Green Revolution Tried to Solve Poverty

From the Heartland, Margot McMillen writes: This morning I had the privilege of talking to a Forum, sort of a Sunday morning gathering of the Unitarians in Columbia. Some of the gatherers were emeritus professors from Mizzou that remembered the Green Revolution and Norman Borlaug with great fondness. Howard said I should have started the talk with a salute to those times because there’s no doubt that they were acting from the best parts of their hearts. They thought that by sharing American seeds and know-how with farmers all over the world they’d solve the problems of hunger and poverty. Now, of course, we know that the unexpected consequence was the unplanned change of all the crops raised around the world. Rather than solve poverty, we increased rural poverty by taking away the traditions of saving seeds that would have been free to farmers and adapted to their ecosystems. Unfortunately, I didn’t start the talk with the salute but with the U.S.D.A. statistic that Americans eat 12% more pounds of food today than in 1970. As I often say to my young friends, I hope you can solve the problems that we’ve created. When I got home another friend on the phone was complaining about the Missouri legislature and their new ideas about how to ensure that “modern farming practices” are “forever guaranteed” under the constitution. “Whatever they want, I’m against it,” said my friend. He was talking about HJR 7&11 and SJR 22. “Modern farming practices” are not defined in these bills. This is a major problem because these “future” practices could be anything (from corporate controlled CAFOs, to cloned animals, to robot tractors, to complete control of the seed supply…). Well, it’s Easter, and a bunch of neighbors were taking a trail ride but I got home too late to go along. Still, in a sidebar too long to start on, we found a home for an orphaned puppy, shepherd/lab/husky mix. So the day wasn’t a total bust.

Eat Here St. Louis

From the Heartland, Margot McMillen writes: After so many recent failures in politics, where all they do is support the food giants, it’s great to hear a success story from the people. So here’s one about my friend Andy, who runs a business called Eat Here St. Louis. He brings high-quality fresh food from family farms to chefs in St. Louis. Andy had been working to get St. Louis University into his program for months. They had begun to get interested in local food and had even started a project in 2012 with Maplewood School system that involved the SLU culinary arts program, nutrition program and the school system. Last summer, when produce was plentiful, they were freezing fresh produce and keeping it in their freezers for the schools to use. How cool is that??? But something didn’t work out. We’re used to this in the local-foods world. The start-ups are always fragile but we keep trying. The schools couldn’t buy the produce—there might have been a grant involved or else it was a budget shortfall, I don’t know. But here’s why you need fearless people like Andy. He was able to buy a walk-in freezer from a franchise store that was going out of business. Now he’s buying the frozen food from SLU and selling it to chefs. It’s obviously better than they can get from other outlets. So, now SLU can continue their program, training their students, and they’re now even more committed to the local-foods idea. OK. So that’s the whole story and I think we’ll be hearing about more successes. Maybe we can even make it happen in Callaway and Boone Counties! Happy Spring, ya’all! March is going out like a lamb and it’s March 29, 2013.

