Farm Fantasy in the Minority Report's Farm Facts

Any time an editorial from the Fauquier County Minority Report starts out with the title of Farm Facts, I know what I’m about to read will contain almost no facts at all.   I’m delighted to report that as usual the statist eco-tyranny rag from Fauquier lived up to expectations.   At first the editorial starts out delightfully enough stating that because Fauquier has hit the national spotlight, ah that would be for its attacks on farming, that suddenly now the Democrat, er’ the Times, is going to be covering agriculture like it never did before.   You know, like back in the days when the county slogan used to be “Preserving Agriculture in a Business-Friendly Community.”  Then again, Fauquier isn't so business friendly either.

From there, the editor goes on to once again slander Delegate Scott Lingamfelter, no news there.  You see, the Democrat, ‘er the Times, hates Lingamfelter with a passion.  Its not just his championship of farming, oh no.  What the Democrat won’t tell you is that they also hate Lingamfelter because he’s a long time hunter and the founder of the Legislative Sportsman’s Caucus which was formed to educate legislators on hunting and fishing issues and fight back against animal rights activists.  Since pound for pound, Fauquier has the most animal rights activists in the entire Commonwealth, this stance should not be surprising.  Of course they hate him here.  

From there, the Democrat feeds us their next false fact, that being “family farmers still exist in Fauquier, while they have largely disappeared from mainstream agriculture.”   The Democrat must not have gotten the memo from the USDA which states that 96% of all farms in America today are family owned.  

But do they stop there?  Of course not.  This is the newspaper that knows no boundaries and never allows sensationalism to get in the way of a good spin.  Next the esteemed editor points out, it is a myth, a myth I tell you!  A myth, that farmers produce the bulk of our food and fiber.  Really?  If its a myth, then where is our food actually coming from?  Or has Soylent Green already hit the market?  

But that’s not all.  Being the Democrat, they have to give the masses a dose of fear mongering next by stating, “Almost daily, there is a recall of one food product or another, and these are from processors who are licensed and inspected.”   This brings two things to mind.  The first being, if the editor is so terrified of his food, perhaps he should stop eating it?  I hear the sunshine diet works well.  If not that, then perhaps the editor would be better served to remember a few real facts.   While food recalls do exist, and an amazing number of them involve food produced in foreign countries, in reality the American food system is the safest in the world.   This idea that farmers exist and produce food with the sole goal of poisoning us if our Fauquier Masters aren't on top of them is ludicrous to the extreme.   Perhaps the editor has been watching too many reruns of that old schlock-fest about Killer Tomatoes. 

I'm sure the Minority Report highly approves of having the local zoning thugs protect us all from killer tomatoes, after all, they recently proposed having these same thugs protect us from chickens.   But it can't be a Minority Report editorial without ending on a rah-rah cheerleader note to promote conservation easements that somehow save farm land for the poor farmer they have just claimed doesn't exist.  Yeah, we have seen how these Agenda 21 easements strangle and destroy farm land forever, not save them.  I for one am not drinking the Kool-aid, but I hear it goes well with Soylent Green.