Sallie James
When Bipartisanship is a Dirty Word
In a blog post I wrote about two years ago, I said “Usually when I hear that a policy proposal has bipartisan support, I instinctively check for my wallet.” At that time I was lauding a bipartisan proposal to shut the USDA’s market access program (although it seems that idea didn’t get much traction) under the heading “When Bipartisanship Is Good News.” Read more
Save the EWG Farm Subsidy Database!
When the Environmental Working Group released the 2011 edition of its groundbreaking farm subsidy database, they asked for my comment to use in their press release. I was more than happy to do so, and I had this to say: Read more
The USDA: Your One-Stop Shop
Politico yesterday reported that Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is upset. According to him, the USDA just don’t get no respect: Read more
The Ratchet Effect, Agriculture Edition
Between the lines of a front-page Wall Street Journal article about farm subsidies [$] is an instructive example of the ratchet effect: Read more
Are Farm Subsidies Progressive?
An economist in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois posted an interesting entry on the FarmDocDaily blog yesterday, claiming that farm subsidies flowing to the biggest farms is a sign of progressivity. Read more
Rearranging Chairs on Farmhouse Porch
Mark Bittman had a column on the NYTimes online "Opinionator" blog yesterday on farm subsidies. He included a fairly (but not completely) thorough list of what is wrong with farm subsidies in America, but he ultimately comes down on the side of "fixing" farm subsidies rather than ending them altogether. Read more