Continuing Resolution Continues Bad Policy

From the Heartland, Margot McMillen writes: Here in Missouri, the ice has melted and we’re waking to beautiful mornings with just a hint of crispness in the air. It feels like spring. But how can things seem so good here when they’re so bad in Washington DC? The continuing resolution passed with the Monsanto protection act in full bloom. Here’s the statement from Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food and Water Watch: Washington, D.C.—“Today, the Senate passed a continuing resolution that was laden with special interest policy riders. Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland) and Ranking Member Richard Shelby (R-Alabama) abdicated their responsibility by offering a stale spending bill from last year that is loaded with special legislative giveaways to big agribusiness companies. The heavy-handed and undemocratic process used to force the Senate to accept a deeply flawed proposal allowed votes on only nine amendments. “The Senate was not allowed to consider two amendments offered by Senator Tester (D-Montana) that would have removed policy riders that favored the largest seed companies and the largest meatpackers. Senator Tester rightly observed that these policy riders were worth millions of dollars to these companies. “One of Senator Tester’s amendments would have removed a provision that prevents the U.S. Department of Agriculture from implementing livestock marketing and contract fairness rules that were included in the 2008 Farm Bill. Food & Water Watch and hundreds of farm groups worked to include these vital livestock provisions in the 2008 Farm Bill to protect farmers from unfair and deceptive practices by meatpacking and poultry companies. “Another of Senator Tester’s amendments would have removed a giveaway to genetically engineered seed companies that would allow the continued planting of GE crops even when a court of law has found they were approved illegally. This provision undermines USDA’s oversight of GE crops and unnecessarily interferes with the judicial review process. This favor to the biotech industry was not included in the House-passed continuing resolution and should never have been included in the Senate version. “One thing that the Senate got right was finding a solution for funding meat and poultry inspection that would avoid USDA inspector furloughs. The funding cuts triggered by sequestration would have required USDA to furlough its meat and poultry inspectors for up to two weeks this summer, causing the plants they inspect to stop operating. The House should maintain this funding for USDA meat and poultry inspection to ensure that this critical consumer protection program can continue to operate.” Here’s my statement: Business as usual for agribusiness means dinner at risk for eaters.

The EEZ is ba-a-a-a-a-ck

From the Heartland, Margot McMillen writes: My husband and I like to use old phrases, just to hear them and keep them going. So we might say “you’re closing the barn door after the horses are gone” when we mean “It’s just too late for that action” or “strike when the iron’s hot” when we mean “you can accomplish that goal if you do it right now.” Today the headline on the newspaper was “EEZ map abandoned: New map based on 2010 census.” The story explained that the Fulton Area Development Corporation needed to use the 2010 map to build their inventory of land where they could offer corporations special tax deals. The old map included our neighborhood, which is a quiet rural neighborhood with most people enjoying the green space around us—the cows, the corn, the ponds—and we don’t want to see it paved over. So we objected, and so did a lot of other people in the county, some in the EEZ and some out of it. The arguments generally went, “well, if part of the county is in the zone it will affect the rest. Property values will be all over the place, mostly in a bad way.” Now that FADC has abandoned the old map, my sweetie said, maybe they’ll abandon the plan. “No way.” I said, and this is the old-phrase part, “They’re like a dog with a bone.” He looked at me in a puzzled way. “You know,” I said, “It means they won’t give it up. They’ll keep it until it’s all gone. Like that.” “Oh,” he said, understanding, “You mean ‘like a cat with a rabbit.’”

Lost dog

From the Heartland, Margot McMillen writes: At about 6:30 this morning, I was still in bed when I heard the thunder and saw lightning. Looked outside and saw… thunder snow. A snow storm with thunder in the background. I’ve only seen/heard this a couple of other times in my life, and all of the times this year. Watched a while, then back to sleep for an hour or so. The phone woke me up. It was Walker, calling from his spring break trip to Colorado. Back here in Missouri, Mazzie the farm dog had run off and a neighbor had trapped her in his garage. She’s really afraid of thunder and lightning. I imagined her, huddled in a strange garage. Could I go retrieve her? Stupid us! I could have brought her home with me so easily…yesterday. But the snow was now 6” deep. And my gravel road wouldn’t possibly be plowed. Who would get her? We brainstormed a few seconds. “Carl?” he said. “Carl!” I answered. Our young neighbor with cattle on half a dozen fields around here. He’s out and about in the worst weather, feeding cows or calves every which way. I called him and he jumped on it, said if he couldn’t get there by truck he’d take his tractor. I called him a couple of hours later and she was safe in his barn, close to his dogs but in a pen to keep her safe, with a bowl of water and a pan of food. He said she snuggled with him all the way home. That’s why we love our neighbors. It’s March 24, 2013, 3:28 p.m. and the snow still coming down.

HJR 7&11 and SJR 22 “forever guarantees”

From the Heartland, Margot McMillen writes: We have a fight on our hands. Missouri Citizens v. Missouri lawmakers. It’s truly appalling how these Missouri legislators and senators, elected on platforms of local control, have fallen for the corporate factory farm lines. We have to phone, e-mail, fax them and stand up to this kind of misrepresentation! HJR 7 & 11 and SJR 22 are marching through the halls, as far as I can tell the lawmakers haven’t read them and the lobbyists are saying the bills do what the citizens want! That means they promote “No regulation!” But even the most cursory read reveals that these take away property rights and turn our freedoms over to the corporations. They will result in constitutional amendments that change rather than protect the constitution! These vaguely worded constitutional amendments could strip Local Control from Missouri counties (both urban and rural), taking away their power to protect constituents, family farmers and Missouri citizens from the negative impacts of corporate controlled agriculture through Local Control. HJR 7&11 and SJR 22 “forever guarantees” “modern farming practices” under the constitution. Neither current, nor future “modern farming practices” are defined in these bills. So, these “future” undefined practices could be anything (from robot tractors to unhealthy chemicals to corporate controlled CAFOs, to cloned animals, to complete control of the seed supply…). “Forever” protecting future unknown and undefined “modern” ag and food practices is completely irresponsible and should not be in our constitution. HJR 7&11 and SJR 22 could give corporate agri-business the complete and unbridled right over Missouri counties to exploit any future “agricultural technologies” simply to increase their profits, even if it comes at the expense of family farmers, our food system, property rights and rural economies.

Industrial fishing in the Maldives

From the Heartland, Margot McMillen writes: Shauna Aminath was on campus yesterday, talking about global warming and the situation in her homeland, the Maldives. The Maldives are a circle of small islands just off the coast of India, protected by coral reefs, and they are being swamped by sea water that is rising because the ice caps are melting. The ice caps are melting because carbon dioxide is building up in the atmosphere, trapping the heat of the sun and making earth’s temperature rise. Shauna’s challenge is about the ecosystem, yes, but it’s also about politics. The democratically-elected government, led by an elected President, was ousted by a military-backed dictator. She had worked hard for the President and is working toward a new election to reinstate him. As soon as I understand that politics is the problem, I begin to look for the financial backers. Shauna guesses that the petroleum companies have something to do with it, but there are no resources in the Maldives they’d want at this time. After our brief conversation, I realized that I know her story. It’s the same one we have here on the prairie. Our resources are democracy and socially-just family-raised products. In her case it’s fish and in our case it’s crops and livestock but the corporate forces want to own them both. One of the members of the National Family Farm Coalition is NAMI, a North Atlantic fishing cooperative. Their story is that industrial-size fishing trawlers are taking over the waters of family-run fishing boats. To the industrial fishers, those islands are just nuisances. The industry just wants to get rid of all of us, humans in the way of their industrial harvesters. That’s all for today. March 22, 2013.

Wes Shoemyer and the Threats of Bad Policy

From the Heartland, Margot McMillen writes: Hannah and I interviewed Wes Shoemyer on Farm and Fiddle last night. Wes was a Missouri state rep until he termed out and then a state senator until 2012 when he returned to the Monroe County farm where he farms with family members including his dad and his son. Pretty great to hear from a guy who’s still farming the land his dad grew up on. We talked about that—the wisdom of the elders—and agreed that the years of experience give them a special insight into the land, their ecosystem. And, as Wes pointed out, whatever a youngster comes up with, the elders have probably tried at some time, so you can benefit from their experience as you tinker with your system. We spent most of our hour talking about the effects of policy on farmers. Wes was speaking particularly about genetically modified crops (GMOs) and confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Both these strategies have received plenty of backing from corporations and the government. For GMOs, there’s a whole body of U.S. patent law that prevents farmers from saving seeds. So that when they need to plant soybeans, they’re paying $65 a bag this season. Just a decade ago, when they saved seeds, they could clean out the weed seeds and plant for free. Our wheat farmers still benefit from cleaned seeds, free ones from last year’s crop, because no GMO wheats have been approved. But all the soybeans, corn, canola, cotton and sugar beets have the GMO gene now. If the GMO protection act sneaks through congress as a rider on one bill or another, our wheat crops will be in a similar predicament. Wes also pointed out that when it comes to Confined Animal Feeding Operations, which are known as single-use buildings, there’s a U.S. guaranteed loan that the boys can get. To a banker, it’s a no-brainer to lend to a CAFO instead of a diversified farmer. If they both go belly-up, the banker gets taxpayer dollars to cover the loan. Clearly, these policies have changed rural America and the generations that kept the land are being moved off. We need to get rid of these policies, or change them, so the land and the American food system can be restored. That’s it for today. March 21, 2012. Happy Equinox, ya’all!

