Glenn Beck: Save the planet...don't grow food

Do you Notice with all the talk in todays politics, that not much gets said about AGRICULTURE? I do remember a time when farmers drove their big tractors and combines into DC and circled the White House...but generally the Voice of farmers and ranchers is seldom heard. We are by nature just too damn busy!! So when Glenn Beck brought up ag related commentary two days in a row, one on Beef and the other on Crops, generally on food production...it got my attention!

Here's the jist of what he said on his program....

During the Great Depression, millions were hungry, but crop and livestock prices were so low that producers could not live off the land, so FDR adjusted supply by paying farmers to destroy ten million acres of crops and kill six million farm animals. Tim Geithner talks about that same market today, "The market can't solve this problem. Only government can." Cap and Trade is his solution and here is an example.

Rex Woollen grows corn and soybeans. In 2007, the Wilcox, Nebraska farmer started cultivating a new commodity: Carbon. By not tilling 800 acres, Woollen by some estimates keeps 470 tons of carbon per year in the ground and out of the atmosphere and because of that, Woollen gets carbon credits that he can then sell to the Chicago Climate Exchange. Do you see what's happening here? By not growing crops, he saves carbon and he gets paid for it. Woollen gets $3,000 a year, while it's not much to Woollen, it hints at a bigger potential profit as congress considers mandatory nationwide greenhouse gas limits. For now he's only getting paid a little for not growing crops, but should that go up once the government gets involved, he's thinking there could be a lot of money here. Some state farm lawmakers want to let farmers create separate sources of carbon allowances. Farmers who plant trees would earn offsets to sell alongside government permits on carbon markets. So not only can you earn cash as a farmer by not farming, you can also get more if you plant things that aren't crops. And people say that common sense is dead. You know that Barack Obama wants a cap and trade bill and you know that farm states would be key votes to getting it passed so you can expect a lot more of this kind of nonsense on the horizon. But what about the Chicago Climate Exchange itself?

Well, guess who was on the board of the charity that gave over a million dollars in crucial funds to the Chicago Climate Exchange during its infancy? Yeah, Barack Obama. In fact, even some environmentalists are admitting they worry a little bit about cap and trade, noticing what it actually is, a brand new giant derivatives market. But what could possibly happen with a derivatives market going bad? I mean, that's not like that could derail our entire economy or anything, right?

In defense of farmers and ranchers, who happen to be a group of people with the most 'Common Sense', will do whatever they are forced to do to preserve and protect the Land and to Survive and keep their operation viable in any market. Farms and Ranches are generally FAMILY businesses, passed from prior generations, maintained to be passed on to future generations. It will be the new Corporate farms and ranches that will jump on this 'Carbon Train'!

Story on Glenn Beck's Show