Forum: Cooperative Thinking Food II

Continued from |here.

I stumbled across some of the recent proceedings for the FSA (Farm Service Assoc). From their website: ‘’”The Farm Service Agency (FSA) administers and manages farm commodity, credit, conservation, disaster and loan programs as laid out by Congress through a network of federal, state and county offices.

These programs are designed to improve the economic stability of the agricultural industry and to help farmers adjust production to meet demand.” ‘’

There were a couple of recent FSA actions that caught my attention but Adobe keeps crashing my computer today (aargh). If anyone’s interested, they might peek and see what/why the govt gave temporary licensing to additional warehouses this fall to house rice, soybeans, & grain.

Could be nothing, could fall under ‘watch what they do, not what they say.’ I can’t tell from here; sorry if it’s a useless rabbit trail.

From their Commodity Operations page:

• Oct 4, 2006 - Temporary Storage for Rice and Soybean Warehouse Operators Licensed Under the United States Warehouse Act (USWA)

Temp Rice & Soy Warehouses Licensed

• Aug 14, 2006 - Temporary Storage for Grain Warehouse Operators Licensed Under the United States Warehouse Act Temp Grain Warehouses Licensed

I’ve come to believe that growing food near home is something we want to do in any case. Some considerations:

• “Basic self-sufficiency” as a national strategy may be more palatable (pushable, financable) than “we’re all gonna die”. Maybe.
• It’s something people can do without asking for permission, and benefit from, directly. Either as businesses or as customers or as DIYers or as DIY-assistants (magazines, networks, etc).
• There’s many people out there doing it already. Many actually enjoy it.
• It’s good for the planet. Meaning, it’s good both short term and long term.
• Finally, it makes for a nice little pun: we’re using the carrot, not the stick. It might even .

stick, sorry. (Forgot the http://.)

There’s many people out there doing it already. Many actually enjoy it.

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/005321.html - links to http://www.terramadre2006.org