Last week we gave a quick summary of the recently passed farm bill. It's curious to me that even though people were more engaged in the process than ever before - writing letters to Congress in support of more money for organics, increased conservation measures, and fewer commodity crop subsidies - we didn't get a better bill.

Michael Pollan has a well-reasoned answer for us at Grist.

To summarize Mr. Pollan's point:  Activists did a great job of getting the public to understand the problem with commodity crop subsidies and getting people engaged in the process. The central problem was demonizing all subsidies without providing ideas for alternative incentives to encourage farmers to grow the types of foods we need. This caused farmers who currently receive subsidies to dig in their heels to preserve the status quo. Mr. Pollan thinks that farm bill critics could have won over at least some of those farmers by providing alternatives...something to think about and work on over the next few years.

Image: Aunt Owwee