I don't know what's going on in Washington. Maybe they're all doing drugs down there together. But, this country (and a lot of other countries) are in serious trouble.

I live on a Social Security disability check and I've seen the prices in the grocery store skyrocket in the past 6 months or so. I talk to the 'rich' people from my town who shop in the same store, they're seeing the same thing.

There's people in Haiti eating dirt because they can't afford food.

We pay some of our farmers to NOT grow products when we could be helping starving people in Haiti and in Africa and NOW THIS:

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This Earth Day an unlikely foe: Biofuels
"As we are rushing to fill our fuel tanks with corn, we are affecting the global price of food and contributing to the destruction of the forests and other vital natural systems we meant to protect. Misguided biofuel mandates are actually exacerbating environmental harms and causing human suffering while failing to truly deliver energy independence."

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New farm bill lacks development money
From the Des Moines Register
"What good does it do if we keep giving more money to farmers but they don't have any towns, they don't have churches, they don't have hospitals, they don't have schools, they don't have water?"

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Rethinking farm bill subsidies crucial
"What can we citizens expect if the proposed $300 billion farm bill is signed into law? ...More than $4 billion in permanent disaster assistance to growers in the Northern Plains. The brainchild of Montana Democrat and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, this is essentially a trust fund to guarantee income to farmers plowing up prairies and grasslands -- lands prone to drought and erosion -- to plant corn and wheat. Many observers fear a second Dust Bowl."

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For G-d's sake, we're growing CORN for fuel when people are starving to death. Venezuela knows how to conserve oil-based products. They're been doing that for years. They know how to use grasses for biofuel, why are we not learning their technologies??

If we don't start DOING SOMETHING soon, none of this is going to last much longer.

Barb