How Has the News Changed Your Daily Life?

[Yppej]

I used to use tap water for boiling food, but ever since the Flint water crisis I use bottled water.

How has the news influenced your daily actions?

[BikingLady]

I have a good though not the best supply of long shelf life foods and water stored, need more.

[Chicken lady]

For a while I was writing and calling my congressional representatives - until it became clear that one was doing just fine without me, one was never going to respond in any way, and one was going to continue to send me form letters that clearly indicated he had heard/read nothing I had to say. (Ie me:“please don’t set fires.” response: “thank you for your concern about fires. My goal is to serve you. Be assured I am setting them as fast as I can.”)

mostly the news news just frustrates me. I’m teaching a class about agriculture. In a normal world I would have my students listen to the president’s speech to the American farm bureau and discuss it. I watched the speech and realized I can’t do that.

[Williamsmith]

For a while I was writing and calling my congressional representatives - until it became clear that one was doing just fine without me, one was never going to respond in any way, and one was going to continue to send me form letters that clearly indicated he had heard/read nothing I had to say. (Ie me:“please don’t set fires.” response: “thank you for your concern about fires. My goal is to serve you. Be assured I am setting them as fast as I can.”)

mostly the news news just frustrates me. I’m teaching a class about agriculture. In a normal world I would have my students listen to the president’s speech to the American farm bureau and discuss it. I watched the speech and realized I can’t do that.

What about the speech led you to that conclusion?

[Lainey]

... (Ie me:“please don’t set fires.” response: “thank you for your concern about fires. My goal is to serve you. Be assured I am setting them as fast as I can.”)

Can definitely relate. But with our senators McCain and Flake both out of the picture soon, we might get a chance at normalcy here in AZ.

Although I do think it's an example of how politicians in particular can easily live in a bubble and only hear the feedback from their satisfied constituents. Or maybe their campaign donors are the only constituents they need to satisfy, hard to tell sometimes. Discouraging for sure.

[Chicken lady]

There are parts of it that are off topic in ways that my students are not mature enough to handle well. Too much class time and energy would end up focused on redirecting them to the pertinate parts and reminding them of the nature of civil debate. A situation which reflects current news coverage and the behavior of their elders.

so, actually I COULD do that, but only if I was willing to focus the class more on civics and debate and less on the agriculture part. The point of my class is not “what do you think about these policies?” It’s “what effect do you think these policies are likely to have and what behavioral responses are likely/reasonable for farmers”

ie, we don’t argue about crop subsidies, we look at the effect they have on price and acreage planted.

[Williamsmith]

There are parts of it that are off topic in ways that my students are not mature enough to handle well. Too much class time and energy would end up focused on redirecting them to the pertinate parts and reminding them of the nature of civil debate. A situation which reflects current news coverage and the behavior of their elders.

so, actually I COULD do that, but only if I was willing to focus the class more on civics and debate and less on the agriculture part. The point of my class is not “what do you think about these policies?” It’s “what effect do you think these policies are likely to have and what behavioral responses are likely/reasonable for farmers”

ie, we don’t argue about crop subsidies, we look at the effect they have on price and acreage planted.

Thank you for that thoughtful response. I was an Agriculture major at Penn State and I must say that because of federal policies and subsidies...politics and agriculture are branches of the same tree. Sit in any dinner in rural America and one realizes conversation always circles back to Washington DC. I wish young people could be convinced that a small farm is a viable vocational pursuit and that chasing the large agribusiness is fraught with too many worries and concerns. Well, there has always been a few organic community farmers but I secretly harbor fantasies of WalMarts and big box groceries vanishing along with the global food product market.

But what was this thread about again? Oh, the fake news.

[Float On]

I wish young people could be convinced that a small farm is a viable vocational pursuit and that chasing the large agribusiness is fraught with too many worries and concerns.

There seems to have been a trend that direction don't you think? I can't tell you the number of small scale farming videos I've watched on youtube and I'm always seeing blogs, magazine articles, interviews with "the new small farmer". I love reading about how much produce can be farmed small scale. Farmers Markets are continuing to grow and the vendors in that 28-42 age range has seem to grown as well. Maybe this should be a different thread since it's not News but I find it more interesting than anything coming out of our national or state news (Missouri) right now. Our 120 acre farm was always considered small-scale and dad always had a full time job in addition to the farm jobs but it had room for hay fields, woods for personal timber and hunting, row crops (we rotated soybean, corn, etc), Christmas tree farm, food plots, personal garden, horses, dogs (raised hunting beagles), cattle (usually a heard of 40), we did sheep for a while (stupid), we did turkeys, we raised pheasants for conservation department. I currently have a huge interest in raising quail either on my own half acre or if I moved back to the farm. Currently the farm is mostly in various conservation programs such as restoring prairie grasses.

[Williamsmith]

There seems to have been a trend that direction don't you think? I can't tell you the number of small scale farming videos I've watched on youtube and I'm always seeing blogs, magazine articles, interviews with "the new small farmer". I love reading about how much produce can be farmed small scale. Farmers Markets are continuing to grow and the vendors in that 28-42 age range has seem to grown as well. Maybe this should be a different thread since it's not News but I find it more interesting than anything coming out of our national or state news (Missouri) right now.

It must be the community I live in that is really aging. Our farmers markets are populated by retirees from the railroad, state and municipal government and part time workers who subsidize their own health care in order to farm. However, I do see your point and think possibly this is a regional matter as I recall visiting Asheville, North Carolina and being impressed with the young “back to nature” crowd buzzing around. As well as the older yippies that sell their art in quaint shops and outlets. I’m an amalgamation of 60s hippie and 80s conservatism, which causes me some profound confusion at times.

[catherine]

I was an Agriculture major at Penn State and I must say that because of federal policies and subsidies...politics and agriculture are branches of the same tree. ...I wish young people could be convinced that a small farm is a viable vocational pursuit and that chasing the large agribusiness is fraught with too many worries and concerns.

I have hope. I personally see more young people, at least in my circles, interested in farming. My CSA/Permaculture/Wellness Center that I've been a part of for 4 years was created by a handful of really bright young Rutgers grads. One of my pet causes is NOFA, which supports the training of young farmers. I agree with Williamsmith that the more we can "grow" the small young farmer, the better off we'll all be.