Given California’s budget problems, a move is afoot to severly reduce or eliminate the California Department of Food and Agriculture. With a rapidly shifting agricultural economy, threats from many invasive pests, a spat of food safety issues, and no reliable climate models for the future, is this the right time for this? And hey… if I’m the guy speaking in favor of retaining a bureaucracy, you know it has got to be serious.
I’ve been meaning to formulate a piece on this, but my friend Rose Hayden-Smith beat me to it. I’ll see if she really does read this blog, by linking to her well-thought-out piece from Civil Eats below: