionaire we will elect to crush our dreams for the next four years, and a single sentence of mine can end up with more twists and turns than the Pacific Coast Highway on acid.

Anyway, right now I'm writing a play about politics in the plains states, kinda based on "What's the matter with Kansas," and I've been trying to find a succinct thesis of how I feel about the relationship between those hard working folks, and those who live off them. And when looking for concise stories it's always good to go to the experts. So I started reading Aesop - I know his agent, and have access to some of his unpublished work. Luckily, I found this lost fable:

The film "King Corn" will be aired on PBS this week. I'm looking forward to it. I love corn. I just don't like what we do with corn. In honor of "King Corn" I came up with some reasons to just say NO to corn.

What do the cost of food,  the food riots, overweight Americans, drug resistant disease and possibly the die off of bees all have in common?

Disclaimer: This is a biased post. I am pro small family farms and I am pro honey bees.  I belong to a CSA. I am a lifetime honey eater. I go through a large jar of the stuff every month. I am firmly opposed to High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Update: Here is a link to a more thorough diary on corn written earlier this week by CSI Bentonville: http://www.dailykos.com/...

Something to think about on this tax day... where will more than a quarter trillion dollars go over the next few years?

^{Answer: The [Food &] Farm Bill.}

The corn kernels you eat, whether on the cob, frozen or canned is sweet corn and is less than 2/10th of 1% of the corn grown.

Independent Lens will be showing the documentary film, King Corn (lots of really good stuff to explore at that link) which was released last October. About a couple guys who buy an acre to see what it takes to grow corn. This is an important film (and pretty fun) since the [Food &] Farm Bill is currently in Congress being reconciled (not too late to call).

 THE PROFIT DRIVEN INDUSTRIAL FOOD COMPLEX
There's actually a huge deficit in nutrition since corn has been tampered with. It's bred for energy (starch) but not actual food value. It gets cows and other animals fat in a hurry which is good for other food industries on the bottom line (though they too are nutritionally deficient in comparison to their more humanely raised counterparts)

So, what do we really think industrial corn does for us whether eaten directly or indirectly via a factory farmed animal? We end up fat yet still hungry. Why? We need to eat more to meet our bodies vitamin and mineral needs.

I've been calling that, Starving Obesity.

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The following is slightly reworked from another comment I made several weeks ago and have recycled several times threatening each time to turn it into a diary. One thing I've learned in life is don't make empty threats so here goes:

Crossposted from UNBOSSED

My family noticed it about a year ago.  Maybe a little more.  Suddenly, our grocery bill seemed to rise.  I didn’t give it much thought a first and didn’t track it too closely but at the end of 2007 when I added up our expenses it was like a hammer in the head!  Our food bill had gone up 10-15%!!

Ouch.  

Every time I'm about to finish my story on drought resistant wheat, I come across more horror stories, some of which you may have already heard. In any case this is worth repeating a thousand times: a report by GRAIN and Focus on the Global South has found that new legislation in Iraq has been carefully put in place by the US that prevents farmers from saving their seeds and effectively hands over the seed market to transnational corporations (the relevant passage is 51). This is a disastrous turn of events for Iraqi farmers, biodiversity and the country’s food security. While political sovereignty remains an illusion, food sovereignty for the Iraqi people has been made near impossible by these new regulations.

Welcome to the Monsanto World.

Cross-posted from http://www.politicook.org/

Hello and welcome to another edition of a failed weekly series devoted to Americans who are bringing about change. I intend to try and revive this inspirational series once the election (or perhaps primaries) are over but there is a story in the New York Times today that so fits the description of Outstanding in the Field.

Leaving Behind the Trucker Hat is actually on the front page of Sunday Styles;

But there is much more to the story than Carhartts becoming a practical fashion statement. It is the story of a growth in food awareness and a trend toward locally produced organic farming where educated young Americans are leaving the city to take a chance at farming. According to Severine von Tscharner Fleming who is making a documentary called "The Greenhorns,"

"Young farmers are an emerging social movement."

