Everyone gets a mortgage policies in Washington resulted in a housing bubble and wiped out home values and other asset values as a result. We will still be recovering from that idiocy a decade from now.

So now along comes everyone gets a farm loan. No danger of loan defaults here right? Wrong.

Note to Congress. Quit. go home.

Note to voters. Fire them all. Never vote for an incumbent.

Note to Glenn - you must not like to eat, if you aren't willing to help farmers. Their lively hood directly affects your life...

Note to genafan201 - I like to eat and I like to eat at the lowest cost. Keep the government out of agriculture or you will pay more for food. Yes, you might hold down the cost of butter or milk by subsidizing more farmers than the market needs, and then balance the over production by giving away milk and butter, but you pay for it in income taxes as well as at the grocery store. Farming is a business. If you think it should be funded with government loans, then fine. Just be prepared to finance the local hospitals, banks, schools, low income housing, road construction, and other businessses. Oh, right. we already do that don't we. Gee that is all working out fine isn't it?

I like my roads and hospitals they get me where I want to go and fix me if I fall down and break. And my granddaughters are turning out pretty good in school but that takes work on the parents part too.

Spoken like someone who can't stand that others are finally taking an interest in where their food comes from and new generations getting into agriculture.

I would've thought as someone who identifies as a Texan (at least in your SN) that you would be proud to see Americans taking on the job of feeding this country.

Let me clue you in - most of these programs have been around for a very long time, but they just weren't well known. That has changed, and must do so. Corporate farming is going to kill us.

Did you even read the article? They are helping people get loans to leave the cities to work the land. Whats wrong with that? Better that then give it to failing car companies or banks....

Don't like it here..........leave !!!

Did you even read the article? It discusses the aging population of farmers in the US. If that is not reversed you will see a decline in agricultural production and a further increase in food costs as supply decreases and demand increases due to a growing population.

But yes, the government shouldn't do anything to reverse the trend. It's alright we can become more dependent on other countries and import more food.

We don't want to save manufacturing to make things like cars and we don't want to save agriculture to grow things like food. What the hell is going to be left? A 100% service based economy?

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Some food for thought, in the 1930s approximately 20% of the population was involved with agriculture, either as an owner or working on a farm. Today, approximately 2% of the population is involved in agriculture. In 80 years we have gone from 1 in 5 on a farm to 1 in 50. If there is another great depression, how is American going to feed itself? During the 30s, many people turned to subsistence and grew their own food, people won't be able to do that this time.

Why would he write that after reading a positive article like this.

Although, I have some grievances about certain inefficiencies within our government, I must commend them on their continued efforts to provide programs that assist citizens to further their knowledge or even to get on their feet.
We just need better synergies that match the times we are living in today.

With the invention of computers we need to communicate our opportunities more effectively in order for US citizens to seize opportunities here and abroad.

Stexan, all you have to is add an B before your name and, viola, a real picture of you emerges.

Medalling? Is the government giving medals? Learn to write before criticizing something you know nothing about.

Investigate the programs mentioned in the article, as well as talking to your local county extension office, they'll be happy to help.

No, the hard part will be to make enough profit after you get started. Your expenses and labor are going to be high. If you can connect with consumers willing to pay a high price, you may make a living. You could very well end up with an expensive hobby.

And, GimDan. farming is truly full-time (I grew up on a farm). Unless you can find competent help to take care of your livestock, you're there 24/7/365. The animals don't understand that you want a day off.

I have a sister (who also grew up on the farm) who tried to help set up "urban gardens" in a major city to help people grow food. Couldn't even get anyone to help weed or harvest. They just wanted to avail themselves of the benefits. I think a lot of people will find out that there's more work involved, and more risk, than they imagine. Just think of the hippie communes of the '60's and early '70's. All the imagined allure went away when reality hit home.

And, you are wholly dependent on the weather. Big risk taking, uncertain return, significant expense. But, if you can live on goat cheese and alpaca wool, good luck.

@mel - It kinda reminds you of the "Little Red Hen" nursery rhyme, doesn't it?

People want to live as kings for no work. They want to whip those they deem incompetent so they can live a lavish life.

'Tis sad that this is how America has become - a nation of babies and brats, to put quite nicely.

They want what they want, and they want it now, or so help me they'll cry "discrimination" and take it by force.

I also want to add on to what I said above - when you manage a farm, you're essentially "raising a village" so to speak. Each product of your farm is a living organism. It grows, it moves, it eats, it reproduces, it responds to stimuli around it, it breathes, and it produces waste.

And like all organisms, it can get sick. It can die. It has needs. It has wants.

I myself would be stressed as hell being a pseudo-parent to all of those organisms.

A farmer is a leader - a leader of all of the organisms he tends on his/her farm, be they sentient or not. So treat your livestock like you would family. Same with your crops.

Life is precious. It cannot be valued. It is worth more than any item in the world.

Everything you eat has been genetically modified. Your anscestors were gentically modified.

