Fecal cliff budget deal: Farm Bill clusterfuck

Grist:

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) calls the deal — which will provide $5 billion in subsidies to industrial-scale corn, soy, and wheat farmers while short-changing local food, organics, and beginning farmers, and decimating on-farm conservation efforts — “deeply flawed.” The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC), meanwhile, has referred to it as “blatantly anti-reform,” while the Union of Concerned Scientists calls it “a giant step backward” and “a blow to farmers who want to grow healthy foods and the consumers who want to buy them.” The National Young Farmers Coalition was also “incredibly disappointed with the results.”

Someone I know who works in the field says that all her programs were zeroed out. And organic agriculture and sustainability is one of the things the state of Maine is really good at -- as opposed to, say, turning oceans of hormone-laced milk into processed cheese, for which the subsidies continued.

Maine gets a subsidy from the Union, just like the Red States do, so I guess we're coming out positive despite the hippie punching, at least in money terms, but sometimes you've gotta wonder.