From bob on Fri, July 11, 2008

Please spread the word! It annoys me to no end when my fellow CSA members assume I want to listen to their Bush and Republican bashing because I get my tomatoes from the same place they do. 
I absolutely realize that local and slow food can be a political subject, but many blogs tend to direct most of their criticism at our Republican politicians, while the Democrats in charge of Congress almost two years now haven’t done much to help either.

From bcomnes on Fri, July 11, 2008

Hey Bob
Please spread the word!  It annoys me to no end when you use this blog to spread Republican talking points.  Take the advice of McCains’ economic adviser Phil Gramm when he says - stop whining!  Get a life, get your facts right (or are facts considered liberal bias?).  You need 60 votes to get a bill to the Senate floor, the Dems don’t have 60 (well at least not yet, wait til Obama’s coattails change that sad fact) .  That’s how the Republicans have thwarted the will of the 2006 Congress.
As for the article, I welcome the idea that slow food transcends political alignment, but it’s not surprising that a conservative author passes off low income people as life’s “inevitabilities”.  As for pimping for industrial food, that is totally within conservative character too.  Rationalizing big money and corporate privilege defines so much of what conservatives have to say. 
Why is it that conservatives label those who question industrial practices, proprietary seeds, and tomfoolery with the gene pool as food “kooks” but the “experts” (who could just as easily be referred to as industrial food “whores") get full page articles in the Chicago Tribune, NY Times, Washington Times without any transparency as to where their payhceck comes from? see http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/jun/15/repelling-the-killer-tomatoes/ for a good example of a Hoover Institute fellow shilling for Monsanto.
‘nuff said

From bob on Wed, July 16, 2008

So you’re telling me I missed the news about the Democrats holding committee hearings on how bad industrial is food is for us and our planet, proposing to eliminate subsidies on corporate farming, etc. etc., passing the House (no 60% requirement there!), but thwarted by the Senate Republicans from bringing them to floor for the final vote?
Wow, I must be really out of touch here in my red state ignorance. 
The fact is none of that ever happened.  The fact is both parties are wedded to the status quo when it comes to using taxpayer dollars to prop up the industrial food chain.  Maybe you’re too partisan to admit it, but I’m not, and I don’t think the people that run this website are either.

From Slow Food USA on Thu, July 17, 2008

You’re absolutely right, Bob, Democrats and Republicans alike were a huge disappointment in the end when it came to the Farm Bill, unfortunately!