Blogger Expands Culinary Horizons, Improves Dad Score

So I successfully defended my doctoral dissertation proposal yesterday. Big deal. Here's the biggest success of my day:
She asked for pancakes. I had never made pancakes. (How does a guy go 39 years without making one of the easiest, most rewarding foods on the planet?) I remembered my Dad making pancakes. He made us bunnies, whales, all sorts of shapes. I broke out the cookbook, found the ingredients, and went to work. She told me I wasn't whisking properly, but a few minutes later, she joyfully received her bear pancake. (I was aiming for bunny. Ssshhhh!)

Sweet! Now watch out for that fork, honey bear.

And don't forget to eat those carrots.

Thune to Food Safety: Drop Dead

Senator John Thune joined 24 fellow Republicans yesterday to vote against S. 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act. The New York Times maps the Senate votes:

U.S. Senate vote on S. 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act, 2010.11.30.
Source: New York Times.

Senator Thune cast his lot with the Confederates and cowboys who think we eating eggs with salmonella is a personal choice, not a matter for regulation. Senator Tim Johnson cast his lot with the hippies and liberals who want a little ovesight of their granola.

Some of my liberal friends have expressed concerns that federal food safety legislation could put small farmers and organic growers out of business. However, Senator Jon Tester from Montana succeeded in getting his amendment to protect small farms into the bill. Even food über-watchdogs Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser think the Tester Amendment makes S. 510 good enough to support. Update 19:27 CST: South Dakota farmer and Dakota Rural Action member Zita Kwartek tells The Independent Local that the Tester-Hagan Amendment protects our small farmers.

But Senator Thune's nay on food safety shows that he'll put Tea Party cred above sensible public safety rules as we push on toward 2012.

Potpourri: Local School Lunch, Gluttony, Tea Party Civil War

Too many browser tabs: time to clear the queue!

1. Cool news from Flying Tomato: the Vermillion School District is looking to add locally grown food to its fall and spring lunch menus. Hooray! Vermillion's food service is run by Lunchtime Solutions, Inc., the same privateers that Madison contracts with for burgers and fries. The company has previously bought local foods in Mission Hill, Sioux City, and Springfield. Maybe they can look into feeding kids some garden surplus right here in Madison.
2. But don't eat too much: Pastor Shel points to this Ryan Andrews article to remind us that gluttony—not just overeating, but all overconsumption—is a sin.
3. Sounds like gluttony for power may be breaking up South Dakota's noisiest Tea Party. Gordon Howie handed presidency of the Citizens for Liberty over to septic-tank crusader Barb Lindberg so he could run for governor. Left with nothing better to do after his fourth-place primary finish, Howie noe wants his presidency back. Citizens for Liberty is thus embroiled in a power struggle hilarious for its contradictions and small potatoes. The group demands open government, but then club agitator Shad Olson criticizes Lindberg for speaking to the press. They demand adherence to the Constitution, then conduct board votes unsupported by any published by-laws. Conservative Michael Sanborn gives Citizens for Liberty the what-for they deserve.
   

Hospitals Resist Industrial Livestock Antibiotics

Pro-industry blogger Troy Hadrick asserts that the livestock industry never misuses antibiotics. Everyone else—over-prescribing doctors, dopey patients—is to blame for any problems with antibiotic resistance, not the members of his industry.

I thought Hadrick was a cattle rancher, not a fish farmer. But his mastery of the red herring says otherwise. Medical professionals, the people who study and deal with the consequences of heavy antibiotic use in our agricultural system, will tell you the problem is not a handful of ranchers misusing antibiotics. The problem is an entire system of meat production that relies too heavily on antibiotics.

This Chicago Tribune article notes that 300 hospitals across the nation are working to improve the health and sustainability of the food they serve. For many of these hospitals, that includes serving only antibiotic-free meat:

Administrators say they hope increased demand for those products will reduce the use of antibiotics to treat cattle and other animals, which scientists believe helps pathogens become more resistant to drugs. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that antibiotic-resistant infections kill 60,000 Americans a year.

