CAFO Alternatives and Solutions

Huge factory farm operations called Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are growing in number. The advocates for CAFOs claim they are a necessary, more efficient way to produce cheap food. But is this true? Are there economical alternatives to industrial agriculture? Opponents to CAFOs, backed up by a growing body of research, say there are better ways to economically raise meat. CAFOs are not the inevitable result of market forces. Alternative production methods can be economically efficient and technologically sophisticated, and can deliver abundant animal products while avoiding most of the problems caused by CAFOs Are Factory ...

How Would You Spend $1 Trillion Dollars?

How Would You Spend $1 Trillion Dollars? It is tax time again. Where do your taxes go? Would you rather see your tax dollars spent better? If you could be in charge, how would you spend $1 trillion? Budgets are about choices. It is about choosing what you can do, or not do, with limited resources. Congress sets spending priorities each year in the Federal “discretionary” budget. They decide whether to spend more on education or tax breaks, cancer research or food stamps, space exploration or housing assistance, diplomacy or bombs. The Federal budget is huge and complicated. The budget can be confusing because people are not ...

HOW WOULD YOU SPEND $1 TRILLION?

If you could set the priorities, how would you spend the money? Look at current Federal budget priorities and vote for how you would prioritize funds.

UWS Outsourcing One Year Later

In May of 2014, the University of Wisconsin at Superior announced plans to outsource the campus custodians and grounds keepers as part of budget cutting plans. Throughout 2014 controversy raged about the necessity and wisdom of this action. In the end 27 people were laid off and their jobs were contracted out to a private, out-of-state company. What has been the impact of this action one year later? What happened to the laid off workers? What kind of jobs does the contractor offer? Did taxpayers save money? What has been the impact on Superior and the local economy? What happened? When UWS management announced the outsourcing, they ...

25 Years of Bombing Iraq

Sunday, January 17 marked 25 years of bombing people in Iraq. It should be obvious that bombing is not effective and is not the answer. It does not solve problems and it does not keep anyone “safe.” A quarter-century later war continues. Bombing began in 1991 with the first Gulf War. It continued with a decade of a no fly zone. Then came the 2nd Gulf War from 2003 to 2011. The U.S. today is bombing Iraq and Syria in a vain effort to defeat ISIS. At the same time we’ve created millions of refugees, sent billions of dollars in weapons to the region, and sabotaged peace-making opportunities by refusing to talk with all parties ...

The Cost of Cheap Food

In economics, as in much of life, everything has consequences. There are always trade-offs. You reap what you sow. The proposed CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation) in Bayfield County is no exception. We all want and benefit from cheap food. But what are the consequences? Proponents of CAFOs claim that modern, large scale agriculture is more efficient. Cheap food is supposedly a great success story of the American economy. But is modern agriculture really cheaper or have many of the inevitable costs simply been ignored or shifted to someone else? CAFOs are large “factory farms” that confine animals to a small area, usually ...

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