Hey, U.S. Senate! Pass the Tester Amendments!

From the Heartland, Margot McMillen writes: The Senate Substitute Continuing Resolution Appropriations bill has still not passed. This means that the evil riders that remove restrictions against unapproved biotech plantings and livestock industry’s farmer abuse have still not passed. Senator Jon Tester has asked for the riders to be removed and his amendments are numbers 74 and 75. It’s easy to call our senators by dialing 877-757-6910 and asking for the senators by name. Mine are Claire McCaskill and Roy Blunt—one wimpy D and one raging R. So, this morning, I asked them to stand up for family farmers by helping pass the Tester amendments. Interestingly, I have no idea which of them will support or not support us. My organic farming friends and small farmers have the most at stake, but industry has the money to buy the votes of senators. How sad. That’s all for today, March 19, 2013.

Women's Herstory

From the Heartland, Margot McMillen writes: It’s women’s history month, remember, so I’ve gotten lots of chances to talk about my book, The Golden Lane: How Missouri Women Gained the Vote and Changed History. Funny thing is that because I know a little history, interviewers ask me about the future. Stuff like, “When will we have a woman as governor? When will we have a woman president?” and “if we had more women in government, would we have a better health care system? Would we have same-sex marriage? And would abortion laws be secure?” Here’s the deal. Even if we had an all-woman government, we’d have differences of opinion, big ones. Women care more about social issues, but we don’t agree on much. That said, if we want laws that put relationships, families, women and children, in first place, it doesn’t matter if men or women are in charge. What matters is the way we think about government and ourselves. If people start to think that relationships are in first place, ahead of corporate greed, we’ll take better care of each other and make better policies, no matter who’s making them. It’s St. Patrick’s Day! Have a good one!

We can prevent bad behavior from the U.S. Senate

From the Heartland, Margot McMillen writes: Kathy Ozer, from the National Family Farm Coalition, wrote that “The votes on the Senate amendments will be no earlier than Monday as they didn’t reach an agreement last night.” She was talking about votes on The Senate Continuing Resolution spending bill, which should have nothing in it except items pertaining to spending. Instead, it contains two bad riders that would protect bad corporate behavior and hurt independent farmers, environmentalists and consumers. One of these riders would actually encourage corporate concentration in the livestock industry, and eliminate competition. For an idea of what that would mean, see the article in the Atlantic that follows the chicken industry, which was the first to become dangerously concentrated. Nowadays, there are few inspectors and regulations, because the corporations can pass any stupid laws they want. People are getting sick and the epidemic of urinary tract infections has been traced to bacteria on chickens. How stupid can we get? The “biotech rider” (section 735) would protect biotech companies from any kind of regulation if they want to try out some new kind of genetically modified crop on the land. Now that 50% of farmland in the U.S. has “superweeds” that cannot be killed with an ordinary herbicide like Roundup, there’s no telling what the biotech companies are cooking up to plant and then spray with who-knows-what. It’s a scary situation, for sure. If the rider passes, federal courts, who have occasionally stopped the planting of illegal crops, would have no authority to stop the planting of these illegal crops. The rider was originally part of the Farm Bill that didn’t pass last year, and then it was attached to a house appropriations bill and now has appeared from the senate side. There will be a vote very soon, maybe tomorrow, rushed through to get it approved before planting season. These biotech companies, with their bins of experimental seeds, are just itching to get more income streams going and they want to plant them this year. Senator Tester is leading on the challenge to these riders and he needs us to give him cover. RAFI is working on a petition regarding the GIPSA rider and the Center for Food Safety has the biotech rider. Go to those websites and help them out. Here are the links: http://rafiusa.org/takeaction/urgent-action-alert/ http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/1881/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=9982