Although the U.S. doesn't keep national records on antibiotic use in animals, the Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that up to 70 percent of all antibiotics used in the U.S. are administered to healthy animals to speed growth and compensate for crowded living conditions. Some of these drugs, such as penicillin and tetracycline, are also used to treat sick people [Monica Eng, "Meat with Antibiotics off the Menu at Some Hospitals," Chicago Tribune, 2010.07.20].

Antibiotics essential to agriculture? Only if you insist on pushing unnatural growth rates and crowding thousands of animals into feedlots that don't have enough space for their own filth.

But oh, that fancy-pants grass-fed beef costs a lot more, doesn't it?

Diane Imrie, director of nutrition services at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Vermont, also started serving antibiotic-free beef at the hospital in recent years as part of her plan to switch to local, seasonal, sustainable food.

"When we started a sustainability council at the hospital a few years ago, antibiotic reduction was one of the first things on my list," she said. "I think it has the most impact on farming, the environment and public health."

Imrie estimated that her food costs rose about $67,000 last year when she switched to antibiotic-free chicken from conventional. "But that's also about the same cost as treating a single MRSA infection," she said, referring to drug-resistant staphylococcus bacteria [Eng, 2010].

So let me see if I have this right: ranchers could spend a little more to raise beef without antibiotics, charge a little more in the market, still come out even... and we could reduce the cost and death of antibiotic-resistant infections? Sounds like the only people who could be against that are the mouthpieces of an ag-industrial complex that relies too much on antibiotics and disregards any consequences beyond the speed and profit of their own business model.

Chester HarvesTable Event Promotes Local Foods... at $45/Seat

I want to get excited about the HarvesTable local foods event taking place on Sunday, July 25, in Chester. According to Elisa Sand's report in last night's MDL, chef John Gilbertson (known hereabouts for his successful work at the erstwhile Tailfeathers Restaurant up Oldham-way a few years back) will whip up a feast from locally grown food from Chester farmer Linda Krsnak, Arlington baker Joan Williams, and Humboldt livestock grower Jared Hansich. There will also be walleye. Yum!

But then I check the price tag: $45.

Yes, Chef Gilbertson is one of the best on the prairie. Yes, you get a six-course meal. Yes, it promotes local foods and a sustainable, self-sufficient economy.

But $45 is not a price for the masses.

Now comparable local farm feasts sponsored by Outstanding in the Field, the national tour on which Krsnak and her partners are basing their HarvesTable event, cost $180 a ticket. So relatively speaking, the Chester event is a bargain.

There's all sorts of business sense in marketing one's product to the market segment with the most disposable income. If you can make a living by marketing your product to folks who can pay twice or three times as much for a product than working folks can afford for basic substitute products, then by all means, sell, sell, sell!

But I don't want local foods to be a niche market. I want to sell my neighbors on the idea that South Dakota can be more self-sufficient, that we can turn more farm production away from corn syrup and ethanol and back to things that are good for people to eat. I want to convince them that local foods are good for our tummies and the local economy

When I see the $45 ticket price for HarvesTable, I get the same sinking feeling as when I visit the Co-op Natural Foods in Sioux Falls: love the products, want to buy them all the time, would go broke if I did. So would most of my neighbors.

It frustrates me not to have the money to put all of my principles into practice. The HarvesTable folks share my principles. They want to promote real family farming and local economy. I'm sure they can find enough consumers who can afford $180 for a family meal and a great rural experience.

Unfortunately, the other 97% of us will still have to settle for the specials at Hy-Vee.

Hy-Vee Pizza Sale! Consult Your Doctor!

Hy-Vee includes this super shocker sale!!! in my Sunday paper:

Ten 12-inch pizzas for $16.80?! Holy cow! That's 120 inches of pizza! That's supper for a week! Where's my wallet—hey, what's that blue box at the bottom? Coupon? Fine print?

Oh. Why does my enthusiasm feel dimmed?

Food Rules: Garden Guru Explains Need for Labels and Regulation

Political discussion erupted last Friday at the South Dakota Magazine Editor's Notebook. Bernie Hunhoff mentioned "brouhaha" over the new labeling rules for homemade food at farmers markets, and he got brouhaha in the comment section. Commenters went ape over "ridiculous rules" and "government growth" and "nitpicking."

