{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Feeding a Divided America","description":"Gilles Stockton is author of the new book, Feeding a Divided America: Reflections of a Western Rancher in the Era of Climate Change, published by University of New Mexico Press. A third generation cattle rancher, he raises beef cattle and sheep on a 5000-acre ranch in Grass Range, Montana. He\u2019s also an international agriculture development specialist and an advocate for ranching and farming communities. The new book imparts a lifetime of wisdom and analysis of what happened to our agriculture system, why, and how we can create a system that gives power back to the farmers who are actually growing our food. 3\u201901 the book is an extension of his op-ed pieces 4\u201924 multi-generation ranch background 6\u201930 raises cattle and sheep, as well as hay 7\u201914 how Western ranching improves the land 7\u201946 overgrazing damaged the land; it developed from the collapse of homesteading 9\u201947 ranching the only sustainable model of large scale agriculture in the US 10\u201948 the decline of his town early 20th century, and the decline of farms in general 11\u201957 overproduction led first to subsidies, then to the elimination of small farms 13\u201937 200,000 farms produce 80% of our food. The rest are trying to survive in an industrial agriculture economic model that doesn\u2019t really want them 14\u201948 how megafarms came into being in the 1980s\u2013the decision not to enforce antitrust laws, leading to monopolies\/cartels 16\u201957 the problem of externalities 18\u201911 the difference between competitive capitalism (free enterprise where buyer and seller have equal power) and cartel capitalism\u2013which is more like old-style communism 20\u201933 cartels can raise prices indiscriminately 21\u201914 not enough slaughterhouses\u2013system is too centralized 21\u201952 agriculture has never had a golden age\u2013it\u2019s always been difficult 22\u201948 farmer gets 15.9\u00a2 out of consumer dollar 23\u201922 the system steals from the farmer and farm labor 24\u201925 the \u201cillusion of economies of scale\u201d 24\u201945 smaller farmers are better farmers 25\u201920 the role of the farmer has been squeezed out in the name of \u201cefficiency\u201d\u2026then there\u2019s no advocate for the land and animals 26\u201924 what\u2019s lost when you don\u2019t have the farmer on the ground\u2026the land, the workers, the animals 27\u201920 corporate boards instead of farmers are making decisions about things they know nothing about 28\u201923 why monocrops systems are so un-resilient, especially during climate instability 29\u201939 the problem of the super wealthy buying farm land\u2013looks like colonialism 30\u201911 the wealthy neighbors don\u2019t understand how their elk sanctuary affects their ranching neighbors 32\u201902 rural people hate environmentalists more than they hate the corporations that are ruining them 32\u201936 the sense that their vote doesn\u2019t count 33\u201932 \u201cthey don\u2019t ask our opinion\u201d 35\u201916 policy for the last 50 years has been anti-rural. Rural voters vote red, but they don\u2019t do anything for rural people. But blue doesn\u2019t either. 36\u201915 climate change is making things existential 36\u201946 there\u2019s a movement for anti-trust enforcement, which is encouraging 37\u201954 we need to decentralize in order to have a healthier food system \u2014 what that could look like 38\u201935 about 1\/3 of food in France is sold locally, unlike the US where it\u2019s more like 3% 39\u201916 the US imports more food than it exports. So much for \u201cfeed the world\u201d 39\u201947 the need for auction markets for all food commodities (instead of contract work) 40\u201946 we don\u2019t need new anti-trust laws, just enforcement of the existing ones 43\u201904 Citizens United decision of 2010 was a huge gain for the wealthy and corporate power 44\u201915 revitalizing rural communities = revitalizing democracy 45\u201905 the importance of being organized around an idea and staying with it 47\u201904 the local foods movement is extremely important. But it\u2019s very libertarian in its politics, which means that they don\u2019t deal with the globalized competition, they just do their own thing and stay a part of the 3% of local food 48\u201933 the Farm Bill isn\u2019t so much a farm bill as an ag business bill. The orgs doing good work need to organize with each other more 49\u201942 what gives him hope 50\u201935 what happens after Gilles, what is the plan for the next generation ","author_name":"Down to Earth: The Planet to Plate Podcast","author_url":"http:\/\/downtoearthradio.com","html":"