The genetic modifications of our ancestor's foods were done through breeding of plants through natural selection. The stuff GMO's are made of comes from a LAB. All it is doing is breeding super weeds and super bugs through natural selection. It's effectiveness is time limited until mother nature catches up. In the mean time, farmers use more pesticides and herbacides than they would have without GMO's. The land is ruined because it is killing the soil.

Please explain the bottom line difference between the breeding (which is NOT natural selection) and being done in the lab.

Cindy, much of the "GMO" strains you speak of are actually hybrid crosses, created via breeding in the exact same manner, albeit accelerated, as our ancestors. Stacked traits are created in labs, but "coming from a LAB" is not inherently a bad thing. Other things that come from a LAB: medicines, fancy electronic gadgets, safer cars, etc....

GM crops are not the bad guy. GM allows farmers to grow higher yields on marginal land...boosting the productivity, output, and revenue to the farmer (farming is a slim margin business, that's why most people moved to the 'burbs in the first place). Perhaps you can argue the corporations that develop and patent them are, but the final food product is equivalent to the wildtype. In actuality, far LESS pesticide and herbicide is used to cultivate GM crops, not more.

Resistance is a separate issue, one that can be found in many fields of study (not just agriculture). For example, there now exists resistant bacteria because of our use of antibiotics, yet, I don't think many would advocate a complete ban on antibiotics to treat human infection.

While that is true, Beer, genetically some plants will not mix. You get this a lot with decorative fauna (i.e. ferns, bromeliads, orchids, etc.) - our ancestors had trial and error involved in their work.

The difference between the way THEY did it, and the way the LAB does it, is the amount of synthetic materials used. They (our ancestors) used far less, if any, synthetic materials in their method than the labs do.

Synthetic stuff, depending on what it is, CAN be toxic. Thus why Americans want clean food - they want to make sure they KNOW what's in their food. With a outsourced supplier, you can't be sure you know precisely what's in the food you're eating. Hence why you grow your own - to be 100% positive.

Please explain how "synthetic" stuff is better than "natural" stuff. Also what is all that "synthetic" stuff after all?

By the way "natural stuff" can be toxic. Ever hear of the Destroying Angel mushroom? Botulism is natural, too.

Forgive me Ferro, I wasn't clear when I mentioned synthetic. We're talking akin to some of the stuff that goes into condensed soups and pastas, microwaved dinners, ramen, and such (I forget the exact name and a listing of food additives isn't triggering back memory - I do know it's a three letter additive). Also, some of the "preservatives" tend to extend shelf life, but kill off certain nutrients.

Eating ramen and condensed food really isn't healthy, but it IS cheap. Also, mushrooms have a specific way they NEED to be treated, else they aren't exactly edible (some mushrooms aren't edible no matter how they're treated). Some food is edible with extremely careful preparation (though not always perfectly safe) - major example of this is pufferfish, and to a lesser extent Urchin.

You also have all those other additives that not everyone is really educated about. Usually, when you grow organic, you plan to eat it right away anyways.

Long story short:

Organic = Short shelf life, more nutrients

Preserved =Long shelf life, fewer nutrients

The difference between the two is how long you feel the need to hold onto your food. Personally, I eat all my food within the month anyways, so it's not like I NEED to keep organic food for a long time anyways.

Crimson

Sure , I understand about those things, and some of the stuff may be scary, but we don't even know enough to know if it is scary, but the part I disagree with is the notion that something is "natural" therefore it's better. Malaria is natural. Also genetic engineering has been done throughout history, they call it breeding etc. The horse is a product of genetic engineering. The only differendce is that the lab was a farm perhaps, but still a lab.

There's a lot of inaccuracy in some of these comments. The genetic modification used to make these GMO crops is not simply hybridization, mmmmbeer was way off and misleading. The GMO crops we are using are BT corn, BT cotton, roundup ready sugar Beets, Roundup ready corn, roundup ready alfalfa and roundup ready soybeans. The whole roundup ready thing is that the crop is resistant to the herbicide, roundup. That way roundup can be used to kill the weeds but not the crop. The way the crop is resistant to roundup is a gene from a bacterium is found that creates a resistant trait, that gene is then inserted into the DNA of the crops so that the crop then has that resistant trait.

The problem with this is roundup is glyphosphate a chemical that forms complexes with nutrients in the soil so they are unavailable for the weeds but they are also unavailable for the crop so the effect is that the crop contains less nutrients. Also since the nutrients are bound by the glyphosphate the helpful bacteria in the soil, bacteria that is solely responsible for nitrogen fixation (turning inorganic nitrogen in the air into usable organic nitrogen in the soil), is harmed because nutrients are unavailable. Another problem with this is that the weeds become resistant to the herbicide over time. So extra synthetic fertilizers and herbicides are needed increasing the amount of chemicals and the agriculture runoff that pollutes rivers and created dead zones in the ocean. Also there is very little study on long term health effects of this new roundup ready resistant gene on humans. there is some evidence that the genes can transfer to the bateria in our stomach meaning that our stomach could then produce the roundup ready resistant proteins inside of us.

