Instead of subsidizing GMO farmers the government should start subsidizing organic farming. Also much of the desert area in the US was caused by man. Some have started using methods to restore the desert areas caused by man and have been growing food in areas that used to be desert. I feel subsidizing things like that would be more beneficial to the environment and human health. Many are using no till methods of farming and getting very good production from them. There are many natural ways to prevent insect damage to crops that are more effective then pesticides. For example the Amish in my area put birds houses to attract birds and they have far less insect damage then the farmers that use pesticides.
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Love this idea, can we add to this
Subsidize the building of ‘aquaponic/aeroponic’ building throughout the US. The use of these styles of growing will reduce water consumption and energy consumption as whole vs traditional farming. Not only will it free up more land for regenerative agriculture, it will reduce the distance food may travel to reach its destination. With that reduction, we would be able to grow food in any climate, any time of the year, and would not need to rely on importing fruits from South America, or any other location not within a 300 mile radios. This helps with carbon emissions, creates jobs, reduces waste water, increases food production, increases non gmo/organic produce, reduces costs at grocery stores, and increases nutrients as a whole in our foods.
I am sure there may be some other things I am not touching on, but this is one of the best things we would be able to do to keep the food supply chain out of a single persons hands, and back into the hands of true farmers.
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You know something someone pointed out that is very true. When the government subsidizes things they start heavily regulating it limiting things they can and cannot do to qualify for the subsidizing which hinders innovation. They should be cautious about how they regulate things if they subsidize organic farming. Each area of the US has different growing conditions so need to be farmed in their own unique way. If they start over regulating things because something works in one area of the US it could set other farmers up for failure.
Love these ideas, one and all! GMO subsidies must go! Organic, hydroponic and alternative natural farming techniques are the way forward and my addition is use all the soon to be deserted shopping malls across the country as greenhouses. They have no practical use in the future are already electrified and many are fitted with sunroofs! I hate to see them demolished when they could have a second life in health and community.
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Wow we have had some abandoned malls for decades in my area. It bugs me someone hasn’t bought them to use them for something. This would be a great idea.
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We should also require all GMOs to be labelled (no loopholes). I would also like to suggest that we break up the large corporations from farms to manufacturers to grocery chains. Wal-Mart, Kroger, Target, Costco, Pepsi, Tyson, Cargill, JBS, Smithfield, Purdue, Kraft, etc, in order to reestablish meaningful competition.
We need regional wholesalers, local organic food grocery stores to compete with chains like Safeway.
I agree that we should favor local and organic farmers, but it makes sense to get off season produce (apples, pears, and such from the tree from Argentina and Chile in the spring; and regional agreements to provide produce as it moves north from Southern California to northern Canada so that local farmers have large customer bases and don’t have big price drops for raspberries when they are in season locally.) It does not make sense to grow oranges or mangoes locally, which would require greenhouses. There is a benefit to the low cost of transportation and its carbon footprint is relatively small in the overall context of food production.
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