Another Monsanto Protection Act

From the Heartland, Margot McMillen writes: Well, here’s a piece of crap. The Senate Continuing Resolution spending bill, which should have nothing in it except items pertaining to spending, contains the “biotech rider” (section 735) that would protect biotech companies from any kind of regulation if they want to try out some new kind of illegal, hazardous invented crop on the land. Federal courts, who have occasionally stopped the planting of illegal crops, would have no authority to stop the planting of these illegal crops. The rider was originally part of the Farm Bill that didn’t pass last year, and then it was attached to a house appropriations bill and now has appeared from the senate side. There will be a vote very soon, maybe tomorrow, rushed through to get it approved before planting season. These biotech companies, with their bins of experimental seeds, are just itching to get more income streams going and they want to plant them this year. The Center for Food Safety is leading on this issue and has petitions on their website to sign. Here’s what they say: “There are two asks: 1) urge your Senator to oppose the biotech rider and support any amendment that would strike the rider, and 2) Tell Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Mikulski that she should not support the biotech rider. Feel free to use this as a template: http://bit.ly/DumpTheMonsantoRider (feel free to call it either the “biotech rider” or “Monsanto rider”)” You, dear reader, must help strike this amendment. Call, write or e-mail your Senator right now. That’s the only way we can get Senators to take this situation seriously.

Lobby Day in Missouri

From the Heartland, Margot McMillen writes: Today was “lobby day” for the Missouri Rural Crisis Center. The capitol was packed with citizens working for one issue or another. Lots of farmers came with our group and another group of dairy farm supporters appeared. There were also a good number of folks from the faith community working on Medicaid expansion, a larger-than-usual contingent of motorcycle riders, but I don’t know what they were working on. Our farmers seemed to have good luck talking to the Senate. As I listened to the reports from the various little teams, I heard more optimism than usual. Senators and staff were all ready to talk, and they understood how bad the bills—especially HJR 7 and 11—were. We were joking—but it’s not really funny—that if HJR 7 &11 passes, a corporation could put a Confined Animal Feeding Operation with hogs or turkeys in the middle of St. Louis. Or, funnier still, in the neighborhoods like Clayton and Ladue where the big Monsanto execs live. There’s a big dead zone in St. Louis where the auto plants have moved out and the sites leveled, a big brown zone, and it would be perfect for a bunch of stinky hogs. Talk about your urban agriculture! Anyway, it was a good day and we’ll see what happens. March 12, 2013.

Dairy: the most fragile agriculture of all

From the Heartland, Margot McMillen writes: Sad news today. Another dairy processor, in Monett, has announced they’re shutting down. They can’t get enough milk to keep the plant going, because farmers have stopped keeping cows. I had a talk with Dave Drennon, Missouri’s dairy industry scorekeeper, and he says our state was #2 in the nation in numbers of cows back in the late 1970s. The city of Springfield was nicknamed “little Madison” after the Wisconsin capital. Our location was perfect for dairy—lots of grain in the north part of the state and pasture in the south. Now the grain is going to make ethanol for cars instead of milk for people. We’re #25 and falling. We “import” 60% of the milk we use in the state. We’ve laid off hundreds of thousands of workers in the dairy business, from farmers to processors to veterinarians to builders and fixers of equipment. All of those workers did business in their local communities, so every layoff has a ripple effect. Tomorrow at noon, the University is to make a report to the legislature on the economic impact of losing dairy farms. I hope they pay attention. That’s enough for today. March 11, 2013.

