Are weather-related complications, such as droughts, really 'disasters' if they seem to happen year after year? Many farmers who receive these payments seem to think so, but EWG President and farm policy expert Ken Cook challenges that notion with his response to a poorly-researched Aberdeen American editorial.
Taxpayers have a right to take a hard look at the flawed system their money supports. There are good reasons we don't grow grapefruit in South Dakota. Perhaps we should consider the viability of some of the other crops we grow there if the weather causes a "disaster" every other year. The way to fix the problem, according to Cook, is to “press politicians to explore new approaches to agriculture, resource use and disaster aid where growing conditions are so challenging that praying for an annual Act of Congress is standard business practice.”
As for the ill-informed editorial that spurred Cook's response, Cook reminds the American’s editors that:
• Environmental Working Group (EWG) is the only Washington-based conservation and environmental organization to have formally and repeatedly supported aid this year for farmers and ranchers who have been hit with weather-related crop and livestock losses;
• The paper would have served its readers better and more truthfully had it taken 30 seconds to fact check its fantasy piece about the "big city, metropolitan institution."
Read Ken’s full editorial:
National environmental group setting facts, records straight (5 Nov 2006)