Saving the People Who Are Killing Us

Are we so incapable of change that we are willing to burn money for the sake of continuing to burn money just because there is a long tradition of burning money?

Taxpayers will fit the bill for a $400,000 plan to save businesses that already, by their very existence, are a constant drain on the taxpayers (as wells natural resources).   This plan, which was approved quietly by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, will draw what little ground water is left in order to help dairies that are the reason the water is used up in the first place.  If we've learned anything from the Marin County Board of Supervisors, this board consists of ranchers.

Do people not understand that the only reason these dying businesses are even still in business because we have propped them up for so long at the expense of our tax dollars and the environment?  How long can we keep cheering for something so bad?

Oh, right, I know... "The backbone of America, right?" "Working people." "Sustainable." "Family". "Historic." "Cultural".  
Good lord! Wake up and grow up!  You should be embarrassed that this propaganda has had such a successful effect on your ability to think clearly.  Are welfare ranchers that have leeched taxpayers for generations really what we are calling the backbone of America and a "proud tradition that must be saved"!?

I often wonder what year people will finally wake up; overcome their indoctrination and rise above that unspoken fear that tells all of us we can never ever criticize ranchers.  Based on recent events It doesn't look like it is going to happen in my lifetime, which means we are all going to march to our doom like the destructively obedient robots that we have become.

It's not just our doom.  It such a highly anthropogenic society it seems that it doesn't even cross the minds of most people that water might be serving a purpose for other creatures before we steal it for our own purposes.  We've taken so much water that now even dormant wells are being tapped.  We are literally leaving nothing for nature while somehow being amazed that the land is primed for wild fires and wildlife is no where to be found.. 

The most inefficient form of food production one could dream up, the diary industry; producing "food" that people are finally realizing is detrimental to our health not to mention the health of the planet.  "Food" that at its core is based in the misery of the animals required in the production process.  "Food" that has required so much water over the years that the rest of the land has been reduced to a death zone of dirt and invasive weeds where once flowing river systems provided for incredible biodiversity.  Damns, aqueducts, and irrigation instead steal that water to be channeled to dairies, which in turn use all that water for the incredible thirst of cattle as well as the crops required to feed the cattle.  "Food" that leads to e-coli contamination in surrounding bodies of water.  "Food that demanded so much water that we turned to aquifers...and now those are gone too.  "Food" that demands the destruction of native habitat and the shooting of native animals.

Why is it our responsibility to fit the bill to ensure that failed business models continue to limp into the future?  Why is it that when we face crisis level drought the priority is to save businesses that demand the most of what we are in short supply of?  Do we all have a death wish?

How many businesses can you say that for?  Think about it.   Can you imagine filling out a financial assistance application for your own business, but replacing your business information with that from the dairy industry?

1. My business products are dumped every year in the millions of gallons rather than positively stimulating the market.
2. My business products require government bailout every year in order to keep producing the products that will again be dumped.
3. My products require billions in marketing campaigns (funded by FDA) just to keep people purchasing the undesired products.
4. My products require more water in the production process than any other product on the market, but I would like even more in the middle of a drought in a fire-plagued state.
5. My product production requires a shocking amount of land for minimal output.  Please give me multi-million dollar easements in order to keep doing what I'm doing on that land.
6. Please keep devoting resources to Wildlife Services, a subdivision of the Department of Agriculture, to kill millions of native animals on my behalf every year, because I don't want them on my land.
7. Please force taxpayers to fit the bill for multimillion dollar methane digesters to help combat one of the many problems my businesses poses to the environment.  
8. My products cost millions of dollars in medical expenses every year, but we know that's part of the plan in this country, so please help me keep sending people to the pharmacy and the hospital.
9. My business it the biggest driver of soil erosion, water eutrophication, habitat loss and species extinction.  Just putting that in there for bonus points.

Next time you start to blindly defend dairy ranching based on little more than phrases such as "historic, cultural, and multigenerational" think about whether or not your financial assistance application would be approved just because you waived a few magic words in front of a completely flawed business model that is killing the economy, the planet, and thus the people as well.

The only way to save ourselves is to get rid of the dairies.  Oh my God, did I just say that!?  I know, I know, I just stated the unspeakable.  What a terrible person I am.  
OK, well, go ahead then, condemn me and keep your heads in the sand because reality is too uncomfortable for you to accept. ​

#petaluma #marin #sonoma #dairy #bailouts #subsidies #drought #water #wells #ranchers #sustainability #taxdollars #pointreyes