03.07.11
Economic Treason: Depressing morning numbers
[The] 2008 Farm Bill included a program for new farmers and ranchers. Last year, the department distributed $18 million to educate young growers across the country.
Tom Vilsack, the secretary of agriculture, said he hoped some beginning farmers would graduate to midsize and large farms as older farmers retired. “I think there needs to be more work in this area,??? he said. “It’s great to invest $18 million to reach out to several thousand to get them interested, but the need here is pretty significant. We need to be even more creative than we’ve been to create strategies so that young people can access operations of all sizes.???
The problem, the young farmers say, is access to land and money to buy equipment. — from the Sunday New York Times
$18 million.
In 2007, the Defense Department announced the sale of 125 more unassembled tanks to Egypt, at an estimated cost of $890 million. So far, Egypt has more than 800 of the tanks. — from the Sunday Times
$890 million to General Dynamics Land Systems for tanks for the deposed Hosni Mubarak. $1.3 billion/year in arms sales welfare.
[The] domestic arms manufacturer of flying killer (drones, General Atomics) and very little else is now half the size of the FDA, a regulatory agency for food and drugs in allegedly the foremost of western nations. — here
Unintentionally inane comment, worth repeating, from the secretary of argriculture:
“It’s great to invest $18 million to reach out to several thousand to get them interested, but the need here is pretty significant. We need to be even more creative than we’ve been to create strategies … ”