    I know putting Candidate Free ensures that no one but my friends will read this mini-missive, but since the only ones likely to read this are my fellow non-fiddling koss(acks,ites, pick your termination), I am going to spend the time on it nevertheless. We have been experiencing terminal static due to pie fights here, so if you find this interesting or pertinent, feel free to crosspost, reference, link, or otherwise violate implied copyright.
    Let me also insert a bit of a disclaimer at this point. This diary is not a plea for pity or a solicitation for funds. No animals were harmed during the making of this diary, but people harmed are real, and probably couldn't afford analgesia. All examples in this diary are based on true stories, and names used have some basis in fact.

There's more than one way to have "national security." I heard HRC last night say that she sees the defining issue as McCain outlined it - national security. How many times do the Republicans get to set the tone? Why doesn't someone (Obama) step up with an alternative answer than "I'll see your war head and raise you a satellite..."

This is a politicized summary of a project I've been doing at the Pomona College Natural Farm, an urban one-acre farm in southern California and the subject of a previous essay on Docudharma.  The focus of this essay will be mustard, and mustard-growing.  There will be more such essays.

(reposted from Docudharma)

The Irony of Valentine's Day is that so much of what we give as gifts are awash in pain and suffering. It does not have to be that way.

THE TOPICS:
In this diary I'll talk about possible gifts for your Valentines as well as alternatives, providing many options and further reading at your discretion. Among the topics included are:

♥ Flowers
♥ Non-Sweets
♥ Chocolate
♥ Coffee
♥ Doing Without
♥ Dinner & a Show
♥ Jewelry
♥ Wine
♥ How to find "Love" and support kossoks too

Part of how I ended up at dKos was finding out how Republican the grocery store Safeway was. I already despised Wal-Mart (and more with each new thing I discovered about them) but was still to discover just how neck-deep in Neo-Con they are.

Essentially, I didn't want another damn dollar of mine going to support Bushco keeping them in power. As Dr. Phil would say:

Beginning tomorrow, December 11, debate on the 2007 Farm Bill will resume in the Senate. This will be the last time we can influence what the Senate does to help hungry families and rural communities in this bill. With billions of dollars each year going to already rich farms under the commodity payment system, Congress has the resources available to make substantial investments in nutrition and rural development programs.

more......

I own a slow food restaurant and am concerned about where our food comes from and how it is grown. One of my friends forward this email this morning. Please post comments concerning leafy greens at http://www.regulations.gov/...
Also think about joining the Slow Food movement Slow Food USA

For all those who value home grown food from small scale producers, you need to step up or kiss it goodbye.

Sorry to be so bold, but the Senate Ag Committee has approved a draft that includes NAIS in the Livestock Section of the Bill. You can see more about it at:

Farm And Ranch Freedom Alliance

Eight weeks ago, inspired by the "Forging Links to An Alternative Food Chain" panel at YearlyKos, I subscribed to a local CSA and wrote about that experience. Several folks have wondered how that experience has gone so I thought it was time for an update.

I'll start by saying that the Japanese word for Community Supported Agriculture, teikei hits the nail squarely on the head when it translates as "food with the farmer's face on it". Of all the characteristics of a CSA subscription, this one has had the most impact on me. I know who grows my food, and where it comes from. Ironically, I haven't yet met my farmer, but I feel like I've known her for years through our correspondence, and through the very real connection of food baskets each week. This personal connection took on a new significance this past week when I learned that her farm was right in the path of the Rice fires in Northern San Diego County.

One of the rapidly-growing controversies is the use of GMO's in various medicines and foods. To develop a progressive framework and response to this issue, we have many years of precedent to go back on. First of all, we should not oppose any scientific advance that will improve the lot of humanity. The Roman Catholic Church fought against independent thought tooth and nail, and we know where that got them.

However, at the same time, the burden of proof should be on any manufacturer of any product that is potentially hazardous to man to show that their product is safe and effective.