Republicofawesome - The Republic of Awesome by Don Carr

Republicofawesome Archive

22 May

This Senator is a Food and Farm Powerhouse

Written by Don Carr

When Congress talks food and farming, Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan) is there. From 2011 to 2014, she was chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and she remains a ranking member with enormous influence over what our nation eats. Stabenow shepherded the latest farm bill, which was signed into law in February 2014, after a...

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18 May

Ag Lobby Paints Itself Into a Conservation Corner

Written by Don Carr

There’s a growing public fight brewing over industrial agriculture’s water pollution. The most prominent scuffle is the Environmental Protection Agency’s highly contentious Waters of the US rule. At the local level much of the heat is centered on the recent lawsuit filed by the Des Moines’ Water Works over fertilizer derived nitrate run-off. Minnesota...

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26 April

TJ’s Garden

Written by Don Carr

Spent a lovely morning touring Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. The garden was just starting to erupt. From the official Monticello site: Thomas Jefferson’s 1,000-foot-long, terraced vegetable garden is the true American garden: practical, expansive, casual, diverse, wrought from a world of edible immigrants. Aside from its diverse population of mostly introduced crops, the Monticello garden...

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08 April

Love It Or Leave It News: Heartland is Fracked Edition

Written by Don Carr

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s statewide ban on hydraulic fracturing for natural gas over environmental concerns has driven some residents desperate for extraction income to consider secession. As told by the LA Times: Chief among those decisions has been the fracking ban, Price said. Local disappointment was sharpened by the knowledge that friends living...

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31 March

An Incoherent Salad Bar of Attacks

Written by Don Carr

This morning Julie Kelly and Jeff Stier took aim at chef, restaurant owner and MSNBC food correspondent Tom Colicchio’s food and farm activism. In a National Review piece titled No, the culinary is not political, they write: Colicchio is now cooking up liberal food policy to expand the government’s ever-encroaching role in how we...

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25 March

A Deeper Look at GMOs With Mark Lynas

Written by Don Carr

On January 3, 2013 in an Oxford farming conference lecture, Mark Lynas declared the science behind the safety of consuming genetically modified crops settled. Lynas is an author, journalist and long-time climate change campaigner. He also had been a vehement anti-GMO activist. The attention Lynas’s “conversion” brought made him an in-demand speaker for agriculture-related groups. The...

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19 March

Congressman Tim Ryan Wants to Start a Food Revolution

Written by Don Carr

When it comes to changing the food system, Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) might be the most outspoken member of Congress yet. Now in his sixth term, Ryan is the author of Real Food Revolution, Healthy Eating, Green Groceries, and the Return of the American Family Farm. Former President Bill Clinton describes the book as “a straightforward and much-needed...

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15 March

The GOP’s king corn problem

Written by Don Carr

Republican politics — especially the presidential primary — have become a contest of appealing to the far right voter by demonstrating conservative street cred. That’s why it was fascinating to observe March 7th’s awkward march of Republican candidates to the Iowa State Fairgrounds to articulate their position on the Renewable Fuels Standard — a government handout for those...

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03 March

Kristi Noem’s Turnip Truck Problem

Written by Don Carr

Agriculture is South Dakota’s largest industry. And Congresswoman Kristi Noem’s political ascent has had some agriculture-related hiccups, which is confounding considering she grew up on the farm. First there was her propensity for skipping agriculture committee meetings. Then the embarrassing stalled farm bill in the House of Representatives. It also came to light that...

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20 February

Doug LaMalfa’s Onion Problem

Written by Don Carr

Satirical news site the Onion ran this amusing agriculture-related piece last week: Corporation Surprised To See Its Tax Money Circle Back Around To It So Soon MINNETONKA, MN—Saying he’d been expecting the multinational corporation to have to wait a little while longer, David MacLennan, the CEO of U.S.-based agribusiness Cargill, told reporters Friday he...

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