Tobacco quotas and modern farming

Herewith some passages from "Less is Enough" - an excerpt in Harper's Magazine from the foreword to an upcoming republication of Wendell Berry's The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture.

"...by the work of my father and other good men to preserve the Burley Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association. For about sixty-four years, by a combination of price supports and production controls, that association preserved the lives and livelihoods of small farmers. To limit the production of a product to demand, or to a demand knowingly estimated, is a simple matter. The automobile industry can do it. So can a child. Excessive brain power is not required to “figure it out.” And so it seems odd and even strange that my province and its provinciality produced the only sound agricultural economy that I have known.

Only in agriculture, so far as I know, is this obvious truth ignored, or even overturned on the recommendation of highest authority. In the Seventies, the secretary of agriculture, Earl L. Butz, who supposed that foreign demand would grow without limit, advised American farmers to plow “fencerow to fencerow.” More recently, other experts have advised American farmers to go all out growing soybeans, supposing they will be needed by the Chinese or somebody. Only in agriculture is the rule to produce as much as possible, this silliness to be redeemed if not by the market then by the government. I don’t think this can be dignified or excused by calling it “economics” or “capitalism.” It comes from ignorance or indifference. And it rests on the assumption that farmers deserve their low status because they are in general stupid and their work requires no learning or intelligence. This is the one-crop-by-prescription agriculture invented by the experts and of course recommended by them...

As the experts were seeing it in 1974, the purpose of farming was not the production of the healthiest food at the lowest cost to the land and the people. The purpose was the consumption of agri-industrial products: chemicals, seeds, and machines. The only recognized value was accounted by money...

But in 1974, we had as now, no viable concept of enough. To have some is to need more, and after that, more and more. To have more and more than you need is now a form of common sense, and so we have developed a sort of vogue of billionaires, when the model of citizenship is set by such people as Elon Musk and Donald Trump. To be successful now is to achieve the satisfaction of one’s greed, which of course is enlarged by every additional prospect of satisfaction.

Such was the state of things in 1974, and the state of things is much worse in 2026. We foresee no practical enactment of the concept of enough, but rather submit to the absolute determinism of progress: progress undirected and inevitable. Progress forbids us to stop when we are satisfied. We must go on, adopting the changes of technology, whatever the cost may be to ourselves and our children.

Well said, and I agree 100%.

This essay resonated with me because I used to live in Kentucky (home turf for Berry), and like Berry I had a tobacco allotment.  My first gainful employment as an adult was at the V.A. Medical Center and the University of Kentucky in Lexington.  After a few years of frugal apartment living, I purchased my first home (in that era an $85,000 mortgage got me a nice home with about 10 acres of land in a semi-rural area half an hour from work).  

My land had a history of being a tobacco farm; the photo embedded at the top of this post is a view of my "garage", which was an old tobacco barn.  For those interested, the long drainpipe collected water from the tin roof, which was then directed to an underground cistern to provide my drinking/bathing water.  The drainpipe ends at a bucket on top of the boards covering the cistern, and the bucket had I think some sand to act as a "filter", but every year when the leaves fell onto the barn roof and gutter, various insect larvae would wind up coming out of the faucets in my home.

But back to the tobacco.  Whoever owns the farm owns an "allotment" that allows (but does not require) you to grow X number of pounds of tobacco.  I was working 70-hour weeks, so I did what other farm-squatters did - I drove down to the courthouse once each spring, surveyed the bulletin board and found an offer from someone to sell them my tobacco allotment so they could grow the product.  I don't know how many pounds I was allowed, but the average amount I received each year was about $200.

I don't know if that system still exists in Kentucky or elsewhere, but as Wendell Berry indicates, it was created to control production, because farmers early on realized that overproduction beyond demand just lowers unit costs to the end-user rather than raising farm income.

It is probably no longer possible to live in a "controlled economy," but the principle emphasized by Berry - satisfaction with "enough" - can be applied to a more comprehensive view of lifestyle and life goals.

Company suggests a "courtesy remittance"

I have been a State Farm customer for 60+ years, ever since my first car and apartment.  Recently I've noticed a change in their billing policy.  I used to get statements for the car, house etc a few weeks before they were due.  This week I received correspondence regarding my car insurance, including an enclosed "courtesy remittance slip."  It states quite clearly that this is not a bill, but I can use it to make a payment before the next bill arrives.

My next payment is due in two months.  I ran the numbers.  If I keep my funds in my credit union and wait to pay this in November, I will gain a dollar or two, which is not big money.  But if you multiply this by the approximately 100,000,000 policies that State Farm services, it becomes a useful chunk of change for the corporation.

This is all legal.  It's not predatory or manipulative.  But it adds to my growing dissatisfaction with American corporate business policies.  Am I being unreasonable?

