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Local News & Opinion
Ref. : Local Newsbriefs Travel
Letters
Ref. : Letters to the editor Open Letters:
03.05 Open Letter to Congressman Bart Stupak Health & Environment
Video National Health Care Systems In Other Countries 03.12 Slick Barry and the $100-Billion Medicaid/Medicare Fraud Claim 03.09 Kill Bill: Death to Obamacare! 03.09 Obama’s Rhetoric May Be “Fiery,” But His Health Care Reform Is Still Lukewarm 02.24 Obama’s New Plan 02.21 Time to Pass the Health Insurance Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act of 2009 Media Watching
03.12 Cud and Complicity: Burying the Alternatives to Empire's Dominion 03.11 NYT and the ACORN Hoax 03.05 Sorry, Rove, Bush Did Lie About Iraq 03.03 It's Snow News 03.03 The Woeful Washington Post 02.28 The NYT Veers Neocon 02.18 US Media Replays Iraq Fiasco on Iran Ref. : The Daily Howler Legal Matters
02.26 America's Supremes: Court Over Constitution US Politics, Policy & Culture
03.11 Power Rangers: Policing the System With the "Fightin' Progressives" 03.09 Thinking About Countings 03.07 Unnatural Acts: Breaking the Fever of Militarism 02.25 Future Shock: A Better World Beyond the Imperium 02.24 The Last Flight of Joe Stack 02.22 Thinking About Sadie 02.18 All Systems Go: No Dysfunction in Profitable Afghan Enterprise High Crimes?
03.16 America's Secret Prisons 03.13 Palestinian Dispossession in East Jerusalem 03.12 Israeli Settlement Expansions Continue 03.11 Brutalizing Palestinian Children 03.08 The Russell Tribunal on Palestine: Barcelona Session 03.05 Targeting Israeli Apartheid 03.01 America's Permanent War Agenda 02.25 Global Sweatshop Wage Slavery 02.23 Israeli Unaccountability and Denial: Suppressing the Practice of Torture 02.22 American Genocides: is Haiti Next? 02.18 Israeli Abusive Administrative Detentions 02.16 MK-ULTRA: The CIA's Mind Control Program Economics & Business Non/Mis/Malfeasance
03.14 The Crisis in America's Telecommunications Network 03.09 The Business of Water: Privatizing An Essential Resource 03.05 Is the Recovery Real? 03.04 IMF-Style Austerity Measures come to America: What “Fiscal Responsibility” Means To You 03.04 Barry C. Lynn's "Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and Economics of Destruction" 03.01 Thinking About Fees 02.22 Campaigning for State-Owned Banks 02.22 Social Security Will Fall To Obama Before The Taliban Do 02.19 Obama’s Stealth Entitlement Commission 02.19 Selling Out America to Wall Street International
03.15 Peace Process Hypocrisy: Stillborn from Inception 03.03 Muslim Disunity 03.02 Funding Israeli Militarism, Belligerence and Occupation 02.26 Iran Captures a 'Good' Terrorist 02.24 The Dubai Hit 02.22 Holland Has Had Enough: Killing of Innocent Civilians Goes On Apace in Afghanistan 02.19 The Placeman Cometh: New IAEA Chief Stokes Iran War Fever for the Bush-Obama Regime We are a non-profit Internet-only newspaper publication founded in 1973. Your donation is essential to our survival.
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VIEWPOINT:Water, Water, Everywhere, But Not a Drop to.....Farm WithMuch of the adverse effect of the drought on Maryland farming can be attributed to an increase in the growth of corn, a drought-sensitive crop.
Maryland is currently facing a drought crisis so severe that, in the opinion of Earl "Buddy" Hance, a fifth-generation farmer in Calvert County and the state's Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, it's the worst in a quarter-century. Certain parts of Maryland, mostly in Southern Maryland and the lower Eastern Shore, haven't seen significant rain since May, leading Governor Martin O'Malley to ask federal authorities to declare a drought disaster in parts of the state, hoping to open up federal aid for farmers hurt by the dry conditions.Along with O'Malley's plea to federal authorities, Senator Barbara A. Mikulski and Representative Wayne Gilchrest have been advancing the federal aid cause in Washington, the former by preparing a letter of support, the latter by meeting with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns to discuss the drought. In my view, this is the wrong end of the stick. Though federal aid is certainly needed, it is a band-aid rather than a true fix. And though I support any attempt to create a more bio-friendly fuel, corn ethanol is not it. Given the remarkable inefficiencies of corn-derived ethanol in both production and use when compared to sugar cane-derived ethanol, cellulose-derived ethanol and algae-derived ethanol, and the fact that much of our food product is corn-based (see Michael Pollan's excellent book The Omnivore's Dilemma), the logistics of using corn as a fuel are currently unresolvable. Though farms would be hurting from the drought regardless of the type of crops planted, the situation is being exacerbated by the false expectations of corn ethanol as a biofuel. In addition to fixing the temporary problem of this drought, our public officials also need to concentrate on biofuel education so that the next drought doesn't affect our farmers to the same extent. Andre German writes from Harford County, Md.
Copyright © 2007 The Baltimore Chronicle. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Baltimore Chronicle content is expressly prohibited without their prior written consent. This story was published on July 26, 2007 and amended on July 27, 2007. |
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