Project 2025: Environmental Impacts Part V (USDA)
When did feeding people become a bad thing? That is the question stuck in my head after reading Chapter 10, Department of Agriculture (USDA), by Daren Bakst from Project 2025. Let’s start this week’s exploration with a quick look at the author of this chapter, Daren Bakst. Here’s a look at Bakst’s credentials: senior fellow at The Heritage Foundation and Director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment. He also worked for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the John Locke Foundation, a conservative think tank based in North Carolina. He claims to be one of “the most effective advocates for Free Market Environmentalism.” What is Free Market Environmentalism? Basically, it’s absurd foolishness trying to pretend to be environmentalism but which actually focuses on protecting private property rights and, more importantly, creating ways for a select few to earn lots and lots of money.
Bakst jumps right into the chapter with attacking the current USDA mission and vision statements:
Mission: “To serve all Americans by providing effective, innovative, science-based public policy leadership in agriculture, food and nutrition, natural resource protection and management, rural development, and related issues with a commitment to deliverable equitable and climate-smart opportunities that inspire and help America thrive.”
Vision: “An equitable and climate smart food and agriculture economy that protects and improves the health, nutrition and quality of life of all Americans, yields healthy land, forests and clean water, helps rural America thrive, and feeds the world.”
What does Bakst claim? That the USDA’s mission and vision put climate and equity above food safety and inhibit food production. What? How does science and natural resource protection and rural development not help food safety and food production? I can’t do the mental gymnastics that are required to follow his logic.
Here’s what he thinks should replace the above mission statement:
“To develop and disseminate agricultural information and research, identify and address concrete public health and safety threats directly connected to food and agriculture, and remove both unjustified foreign trade barriers for U.S. goods and domestic government barriers that undermine access to safe and affordable food absent a compelling need—all based on the importance of sound science, personal freedom, private property, the rule of law, and service to all Americans.”
Basically, he wants to remove sound science, supporting rural communities, and encouraging health – including environmental health – and replace it with expanding private property rights, removing foreign trade barriers, and something about the rule of law and service to all Americans. Yep, it makes no sense to me, either.
Here’s another prime example of ridiculousness, from pages 292-293:
“A recent USDA-created program captures both the disrespect for American farmers and the Biden Administration’s effort to dictate agricultural practices. The USDA explained that it was concerned with farmers not transitioning to organic farming, and therefore announced that it will dedicate $300 million to induce farmers to adopt organic farming. There was no recognition that farmers know how to farm better than D.C. politician or a that organic food is expensive and land-intensive. The Biden Administration has also been pushing so-called ‘climate-smart’ agricultural practices which received additional support in the partisan Inflation Reduction Act.”
So basically Bakst, not a farmer, but a policy guy himself, is saying that DC politicians should not dictate what farmers do, but we should listen to him? Based upon this news release from the USDA on the Organic Transition Program, this was a voluntary program trying to help farmers earn more money while being even better environmental stewards. That’s the exact opposite of what Bakst is claiming.
Okay, so back to feeding people. Much of Chapter 10 in Project 2025 focuses on greatly reducing or eliminating many programs that provide critical food assistance and food nutritional support – the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children Food Program (WIC), National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, and many others. There are too many to cover in this short of a piece, but you can read Chapter 10 of Project 2025 if you want more details.
My main takeaway after reading this chapter is around how the authors of Project 2025 seemed to miss the lesson on “sharing” in their own learning. I believe I was three or four years old when I first grasped the concept of sharing with others. As I moved into kindergarten, I remember taking in and practicing the idea that if you have more of something, you can share it with others. For example, if you have more crayons than your fellow classmates, then you can share your crayons with them. In return, they’ll share back. It sounds simple, yet Bakst and others seem to not want us to share with one another.
Here are some facts to take in about all of these food assistance and nutrition programs that I believe substantiate the idea of sharing and why feed people should not be considered a radical concept:
In FY 2023, there was ~$166 billion budgeted to support all USDA food assistance and nutrition programs, including SNAP, WIC, etc.
The US Federal government received $4.4 trillion in revenue for FY 2023, including personal income taxes and other taxes.
This means about 3.7% of taxes and revenue went to providing food and other programs necessary for the life and health of our people.
Of the many things our government spends money on that I do not agree with, feeding people is not on that list. As others have said, “Let’s Make America Kind Again”. Feeding our neighbors and sharing should not be concepts that are attacked, they should be celebrated. As we are now in harvest season, this is a great reminder that we can share our bounties with others.
I wish everyone a great week and am now going to head out into the garden, harvest some food, and share with others because I believe in a world where sharing and feeding each other is fundamental!