The way BT crops work is that a gene from a baterium that produces the BT toxin, is inserted into the crop so that the crop can then produce its own BT toxin. The BT toxin when ingested by pests binds to the cells of the gut lining and kills the pests. The serious problem with this is that the crop contains this toxin on the inside so you can not wash it off and very little study has been done to determine the toxicity to farm animals or humans. Studies are beginning to show there are reasons to be concerned. There has been some evidence that the BT toxin can bind to animals guts and intestines causing immune issues and reproductive issues (infertility, low birth weight, possible increase in miscarriage) There is some evidence that suggests kidney and liver toxicity in rats. Also a study was done on 30 pregnant women and found that 93% had the Bt toxin in their blood and was found in 80 % of fetal blood samples. Some scientist believe that these GMOs can cause autism, cancer, allergies as well as some other immune disorders and organ damage. The fact of the matter is there are not enough studies, scientist can lose funding easily, patents prevent some studies and the USDA and FDA is infiltrated by these GMO companies.

Regardless of health effects the ecological problems are enough to be scared. We are changing the relationships of pest and predators. We are creating super bugs and super weeds. Do we really want to be dependent on a new gene, chemical, crop relationship every time one technology becomes obsolete due to resistance. Also patenting life is just a ridiculous notion. farmers have been saving their seeds since the beginning now they are required to purchase new seeds each year. Farmers are being sued by these giant GMO corporations when their farms become CONTAMINATED with these GMOs. There is no way to prevent cross pollination of a GMO and a non-GMO. Now Alfalfa is approved and this threatens the safety of organic diary farms because alfalfa is used to feed the cows and alfalfa can pollinate very easily. Of course these giant companies would like that because then they can push for GMOs to be allowed in organic products. It is proved that GMO farming is more expensive, more dangerous to the environment, does not significantly increase yield and now these factory GMO farms are more responsible for green house gases than the energy industry. India is a prime example of how this technology is dangerous, thousands of farmers have committed suicide because of crop failure and debt to GMO corporations.

If you had anything worth saying you'd say it here. So no thanks.

Good advice to the new comers. I grew up on a farm however my dad worked full time on the railroad...mom stand he had to work there to cover the cost of the farm.....this was 30 years ago.....not much has changed!

Nukeman's inane utterances. The kiss of death for any intelligent conversation.

carolart, ..........you forgot environmental extremist

Great advice. It is hard work, rewarding, but hard.

Funny how you paint liberals as people wanting free stuff. The whole "free stuff" thing can be said of anyone, conservatives included!

Humankind is always at risk of fault. However, the so-called "Christians" believe they are entitled to tell everyone how to live. Hypocrites!

The fast food industry is not feeding us.

They are offering a product. Take it or leave it.

SRBINAT,....I was with you until you got to the 'Praise' part

Ellis,

If you work a farm you just might have to say a pray or two.

Right Ellis, there are some people who have to push their Jesuses and religons whenever they can.

jacljr: yes, they offer the product after chasing everybody out of business with their corporate (corrupt) practices. Monsanto is just one tiny example, it's they way or the highway with their "patented" seeds that destroy other crops. $$$$$$

It seems more like your pushing your atheism. SRBINAT was just expressing there beliefs. You commented on it and now your pushing yours. Whats more I refuse to stop saying "Praise Jesus" because it bothers you, just like you refuse to stop saying"God isnt real" because it might bother me. With that in mind I hope you find God before it's to late, and Jesus loves you. Repent sinner.

Enemies? We don't have enemies, we have competitors but we don't like it so we call them enemies. Grow up.

You're being a pessimist.

No, he is being a hateful TeaParty lunatic.

Tom : Keep the crooked bankers and wall streeters regulated this time around and it won't turn into toast. There were no Government racial quotas on over 60% of the loans that tanked the economy, it was mostly greed and lack of regulations to let them bundle and trade that crap off. As far as Fannie and Freddie, don't forget that Newt is the one who advised them, he has the paychecks to prove it. Him advising what you call a failure makes a great ad campaign for Obama.

"Is this generation turning into a bunch of wimps?"

It's been happening since long before this particular generation.

jb, Cut out that 75% of government that makes sure that you have clean water and food and working sewers, not on my street or store though ok.

Do you know anyone that can get several million dollars to buy some farmland and equipment without some help? Except for Newt and Mittens of course.

as far as cutting 75%, when u work with thieves, you have to break it all the way down. As radical as they, the thieves (AKA all government) have been in spending our money, we have to be just as radical taking it away. Then if we want the roads etc, spoon feed them. Kinda like dealing with an unruly teenager.

As far as borrowing money for farming, there was a time that private enterprise did the lending (AKA banks). Then the government stepped in for their own self interests, and now we have what we have currently. a mess. we need to get away from all the subsidy mentality.

of course it will hurt, but think where we are going now, right down the toilet...

The article says that these are Government backed loans. That means they come from banks etc. and the government just backs them it doesn't make the loans.

Take all the money away and close that sewer plant then try to open it back up a little at a time by spoon feeding money and see how that works.

Each area of Government spending cuts must be investigated and done properly just like they do in private business, you don't just pick a percentage number and start whacking jobs and services untill you get to that number. If you cut in the wrong spot then the whole infrastucture collapses and you have complete chaos and anarchy.