Subsidize Success?

by JoePulcinella

Anyone in my neck of the woods will tell you that Jersey tomatoes are the best in the world. In fact, many of us contribute toward an already bloated Delaware Port Authority through outrageous tolls to get them. So why does Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio want to subsidize the farmers markets?

Turn to the federal government for subsidies. At least that€™s what U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio thinks. Last month Kaptur, a €œformer urban planner€ now serving on the House Appropriations Subcommittee for Agriculture, proposed that the 2006 farm bill allocate $50 million to build new farmers markets and restore old ones in large metropolitan areas.

My guess is that this money will go to overpriced, upscale, yuppie, "organic" food chains (and the developers who build them) that suffered so badly during the current recession and not to Joe's Farmers Market along Delsea Drive in South Jersey.

Posted 10/19/2004 3:54:44 PM by Joe Pulcinella

Like I said, she's plenty qualified to funnel your money to large developers to replace family-run farmers markets with upscale shopping districts anchored by trendy, organic food stores (or are they to be called "shoppes?")!

I think this notion would go hand in hand with the overwhelming "need" to develop the now "underdeveloped" Rt 322 corridor that houses so many family farms but very little in the way of super-box shopping centers.

Posted 10/19/2004 4:53:48 PM by Joe Pulcinella

Wait a minute - tell me what possible application of the skills and education of a "former urban planner" have on the Department of Agriculture? Planning to do to the farms what they have done to the cities?

Posted 10/19/2004 4:18:00 PM by Vince Daliessio