The idea that New Mexico should move its primary elections date to an even earlier time is being pushed by the GOP at the legislature. Why? Well because that way the Koch brothers and their 1% brethren can have more time to spend even more money on general elections. The idea that it would give New Mexico more national attention is just bullshit. (APD has fulfilled that job) It is meant to use American corporate power even more ruthlessly against our democracy. This bill is right up there with attempts by the fossil fuel boys and ranchers who insist that federal public lands are really state lands and should be turned over to them. Of course this will never happen but it does camouflage the real issues in Santa Fe.
The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District has a new General Manager. This is one of the most ignored taxing authorities in the state and it is one of the most powerful. It manages to get urban dwellers to pay for 90% of the costs of irrigation systems for farmers. It controls vast amounts of water with little or no interference from anyone. It is run by a board that has never been able to break away from petty politics and bad management. Maybe the new guy can make some headway, but I doubt it. I wish him good luck.
1 comment:
I wonder if farmers only paying 10 percent of the costs of irrigation leaves them vulnerable to the other 90 percent telling them how to do business?
Another way of putting it is that the people who pay for the irrigation system should have some say in how the water is used.
I don't say this in an ominous context. Just thinking.
My contention is that New Mexico's agriculture industry should get together and decide to go all organic. The state government could play a role and make it easier to do.
The organic label is becoming more marketable all the time. Even up here at my west side Smith's supermarket, which seemed like one of the last places for organic to catch on, the organic selection for all kinds of foodstuffs is now increasing rapidly.
A few years ago some New Mexican Hispanic farmers converted to organic. It was probably an economic decision but one of them told an interviewer that it was fairly easy to make the switch because in New Mexico no one had ever been able to afford chemical fertilizers anyway.
It just gets me thinking about the cultural aspects of New Mexico that might make something like a transition to all organic more feasible. In Mora County last summer they banned fracking. People talked about putting more importance on water than on oil, that water has to do with their way of life.
If you think about that part of New Mexico, and that aspect of New Mexico, the "northern New Mexico" aspect, it just strikes me that being the only state to be all organic might be something you could get people interested in. It would draw a lot of attention, too. "New Mexico" might become a "brand" associated with healthy food or good food, with independence, with bucking the agribusiness corporations and so forth.
There would be some Anglo ranchers who would oppose it out of meanness and ideological narrowness, but if they saw the potential for economic benefit that trumps everything.
Post a Comment