Fortunately, committed gardener and local foods booster Rebecca Terk was available to discuss the issue in depth. In the comments at SDM and on her Flying Tomato Farms blog, she showed that the new rules are not some simple black-and-white issue for hot-button rhetoric about big government. Rather, House Bill 1222 is the product of conscientious and cooperative effort among producers, Dakota Rural Action, and state officials to find the proper balance between protecting consumers and promoting local commerce. Terk makes clear that local commerce can't run on the selfish "we should do whatever we want" fantasies of the armchair libertarians among us.

Saying that farmers markets should be entirely unregulated is kind of like saying that the little cafes in small towns should be unregulated–they’re only serving regulars, after all–everybody knows them.

But we all know that the little guys (and gals) in rural South Dakota have been a long time at the brink of drying up and blowing away–especially as our farms continue to swallow each other up and our rural populations continue to dwindle.

If we have an insular attitude about how we’re only going to do business with people we know–we’re only going to serve our “regulars,” we’re not going to grow–sustainably or otherwise–and we’re continually sitting on that ever-finer line between making it and not.

We need to be willing to step up and take responsibility for the safety of our products if we want to market to a broader audience. If you want to barter your homemade cheese for your neighbor’s homemade jelly, fine. If you want to walk out into the marketplace and sell to the public, that’s a different thing [Rebecca Terk, "In Defense of 1222," Flying Tomato Farms, 2010.07.02].

Commerce is about community. It requires responsibilities and clear rules. When government establishes clear rules, as South Dakota's Legislature is doing with HB 1222, it removes uncertainty from the marketplace and encourages businesses to invest and produce and sell, sell, sell. (Hmmm... just like how big utilities and other industries would create a green-jobs boom if the Senate would quit dinking around and pass climate change and energy security legislation!)

Montrose Shows Potential for Local Food Renaissance

Regional neighbor Joe Bartmann sees hope for his hometown of Montrose and similar small burgs in feeding the world. No, not that nutty industrial monoculture model where corporate drones in giant machines produce government-subsidized commodities to load unto ships, ship overseas, glut foreign markets, and drive their independent local farmers off the land just like ours. Bartmann sees his Montrose neighbors producing real food for real people right here in South Dakota. On a trip to the Montrose suburbs, Bartmann finds goose, veggies, beef, and honey produced in his immediate neighborhood.

Maybe we can be the Hardwick, VT of South Dakota one day (read “How Food Saved a Town“). Local Foods is the real deal (just ask Mike), and it’s a serious opportunity for us in small towns–to feed surrounding communities, to live healthier lives, and to re-connect with this land and it’s [sic] bounty in new-old sacred ways [Joe Bartmann, "Montrose, South Dakota: Local Foods Mecca," bartblog, 2010.06.27].

The strongest, most lasting economic development we can generate is business owned and operated by local people, using locally available resources to produce locally consumable goods and services. Local foods don't require expensive government subsidies to attract fickle investors who have no interest in South Dakota beyond the hope of exploiting our tax and labor laws and inflating their profits. Local foods don't depend on far-flung buyers and suppliers. Local foods keep the dollar cycle entirely in South Dakota.

And best of all, local foods make more local families and producers the captains of their own destiny, making their living on the land they love.

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Update 11:00 CDT: Editor and legislator Bernie Hunhoff notes that the growth of the local foods movement depends in part on the government regulations that promote or throttle it. Hunhoff cites the upcoming labeling rules for farmers market vendors to be discussed at a Legislative Rules Committee meeting next month. These rules arise from the really important HB 1222, which Hunhoff and his Pierre associates enacted into law this year.

Perhaps related to another of this morning's posts: is there something funny going on when our Legislature works to ensure that proper labeling and safety regulations are maintained for South Dakota-made food but votes to strip all federal regulation from South Dakota-made firearms? I feel a guns-or-butter argument coming on....

AmpleHarvest.org Connects Gardeners and Food Pantries

Those of you gardening in today's summery sunshine surely have dancing in your heads visions of September, when you'll have more tomatoes and squash than you know what to do with.