Interesting interview on Bloomberg this morning

Lots of interesting stuff presented during the Bloomberg pre-market "Surveillance" progeram this moning.  Jonathan Ferro commented on the above set of numbers, showing changes year-to-date for three crucial indicators.  Brent crude has risen 80% this year, and the yield on the 10-year treasuries has increased by 85 basis points.   So there has been an energy shock and an interest rate shock, but despite those factors, the broad market measured by the S&P 500 is up double digits.  Some discussion thereafter by Lisa Abramowicz and Annmarie Hordern re how the markets have been resilient because of demonstrably increased profits and the expectations of future growth based on potential contributions of artificial intelligence, into which segment of the market vast quantities of capital have been pouring.  None of this is "new" today but it is startling to see it combined into one graphic.

Even more interesting IMHO was a prolonged interview with Stephen Schork, a a former floor trader on the New York Mercantile Exchange and the editor of an oil market newsletter.  His commentary runs from the 17:30 mark to the 24:00 mark of the program this morning.  I'll try to have the video embed start with his comments; if it doesn't, you can mouse to that point or click this link.

It seems to me that financial markets around the world are still considering the Trump/Netanyahu "not exactly a war" situation to be a temporary matter that will resolve soon.  My crystal ball does not suggest the same.  Strategic petroleum reserves around the world have been depleted severely by the lack of timely shipments from the gulf for most of this year.  China is already resuming purchases of crude after being out of the market during the higher prices.  And now the Houthis are creating massive problems for Saudi Arabia, impairing the east-west pipeline and blocking transport east from the Red Sea, to the extent that I think the Saudis are now telling European countries that they cannot guarantee to provide oil - just when the colder weather starts to hit Europe.

This is a massive clusterfuck, and it's not getting better anytime soon.  

A "fish nest"

Third Place, Conservation Hope. A male white-spotted pufferfish creates an intricate spawning nest in the sand. The fish carefully shapes a two-meter-wide radial pattern using only his fins. Built over several days, this structure and its subtle details reveal the extraordinary effort this small fish invests in reproduction.

This was one of the winning photographs in the Ocean Photographer of the Year competition, from a gallery in The Atlantic.  Photo credit Yuta Shigeno,

Mashup of the movies of 2023

A time-tagged list of the many hundreds of sources for these movie clips is available at the Sleepy Skunk tumblr page.  When I view these rapid-fire mashups, I like to keep the list open in a separate window so I can click back-and-forth to identify movies that might be worth checking out from the library.  And since everything in the mashup is of necessity out of context, I find it useful to turn on the closed captions icon to clarify the dialogue.

The quotation cited at 0:48-0:53 is one of my favorite passages from Charles Dickens (originally in Our Mutual Friend).  The dialogue at 0:23-0:37 is from Past Lives, which I reviewed and rated 4+ last year.  And the Dennis Quaid quotation is laugh-out-loud funny in this context.

$5000 checks offered by a politician in 1935

What do we call this?  Coincidence?  Foreshadowing?

Relevant discussion re Sinclair Lewis' writing and modern politics, with a hat tip to an anonymous reader.

Modified manhole cover, Copenhagen

United States "Space Force" uniforms

Trump stated that the new uniforms were inspired by "Starship Troopers" uniforms.  But the film, based on the classic Robert A. Heinlein novel, can be viewed as a warning against fascism, militarism, and nationalism.  And the parallel to these uniforms is striking:

Images via Comic Sands.

"Rosie the Rock Snake"

Today while on a butterfly hike at Badger Prairie County Park (Verona, Wisconsin) I encountered Rosie the Rock Snake.  This was clearly a community art project, presumably initiated by a local teacher, parent, or scout leader.  I was delighted to see that it has apparently not been subject to thievery or vandalism (remembering that Wisconsin is a state where local farmers leave corn on the cob, pumpkins, and other produce out by the road and invite passers-by to take the veggies and leave some money).  I was also impressed by the quality of the painting on many of the rocks.

Locals who would like to see the artwork just need to find your way to the highest point in the park (where the old water tower used to be).  If you plan to do so, consider bringing a painted rock...

I would also note that today the Monarch butterflies were literally "too numerous to count" because this is the migratory season and the Madison area is under the flyway for legions of Monarchs heading south from areas up north.

(This sort of reminded me of the "ditch ducks" in northern Minnesota)

Aurora over an Icelandic waterfall

An Astronomy Photo of the Day, from NASA.

Dragonflies migrate long distances

How do I get to be 80+ years old and not know basic facts about nature?  This week I learned that dragonflies migrate as far as some birds and Monarch butterflies.  I shared my summers with dragonflies up at Leech Lake in northern Minnesota, finding the nymphs and their empty shells on the shore and welcoming their emergence as mosquito-catchers.  But I didn't know they migrated.

When it’s back-to-school time, North Shore naturalists such as Joe Walewski at Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center in Finland, Minn., know to watch the skies for green darners and other dragonflies soaring overhead on their fall migration journey...

