Thomas Jefferson Quotes

At the time the vast majority of Americans were farmers. That is the tradition and reality which caused the Department of Agriculture to become one of the most important cabinet departments. However, by the 21st century the Department of Agriculture had over 100,000 employees plus many more consultants and contractors. They had done their job so well that productivity eliminated the need for most of the farms. And the number of people earning the majority of their living as farmers is less than 1 million. So there are only 10 farmers for each employee of the Agriculture Department.

Often referred to as “Father of the Green Revolution” for his contributions to food growing throughout the world

American diplomats and experts were somewhat critical of European agricultural policies—especially the protectionism. Delors, whose political culture was French, where outside criticism was very much resented. America, while urging free agricultural trade, maintained heavy agricultural subsidies and protectionist measures itself. Most economists and politicians would like to open agriculture, but politically few have the courage to do so.

Britain, in order to protect the landed gentry and aristocracy who made their money via agriculture, long had the Corn Laws (Corn was the term for wheat.) which was a protectionist system making it virtually to import food grains, rice or potatoes into Britain. However, with the growth of the population and a protected agricultural industry that had no drive to be more productive there was not quite enough food in the kingdom. When there was a potato blight in Ireland, the situation reached critical proportions. Victoria was not generally in favor of protectionism, and given the shortage and high cost of food then, she wanted to allow food imports. Robert Peel presided over a government where the protectionists who represented the large landowners had a very strong block. Pushing for an end to the Corn Laws could have caused the government to collapse. Peel himself did not think the Corn Laws were good policy and created a hardship for most people especially the poor. But he was the leader of his party and the party was split on the Corn Law issue. Victoria, in this private letter, tells him to do what he things is right and not what is politically expedient. Peel tried but at this time could not get a majority to repeal the Corn Laws, and the Irish Potato Famine killed millions. See {630738} . Peel however stuck with the Queen’s and his perception of what was right. The following year he proposed the Importation Act 1846 which repealed the Corn Laws. Many of his own party would not support it, but this time, he went to the two opposition parties and created a slim majority which passed the bill much to the approval of the Queen.

Environmentalists counter with the fact that the corporate and government interests in growth at any cost will, and have in the past, found a loophole in every reasonable compromise that has been made. Reasonableness is only a device they use to slow regulation until they can either figure out a loophole or use their great fiscal resources to shape public thinking to soften or eliminate the regulation. Therefore some environments argue that they must be as ideological about the environment as the corporations are about their rights to profit and not compromise even when a compromise appears reasonable. Besides, if the corporations always appear to win, the public will think opposing them is futile. So when they can be beaten on something that is unreasonable, they appear weaker and encourage more environmental public activism.

American agriculture truly became independent when the British and American chemical industry learned to produce artificial nitrate which was important for military explosives as well as fertilizer. Chile, which had not developed many other revenue sources suffered.

He was describing England before the Industrial Revolution. The manufacturer / artisan owned his own home and had a small garden. He was not paid very well, but if business was slow his family could subsist by growing his own food and animals. With the Industrial Revolution came specialization as well as mechanization. If business was bad hundreds or thousands of workers had no way to make a living.

Seaweed was been eaten by the Japanese for thousands of years. Most other people do not view seaweed as an editable food. Yet it is quite nutritious, and Smith is breeding new strains that are even more so, very much as we have done with fruits ad vegetables on land. His view is that with Global Warming, over-fishing of the oceans, and higher and higher costs of food as we now know it, seaweed will become a major food staple throughs the world. Actually, Campbell’s Soup and many other companies producing canned and packaged foods, has been using MSG extracted from seaweed for years, It is a major flavor enhancer. But at this time they do not use the more nutritious leaves as the Japanese do, Smith argues that this will change as there is almost unlimited ocean farming “land” as seaweed can grow in 3 dimensions and requires much less labor, fertilizer and pesticides than land farming for equal amounts of healthy food.