Neighbor Rod Goeman tosses into my inbox a good idea for using your surplus garden bounty: feed your neighbors! CNN spotlights New Jersey gardener Gary Oppenheimer, who started the website AmpleHarvest.org, a national directory of food pantries. The idea is to make it easier for gardeners (Ample Harvest says there may be 40 million) to find community organizations that would be happy to supplement their usual offerings of canned and processed foods with real, fresh, honest-to-goodness food.

The Sioux Falls and Rapid City food pantries are registered on AmpleHarvest.org; Madison and Brookings still need to get their outfits online.

Come September, don't let that food rot on your vines. Pick it, click AmpleHarvest.org, and feed some hungry neighbors.

Green Notes: Dump Coal, Cap Carbon, Create Jobs...

All sorts of green notes!

1. A new report from the Civil Society Institute and Synapse Energy Economics maps a feasible path to meeting all of America's energy needs and use zero coal and nuclear power by 2050. The "Beyond Business as Usual" plan also saves money.
2. Badlands Blue notes that a majority of Republicans and conservatives "would back a comprehensive energy policy that both boosts domestic energy production and caps carbon emissions." Such a policy even has more Teabaggers for it than agin' it. Of course, the poll was conducted by a bunch of Republicans....
3. Don't let those temporary Knight & Carver layoffs get you down; Howard is still working to be a leader in green jobs. Howard's Rural Learning Center is getting a $99K grant from the state Department of Labor to train wind turbine technicians. MDL reports that, thanks to this grant, traning can start in September and reach 325 workers.
4. And how about some more green jobs... green bean jobs. Mike Knutson cites evidence that local food production—the novel concept of farmers growing real food for their neighbors to eat—"could produce $882 million in sales and add 9,300 jobs in the Midwest." Of course, Rebecca Terk and the South Dakota Legislature already know we should buy fresh and buy local. Dennis Daugaard, are you listening?
   

SD Youth Risk Survey: Sex, Drugs... But No Questions about Rock and Roll

Well, at least the kids are wearing both straps on their backpacks, like the covergirl from the new South Dakota 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey Report. We all know single-strapping is a youth health menace.

2170 high schoolers responded to the survey and told us some other unhealthy activities they are involved in:

• 22% rode in a car with a drunk driver in the last month.
• 27% were in a physical fight in the last year.
• 52% were bullied.
• 7% attempted suicide in the last year.
• 9% were forced to have sex.
• 26% had five alcoholic drinks in a row in the past month. That's 65% of the kids who report drinking any alcohol during the past month. In other words, 2 out of three kids drinking are drinking for the clear purpose of getting schnockered.
  
• 36% had sex during the past three months (I know, sex isn't inherently an unhealthy activity...)
• ...24% of those sexually active students drank or did drugs before doing the deed, and 38% didn't use a condom (o.k., that's unhealthy).
• 49% skipped breakfast three or more times in the past week.

On the good side:

• 77% didn't smoke during the past month.
• 58% of those who have smoked recently have tried to quit.
• 64% played some team sport during the past year.
• 77% watched less than three hours of TV a day.
• 80% were on the computer or the XBox for less than three hours a day.
• The percentage riding with drunk drivers (22%) has gone down every survey year since 2003, when the percentage was 37%. The state is apparently getting the message across to some kids and parents.
• Smoking has been trending downward, too.

Read the full PDF-format report here. Then tell your kids no beer for graduation.

SDSU Students Donate Meal Plan Money to Food Pantry

Life meets speech class: one of my students this week gave a speech about a problem I remember well from my SDSU days: student meal plan surpluses. You live on campus. Res. Life requires you to buy a big meal plan, based on the stated fear that undergraduates might fail to respond to millions of years of food-seeking instinct and forget to eat supper at college. You suffer no such instinct-deficiency, but you're also thrifty. You skip the expensive drinks at the Student Union, microwave Ramen noodles, show Mom you love her by coming home for her tater-nugget casserole on Saturday (and bringing laundry but doing it yourself). Spring finals approach, and you've got $150 left on your food account. You can't get the money back or carry it over, since Res. Life needs to guarantee margins for your friendly neighborhood for-profit food service contractor. So you end up buying extra food you don't really need, ordering extra pizzas for group study sessions, or just letting the money go to waste.

