Yesterday, we told of federal grants of hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars to operate a couple lightbulbs. The Hendersonville Times-News presented the story of important officials’ visit to the area, to obtain “agricultural intelligence,” with a different angle.
US Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan, EPA Deputy Administrator Bob Perciasepe, and lesser-known officials from the HUD and the USDOT came to Brevard to push the president’s American Jobs Act. You’ve heard it all before. They want to create jobs, create wealth, reduce pollution, promote sustainability, make people work closer to their homes, etc. Federal powers cannot accomplish this alone.
Merrigan added that farmland protection programs are another key to the survival of American farming, but the department lacks adequate financial resources and so it must work with the private sector “to do the kind of leveraging we need to do to protect that farmland.”
The federal government is also taxed in that its new guidelines, prepared under the inspiration of the nutritionist-extraordinaire First Lady, recommend “half your plate include fruits and vegetables.”* Merrigan observed this would require a lot of imports to be consumed, posing an opportunity for domestic agriculture.
*The other half of my plate, of course, will contain (not just include) butter.
