The answer is yes. At least if you are a commodity farmer. U. S. Government Accountability Office auditors found that, in part because of lax oversight, the USDA doles out more than $1 billion a year to farmers who are dead. A cool $200 million of that went to farmers who have been tilling the fields of the Lord for more than seven years. The tenacity with which legislators protect these payments—due to be renewed in the current Farm Bill—to growers of corn, wheat, soybeans, cotton and other commodity crops begs a question: How many of these deceased farmers are still voting?
Patently Absurd
Monsanto has just received a rare setback in its mission to patent on just about every living thing (or so it sometimes seems). Reacting to challenges from the consumer group Public Patent Foundation, The United States Patent and Trademark Office rejected four of the corporate giant's patents on genetically modified seeds. The patents had been the basis of lawsuits filed by Monsanto against farmers who had saved and then planted the patented seeds in question, which had been modified to survive applications of the herbicide Roundup. "We are extremely pleased that the patent office has agreed with us that Monsanto does not deserve these patents," said Dan Ravicher, Public Patent's Executive Director. Monsanto has 60 days to challenge the Patent Office's decision. (A full report appeared in the Memphis Commercial Appeal.)
Going to the Dogs
You never know what you'll learn when you read the FDA's weekly food recall list. The latest posting reports that a company called Castleberry's Food Co. voluntarily recalled 90 canned meat products because of possible contamination with the bacteria that cause botulism. What surprised me was that some of the recalled canned meats were for human consumption, and some were sold as dog food. So, if the bacteria originated from the same source, does that mean...? Oh, never mind. I don't even want to think about it.
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