Sixteen years after I bought my last pancakes in Medary Commons, SDSU offers a solution to meal plan waste: students can donate up to 50 percent of their meal plan dollars to the Brookings Food Pantry. KELO notes the story Friday, but The Collegian's Kate Wegehaupt has the full story:

The first donation date is Friday, April 16, followed by April 23 and 30. Students can pick up a ballot from all main dining sites, selecting the food items or dollar amount they’d like to donate to Brookings Area Food Pantry. Ballots are then turned in to drop-boxes at each dining location. From a student’s perspective, that is all the work it takes to help someone out.

After being turned in, your pencil checks translate into healthy food items that the Brookings Area Food Pantry needs most. The Monday following a donation day, SDSU Dining Services will deliver donations to the Pantry [Kate Wegehaupt, "Food Pantry Useful for Extra Flex Dollars," SDSU Collegian, 2010.03.24].

Wegehaupt reports the Brookings Food Pantry can well use this help: in 2009, the Food Pantry served triple the number of residents who use the service in 2005.

My speech student informs me that DSU is doing something similar here in Madison. It would be nice if the food plan requirements didn't impose such surpluses on pennywise students in the first place... but at least we can turn the excess funds to some good. Students, put down the extra bags of jerky from the C-Store; put that money to good use for the community!

Local Agripreneurship: Building Community and Capital?

Somewhat related to my Tuesday post on local entrepreneurship, a post from Rebeccas Terk of Flying Tomato Farms discusses local food, "agripreneurship," and Ben Hewitt's new book The Town That Food Saved. The book focuses on Hardwick, Vermont, population 3200, working-class, low wages, high unemployment. hardwick has seen a surge in local agriculture businesses, operations making their living producing food for the local market.

Hewitt calls the new (most thirty-something) businesses owners “agrepreneurs”–they’re not your typical back-to-the land types who are just looking for a little farmstead and a modest living–they’re in it to make money.

But they’re also in it to “make a difference”–in terms of their community and their sustainable mission. The question Hewitt raises, which is what really makes this book different than others in the genre, is whether the locals will get on board with that difference and that mission.

Hewitt balances the book by talking to a number of Hardwick-area residents who see local food as a means for a much more radical shift in the consumer-and-capital-driven model that the world has moved to, and those discussions are, to me, what constitutes the real heart of this book–is local food about community and supporting our neighbors, or is it about making money and providing jobs–and shipping some of that high-end product (that many locals may not be able to afford) to not-so-local markets?

Or is it both? [Rebecca Terk, "Local Food Lit: The Town That Food Saved," Flying Tomato Farms, 2010.04.14]

Local agripreneurship isn't a gold mine; Terk notes that many of Hardwick's food start-ups are still strugglign to get out of debt and post profits. But they are taking a swing at independent economic development, based on their own sweat and resources. That's something all of us with the prairie pioneer spirit can respect.
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Passed by SD Legislature: Teacher Standards, Guns, Pickles, Charter School

Some bills headed for the Governor's desk:

• Senate Bill 24 isn't a diktat to include Radioactive Chief in climate science curriculum, but it still smells of Pierre encroaching on local control in education. The Legislature is directing the Department of Education to establish statewide teacher evaluation standards. Now I kow he who has the gold makes the rules... but if Pierre is going to make these rules, couldn't it come up with a little more gold?
• Legislators were just a touch more leary about SB 89, but it still passed easily. This bill exempts from federal regulation any firearms made and kept within South Dakota's borders. The measure will thrill the gun manufacturers Governor Rounds chatted up in Vegas in January and may even help lure a few of them here to make bang-bangs. But think about this: do you think gunmakers will come to South Dakota to make unregulated guns that they can only sell to South Dakotans? Do we really buy that many weapons? (Oh, well, maybe....)
• The real slam dunk was HB 1222, a bill to clarify rules for farmers markets. Not one legislator cast a nay on this sensible legislation to promote local food production and local business. Governor Rounds, don't even think of vetoing this bill, or it's no pickles for you!
• The Legislature delivered SB 63, a bill to establish a pilot charter school for American Indian students... just in time to learn Uncle Sam rejected our application for the federal grant that was to fund it. (Hey, wait a minute: the charter school was to be a residential school... weren't boarding schools bad for Indians? Well, that's complicated....)
  