Kurt Schaefer's legacy

From the Heartland, Margot McMillen writes: In the last week, Columbia’s representative Kurt Schaefer has met with several constituents from his district. Folks from the environmental community, health community, rural life and faith communities have all had the same experience: Kurt has been well, curt. Meaning abrupt, brisk, brusque, rude. Some folks have called him “belligerent” and “confrontational.” One friends told me, “I’m so glad you weren’t there, Margot.” Although I’ve been in lawmaker offices where the rep or sen was out-of-control, the descriptions I’m hearing, and not just about Kurt, are truly appalling. It indicates the level of pressure these guys are under. The pressure between what they’ve promised their funders, like the Farm Bureau, Monsanto, Cargill and other corporations and their own personal own moral codes about what is right for the future. After all, these lawmakers have families and friends who will be affected forever. When these political gangs dismantle environmental regulations and allow more pollution to affect our burdened waterways and air, their families will pay with increased amounts of water-borne diseases, asthma, and other unpleasantness. If they disallow the health initiatives like Medicaid that would create a healthier future for our children, their families will pay with higher costs, more health problems and mental health problems. We will soon see, because of past policies, epidemics that no one can cure. And these guys know how to fix the problems by building policies to take us into the future. They know that they’re standing in the way of solutions. They know that their corporate funders are putting dirty money into campaigns by manipulating tax codes. They know that if government puts resources into creating energy-saving devices and alternative energy sources, they can build a safe future and turn back some of the problems we’re seeing. It is sad to see lawmakers under so much stress. That’s all for today. Happy Daylight Savings!!

Chillicothe--more than sliced bread

From the Heartland, Margot McMillen writes: Something amazing has happened! On Sunday, the New York Times Magazine ran an article that actually mentioned Missouri. Chillicothe, Missouri, the home of sliced bread. This mention is amazing on so many levels I hardly know where to start. Well, for one thing, it was about Missouri. And, for another thing, it never mentioned Mark Twain or Harry Truman. See, the Midwest never gets attention from what we might call the coastal media. When we do, it’s the snarky kind, like about cow tipping or guys named Bubba. So, hey, we’ll take any sliced-bread mention when we can get it. The article says that Catherine Stortz Ripley is working on a local-history book about Chillicothe and stumbled on the sliced bread story. Good work, Catherine! I hope she also stumbles on the 1986 farmers strike that brought attention to Chillicothe and changed the laws on foreclosure against farmers. I wrote about it a lot in 2011, the 25th anniversary of the event. Here’s a little from my interview with Roger Allison: “Roger explained that, in the 1980s, farmers were trying to understand how they could be working so hard and still going broke. Groups were springing up all over the Midwest, including right-wing groups that spread a message of violence and hate. With the economy breaking down, families losing their farms, bad weather and prices out of their control, farmers were looking for someone to blame. “The first target was the banking system. After all, everyone knew that bankers were tied to the commodity market and the commodity market sets prices. And prices were the problem. When prices for farm goods are low, a farmer’s income doesn’t pay for the cost of planting. That means the farmer can’t pay the loan he got for his business. That means he carries the debt to the next year. A few years of carrying debt means a debt that can’t be paid off. Foreclosure. “Targeting the banking system was dangerously close to targeting urban folks, especially urban Jews. There are, you see, very few Jewish people in the countryside. Indeed, neo-Nazi groups had sprung up in rural America, complete with uniforms, guns and marches. People were getting magazines from them, addressed “occupant,” and spreading a message of hate. Yet the Chillicothe farmers, although they might not have said it in just this way, were focused on a mission of peaceful resistance. There were even Jewish leaders from Kansas City that joined the fight.” It’s a pretty great story, and there’s a lot about it in my book, Farming Food and Politics in the Heartland, available from Amazon and as an e-book. Well, that’s enough for today. March 5, 2013.

