Rural Campaign An article in the Capitol Hill news outlet Politico declares the USDA-issued document "Strengthening Rural Communities" to be "Obama's play for the rural vote." Perhaps, but it is a play for a very narrow subset of the sector. The report brags that there are now more than a quarter million organic cows, ignoring that is a very small share (2 percent) of the total herd. Moreover, it uses a base period (2000-08) that precedes the Obama Administration. There is now discussion of the productivity lag as a result of making milk with this non-science-based standard.The report also emphasizes that public agriculture research delivers returns of 10-20 times, and shows a slight recent uptick. But it matters where the money is spent...

TAGS – Biofuels, Energy, Australia