Legislative Notes: Curd vs. Noem on Small Schools

Of interest to small-town voters: The South Dakota House yesterday passed HB 1150 on a 40–29 vote. Compare the votes of two of our Republican candidates for U.S. House: big-city doctor R. Blake Curd votes aye, while small-town ranch gal Kristi Noem votes nay.

Dr. R. Blake Curd evidently feels it's perfectly acceptable to punish small schools for their success in attracting open enrollees. Evidently supporting school choice isn't a big issue for this conservative. Noem apparently feels we can find budget savings for the state somewhere other than on the backs of successful school districts.

Locally, District 8 Reps. Mitch Fargen and Gerry Lange joined Noem in voting against HB 1150. Let's see where our senator Russell Olson goes on this school-choice issue.

In other news from the Legislature yesterday:

• HB 1222, the farmers market bill, got unanimous support from the House (yay!).
• SB 21, a rather mushy bill that sort of bans social investing with the state investment funds and sort of doesn't, passed the State Senate unanimously. The more direct SB 134, stopping state investment in Iran, has passed the Senate and awaits attention from House State Affairs.
• Even deferred to the 41st day does not mean dead! Senate Appropriations resurrected SB 193, the pro-life bill that would extend Medicaid to all pregnant women. Alas, they made that effort just to give the bill a formal "Do Not Pass" recommendation.
• Oh yeah, and HB 1277 & HB 1278, those silly little anti-blogger bills, went nowhere in committee. Thank you, Mr. Powers, for your testimony. And thank you, members of the committee, for your rationality. Now, back to the counterplans....
  

HB 1222: Farmers Markets Get Green Thumbs Up from House Commerce

Rebecca Terk of Flying Tomato Farms notes that the South Dakota House Commerce Committee gave unanimous approval yesterday to HB 1222, the Home-Processed Foods Bill, which makes life better for folks who sell and buy local foods.

Dakota Rural Action and the state Department of Health worked together to craft this bill to clarify the rules and help farmers markets stay in business. HB 1222 is good legislation, good for local food, local entrepreneurship, and local self-sufficiency. Legislators, keep the momentum going on this bill and get it to the Governor's desk!

HB 1255: End Food Tax, Bump Sales Tax to 4.3%

Neighbor on the other side of the state Stan Gibilisco absolutely will not support a state income tax. However, he is open to a revision of the state sales tax proposed by House Bill 1255. This legislation, sponsored by Representative Marc Feinstein and Senator Pam Merchant, would set the sales tax rate on food at 0%. "Food" would not include alcoholic beverages, pop, candy, dietary supplements, food from vending machines, or prepared food.

To keep the books balanced, HB 1255 would increase the state sales, use, and excise taxes on pretty much everything else from 4% to 4.3%.

What do you think: are you willing to eat that cost to end the food tax? As Mr. Ehrisman points out, more South Dakotans are having to turn to food aid like The Banquet. Food stamp use in the state is up over 10%. Would HB 1255 help working families put food on the table... or would the increased tax on other goods and services cancel out any advantage for the folks who need help?

We'll hear what the House Taxation Committee thinks when they take up HB 1255 bright and early tomorrow morning.

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By the way, a perhaps discussion-worthy note on legal language: HB 1255 amend our tax law to refer to "the use of food" as a "privilege." I take it any of us lefties who think eating is a right can sit on a tack... as can international human rights advocates.

But our state tax law already says that "engaging in business as a retailer" and using goods and services are also privileges. So good old Main Street entrepreneurship isn't a right, either. Socialists and capitalists alike have something to discuss over (taxable) coffee this morning.

