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Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Implement Dealer Hints Unease with Butz Agriculture

MDL follows up on my mention of Lake County International's expansion (though not, of course, on my question about the City of Madison's apparent favoritsm toward Lake County's other big implement dealer). General manager Jeff Bloom notes that in the 34 years since the business moved to its current location west of town, combines have quadrupled in size. Bloom then comes close to questioning the wisdom of the direction of modern agriculture:

"I'm not sure that bigger is always better, but we don't have that choice," Bloom said. "Farmers have to plant more in less time and get better yields to stay in business" [Elisa Sand, "Construction to Begin at Lake County International" Madison Daily Leader, 2010.06.15].

If I didn't know better, I'd think Bloom has been reading Wendell Berry. Living near Lake Herman has that effect.

But keep reading that Berry, Jeff—you'll see that we do indeed have that choice. Giving in to economic Darwinism is just what the big ag corporations want. Earl Butz agriculture is not our only option.
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1 comment:

  1. JohnSD6/16/2010 8:02 AM

    Watch King Corn if you get a chance. The documentary tracks corn production to show how cheap and unhealthy our food supply has become and they reflect on Earl Butz and our farm policy as a cause. But we see it's all about production. Yanking out shelter belts, tiling every low area, engineered and processed foods. If we really want to lower health care costs, we should start with our food. As Larry said, it's not about safe food, but cheap food. In the short term it's expensive to eat healthy.

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