Out Of Touch

Funny thing - I was reading through past Food Forethoughts the other day and happened to run across one I wrote last year about this time and I had to laugh, or I would have cried, at how nothing seems to have changed in a year’s time when it comes to Congress and the farm bill. To quote myself, I wrote, “Time is running out for those hoping that Congress will pass a new farm bill by the end of the year. Many economic experts compare the Farm Bill discussions to those of the 1991 Farm Bill, and agree that if Congress were willing to compromise, there’d still be time to complete the Farm Bill. Most of the bickering continues to be over food stamps…” I proceeded with particulars from there, but you get the idea. Here we are a year down the road and still nothing to show for it. The experts predict that some kind of agreement can be reached; that Congress will be able to come to a compromise and pass a farm bill. It should be rather obvious even to members of Congress that not doing so and pushing yet another extension would be tantamount to political suicide for both parties. But then this Congress seems to have been out of touch with reality and their constituents for a very long time.