HB 1222: Farmers Market Bill Promotes Pickles, Pie, and Sales Tax Revenue

Rebecca Terk of Flying Tomato Farms explains why House Bill 1222 is a hugely important bill for farmers markets, entrepreneurship, and local sales tax revenues. Go read!

HB 1222 does two simple things. First, it removes the requirement that local entrepreneurs selling fruits and vegetables or homemade baked or canned goods obtain a license to do business. A decision last summer by the South Dakota Department of Health to start enforcing this hundred-dollar license requirement drove a number of farmers market vendors out of business.

But HB 1222 isn't anarcho-capitalism. It's other main provisions impose clear, reasonable safety requirements on vendors. Vendors need to get third-party verification that their canning process is clean. They then need to attach to each product a label with standard information—product name, ingredients, producer name and contact info, production date, and a disclaimer saying, basically, "I'm homemade! Watch your allergies."

Avid gardener and local foods maven Terk notes that HB 1222 is exactly what vendors want. It's also similar to "pickle laws" that every surrounding state has to support farmers markets (why is South Dakota always playing catch-up?).

House Bill 1222 is a good bill. It's about local food, local business, and local self-sufficiency. It will help Madisonites meet their yearning for more local grocery selection for at least a couple months each year.

Our Rep. Mitch Fargen (D-8/Flandreau) is on the House Commerce Committee, which gets first crack at this bill. Call Fargen and his fellow committee members, urge them to give this farmers market bill a big "Do Pass!"

Legislature: Roads, Farmers Markets, Pipeline Tax, and Corporate Democracy

Some legislative notes to sprinkle on your Wheaties:

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The State Senate Transportation Committee has unanimously killed SB1, the road tax increases. What was that Senator Mike Vehle from Mitchell said in October?

Everyone in this committee.. has a feeling that we need to do something... We'd all like to do probably a lot more than we feel in a recession we can do. But we need to take a hard look and be ready to explain to our colleagues the need that our highways have.... [A]ny society that lets its infrastructure fail or start to fail is also going down a wrong road and putting our society in jeopardy [Senator Mike Vehle, 2009.10.14].

Senator Vehle yesterday abandoned the bill, deciding he didn't want to fight to convince his colleagues to pay for the roads that get them to Pierre and back. Oh well. Maybe we all can just stop driving and do all our business online.

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If we can still get to the farmers markets over our new gravel roads, we might find more local sellers. Democrat Pam Merchant from Brookings is proposing House Bill 1222 to exempt farmers market vendors from licensing requirements. The bill does add some labeling requirements—basically a sticker to say this food's homegrown; if you have allergies, you take your chances. But essentially, HB 1222 is Democrats promoting deregulation for small local businesspeople. I bet the Republican-controlled Legislature kills this one. Please, Russ, prove me wrong!

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Republicans and Democrats are working together to try again to get a pipeline tax. Senate Bill 161 imposes a two-cent-per-barrel tax on oil pumping through big pipelines (i.e., TransCanada's) in South Dakota. Two cents per barrel: at today's crude oil prices, that's a 0.027% tax—less than three cents on every hundred dollars TransCanada will make. And like previous measures, SB 161 caps the tax at $30 million and dedicates it to a fund to clean up oil spills and other messes TransCanada will make.

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Senator Heidepriem says if corporations really are persons qualified to participate in democratic processes, then they should behave democratically. His Senate Bill 165 tells corporations, "Go ahead! Contribute to politicians and campaigns. But you have to get the approval of a majority of your stockholders first." Ah, democracy!

Kloucek: Have a Kolache... and a Comptroller!

O.K., if Russ gets his wish and the LAIC can throw a bingo fest, can they at least serve complimentary kolaches?

In the midst of proposing some good ideas (e.g., his Chicoine-Monsanto bill, his fight for small-town drivers license stations), Senator Frank Kloucek still has time for a light and flaky bill, SB 117, which would make the kolache South Dakota's state pastry. My vote: Do Pass... the raspberry jam!

Of course, Senator Kloucek has a plan to make those kolaches go farther at the Capitol: he has proposed SJR 4 to shrink state government by one FTE: namely, he would combine the state treasurer and state auditor into one position, state comptroller.