Missouri HJR 7 & 11

From the Heartland, Margot McMillen writes: When I talk to my friends that study social movements, we agree that it takes about 3 generations to make positive change. The first generation identifies the social stupidity (like keeping certain groups from voting, or like allowing pollution to kill entire species, or keeping certain groups from enjoying privileges) and then it takes a generation to ignore what the first generation is saying and then it takes a generation to fix the problem. So we eventually get universal suffrage or DDT bans or gay marriage. The problem is that some stupidity can’t be fixed in any easy way after it takes hold. That’s the problem with factory farms and biotech seeds. Centuries of knowledge, wiped out in a generation. Reclaiming it is hard. And especially, in today’s consumer society, if it’s masked in the cloaks of convenience and technology. Today we’re fighting truly horrible Missouri resolutions that would erase decades of progress. HJR 7 & 11 has passed the House of Representatives and is on its way to the Senate. If it passes, it would strip local control from Missouri counties and elected officials so that they could not keep corporate agriculture out of their counties. No county could create biotech-free zones or keep CAFOs at a distance. It would make a constitutional amendment that would keep DNR from enforcing pollution controls. HJR 7&11 states: “No state law shall be enacted which abridges the right of farmers and ranchers to employ agricultural technology and modern livestock production and ranching practices, unless enacted by the General Assembly.” That’s enough for today. March 4, 2013.

A suffragist anniversary

From the Heartland, Margot McMillen writes: March 3, 2013. Today, let it be noted, is the 100th anniversary of the biggest suffrage march in Washington D.C. Organized by Harriott Blatch, who was back from England where suffrage protests had become violent, our suffragists were orderly, polite, but focused and firm. At the head of the parade, which was like a pageant, rode Inez Mulholland, a beautiful debutant from New York. It’s hard to tell from the photos whether Inez rode astride or side saddle. At the time, riding astride was coming into fashion for defiant women, but Inez would probably have been accomplished enough to ride either way. Joan of Arc was in vogue, with stories about her by Mark Twain and others in print. She, in armor, would have ridden astride. Nobody is celebrating this anniversary, but I’m attaching a photo of Inez so you can think about it. She looks like an art nouveau drawing, whether she’s astride or side saddle. She died at a young age because there were heavy metals in the makeup she was using. A sad irony.

Sequestration and solitary confinement

From the Heartland, Margot McMillen writes: This is the big documentary film festival weekend in Columbia, the True/False festival and the thermometer is stubbornly staying at 32 degrees so that when I put my Ford 150 in gear all that happens is the wheels spin. Yesterday, the temperature rose a little so I rode with Marshall to town and I got to see the grandkids, in from sunny California for the festival. James and I built a hospital ship out of leggos, his cousin’s leggos as he reminded me frequently. So we were very careful not to lose any. We got the ship built and rescued three sick Leggo people—one with malaria, one with what James called “infinity diarrhea” and one with hypertension. Since we were out of people, having only three, we had to build a robot doctor. Fortunately, we had barrels of medicines on the ship and cured the malaria quickly. The diarrhea case was a little more tricky, since the medication made him cough. Not a good outcome for someone with diarrhea. We were lucky, though, and found the right pills to get it under control. The Leggo guy with hypertension was also in handcuffs. Did you know they make handcuffs for leggo characters? Do you find that outrageous? Since I’ve spent much of the snowstorm in my cozy bedroom working on an essay about women in the prison system, to accompany the memoir of a prison superintendent, I find it insane that our society will buy for plastic handcuffs for child play. Should we next begin telling them to build isolation cells from Leggos for plastic dolls in solitary confinement? It ain’t normal, folks. Solitary confinement, which visiting experts found in a Missouri reform school, was deemed inhumane in the 1920s and had a resurgence in the 1930s. Again, the experts discouraged it but even enlightened superintendents and wardens have used it all along, even though there are barrels of medicine available that supposedly control people. With this year’s budget “sequestration,” which sounds sort of like putting money in solitary confinement, we’re going to hear a lot about isolation, confinement, shackles on our most cantankerous folks. With no money for education, medications or any kind of reward system for good behavior, it will not be surprising if officials are driven to medieval systems of treatment. Budget cuts for federal employees? Let’s start with Congress and the President. Judges, too. One of my dairy friends, living on credit cards, figured out that if milk prices had risen like government salaries, milk would cost $25 a gallon.