Like southbound birds that funnel along the North Shore to avoid Lake Superior’s open water, dragonflies also pass by Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory in Duluth — especially on sunny fair-weather days between late August and early September.

Last year, Sept. 1 was clearly a favorite day to fly as Hawk Ridge counted 57,000 dragonflies. On Thursday, they counted 35,000, said Sean McLaughlin, lead counter for Hawk Ridge...

Counters do estimates by 10s or even hundreds at a time when dragonflies are moving through quickly. Sometimes they’re dense enough to show up on radar like a rain cloud over Duluth.

At 3 inches or longer, green darner dragonflies are usually the most numerous and easy to spot, with their vivid green thoraxes and bright blue abdomens. They’ve also been the most studied. Scientists have put tiny trackers on their bodies and learned the insects can cover 70 to 90 miles a day on their way to Gulf states or as far as Panama.

More than a dozen species of dragonflies migrate, including white-faced and autumn meadowhawks, wandering gliders, black saddlebags and spot-winged gliders...

Like monarch butterflies, migrating dragonflies only travel one way. They mate and lay eggs at the end of their journeys. Eggs hatch into nymphs in both southern and northern states, overwintering in ponds and waterways until they emerge onto land with wings to follow seasonal migration routes.

You learn something every day.  Photo via Wikipedia.

"Narluga" explained

I didn't know this creature existed.  Saw it mentioned recently and had to go back to a 2019 article by Ed Yong in The Atlantic for an explanation.

Belugas and narwhals are the same size, share the same Arctic waters, and are more closely related to each other than to any other species. Individuals from both species have been found swimming among each other’s pods...

By analyzing DNA extracted from one of the creature’s teeth, a team led by Eline Lorenzen from the Natural History Museum of Denmark showed that it was a male, born to a beluga father and a narwhal mother. Most of its DNA was a half-and-half mix between the two species, but its mitochondrial DNA—a secondary set that animals inherit only from their mothers—was entirely narwhal. “A while back, we presented our findings at a conference of 150 people who are very into belugas, and you could hear a pin drop,” Lorenzen says. “None of them were familiar with hybrids between those two species.”

Lots more science at the link, but this paragraph is particularly interesting:

A brief digression: When naming hybrid animals, patriarchal conventions dictate that the father’s species comes first in the portmanteau. A cub born to a male polar bear and a female grizzly is a pizzly, but one with a grizzly dad and a polar mom is a grolar. So, technically, the skull from Larsen’s toolshed is a belwhal, not a narluga. But the latter name might well stick because it’s been called that for decades and, as Lorenzen says, narluga just sounds better.

So now I know what a pizzly and a grolar are.  You learn something every day.

"C'mon, C'mon" - Joaquin Phoenix reads "Star Child"

Have I not reviewed this movie before?  I thought I must have, but this week after seeing the above trailer on Facebook I looked for my blog post about it and found nothing.  I saw the movie back in 2022 and rated it 4+ (worth watching again).  Haven't done so yet, but after seeing the trailer, I've requested the "Star Child" book from the library.

The sound on the trailer is a bit muffled; viewing closed captions may be helpful.

"Reawakening"

"Reawakening" is a remarkably well-performed movie.  Jared Harris and Juliet Stevenson portray a British couple whose 14-year old daughter left home and disappeared 10 years ago, presumably because of problems related to recreational drug abuse; now a 24-year-old young woman arrives at their home.  

That is the entire "plot."  There are no special effects, no nudity, no explosions or car chases.  For about 75 minutes the film takes a deep dive into personal tragedies, grief, obsession, and coping mechanisms.  The final 20 minutes resolves the matter in what to my mind is an ultimately satisfying way.  

This is not a "happy" movie, not a fun movie to watch as these characters struggle with their emotions.  It is instead an opportunity for the viewer to watch skilled actors at the peaks of their careers.  I did not record it as a 4+ movie (one to watch again), but it clearly rates 3.5 on my scale (well worth the time, and worth recommending).  (I think the term "thriller" in this trailer image is a misnomer.  This is a conventional drama).

Readers' viewpoints are invited in the Comments.

Condom made from a sheep's appendix

As reported by The Guardian:

A 200-year-old illustrated condom will go on display with Dutch golden age masters in Amsterdam this week, after the 19th-century “luxury souvenir” became the first-ever contraceptive sheath to be added to the Rijksmuseum’s art collection.

The condom, which was probably made of a sheep’s appendix circa 1830, is thought to have come from an upmarket brothel in France, most likely in Paris. It features an erotic etching depicting a partially undressed nun pointing at the erect genitals of three clergymen, as well as the phrase Voila, mon choix (“There, that’s my choice”).

The Rijksmuseum curator Joyce Zelen said the composition of the etching deliberately alluded to the Greek myth of the Judgment of Paris, in which a Trojan prince is asked to pick the most beautiful of three goddesses. “So we believe that whoever acquired the condom would have been fairly sophisticated and well-educated,” she said.