We depend on farmers of all stripes for our bread and butter. The citizens of Antrim County Michigan can depend on Ed McBroom for the truth in this matter.
Every day I work, I drive past 300 miles of farms in California’s Central Valley. I can always tell what’s in season by the trucks hauling produce. Yesterday l passed hundreds of tomato haulers fully loaded, every 15 minutes a garlic hauler, and the occasional truck loaded with melons or cucumbers.
And of course I pass plenty of dairy farms.
Silly as it may sound, Ed has restored my faith in farmers. Before I was truck driving, I knew a few farmers, and they were all incredibly intelligent and honest. But now, driving through all these farms and orchards, I see the occasional political poster, and the message is always ignorant. I was starting to develop a bad attitude.
Ed McBroom is what I have long thought a farmer is.
Ed McBroom is the kind of farmer my Daddy Brian was. An honest and hard working man. A smart man. A kind man. The rest of those threatening bumpkins are not "good people" in my opinion.
I've experienced damage to my personal vehicle when I had Democratic political stickers posted. I live in an ignorantly proud GOP voting area in East Texas and my door handles were broken twice until I removed the stickers.
I live in MO. I regretfully, but purposely, don't attach political stickers. I'm afraid someone might run me off the road or damage my car. We all know who I'm talking about.
I've a friend in MO who says the state is suffering from a mental illness caused by Fox opinion network. I haven't watched regular TV for over 40 years, but I'm better informed because of the reputable journalism online. None of it is lies and if it were they'd lose credibility quickly.
Free political expression has to be hidden hereabouts or suffer for opening ones mouth especially about the ochre Moron. I'll certainly be thankful when he suffers prosecution for his crimes. There's still those who think he'll be back in the WH in August.🙊🙉🙈
I'm a retired farmer who has Ag friends from Canada to Mexico who have been affected by the US government promoted GMO monopoly and have never planted them or used the toxic pesticides that are found in all drinking water if you drink from any surface reservoir.
We refuse to eat crap food. I shop at Trader Joe’s because they have no preservatives and no GMO in any of their food, and of course my wife and I are health food co-op members and Whole Foods shoppers. I was pleased when WF finally went GMO free.
My wife has worked professionally with local organic farmers for 20 years.
The first genetic modification was done by Gregor Mendel, a monk, in 1853. The process is used daily, and despite what you believe, you eat genetically modified food every day and have your entire life. GMO is not an ingredient, and organic food is usually genetically modified — as is ALL food produced since 1853. You and your wife have expensive pee, but not superior health or food. I also despise pesticides having read Silent Spring in the early sixties; however no one can tell the difference between an organic potato and one not labeled organic. And organic does nor mean pesticide-free. Big Ag is big ag and it produces organic food, too.
“The Non-GMO Project has reached out to Trader Joe’s a number of times over the years, and we remain hopeful that at some point we will be able to forge a meaningful partnership with them. To date, it has been very difficult to ascertain the credibility of their non-GMO claims. We know that many consumers believe Trader Joe’s to be a GMO-free store, but without transparent standards or third-party verification this is impossible to confirm. Many other retailers–independent grocers, co-ops, and Whole Foods Market–are leading the way by requiring rigorous testing and labeling, and it would be great to see Trader Joe’s follow suit.”
Circa 8000 BCE Humans use traditional modification methods like selective breeding and cross-breeding to breed plants and animals with more desirable traits.
1866 Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk, breeds two different types of peas and identifies the basic process of genetics.
1922 The first hybrid corn is produced and sold commercially.
1940 Plant breeders learn to use radiation or chemicals to randomly change an organism’s DNA.
1953 Building on the discoveries of chemist Rosalind Franklin, scientists James Watson and Francis Crick identify the structure of DNA.
1973 Biochemists Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen develop genetic engineering by inserting DNA from one bacteria into another.
1982 FDA approves the first consumer GMO product developed through genetic engineering: human insulin to treat diabetes.
1986 The federal government establishes the Coordinated Framework for the Regulation of Biotechnology. This policy describes how the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) work together to regulate the safety of GMOs.
1992 FDA policy states that foods from GMO plants must meet the same requirements, including the same safety standards, as foods derived from traditionally bred plants.
1994 The first GMO produce created through genetic engineering—a GMO tomato—becomes available for sale after studies evaluated by federal agencies proved it to be as safe as traditionally bred tomatoes.
1990s The first wave of GMO produce created through genetic engineering becomes available to consumers: summer squash, soybeans, cotton, corn, papayas, tomatoes, potatoes, and canola. Not all are still available for sale.
2003 The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations develop international guidelines and standards to determine the safety of GMO foods.
2005 GMO alfalfa and sugar beets are available for sale in the United States.
2015 FDA approves an application for the first genetic modification in an animal for use as food, a genetically engineered salmon.
Timeline of Genetic Modification in Agriculture
2016 Congress passes a law requiring labeling for some foods produced through genetic engineering and uses the term “bioengineered,” which will start to appear on some foods.
2017 GMO apples are available for sale in the U.S.
2019 FDA completes consultation on first food from a genome edited plant.
Yoopers are good people, but just as McBroom says, it is sad to see how they have been fooled by the former guy and his fellow criminals. Unfortunately, one of them is our congressional representative, Jack Bergman, who is not even from Michigan. He hales from Louisianna and Washington DC (Lieutenant Colonel, Ret.), bought a cabin in the U.P. to establish residency, bamboozled the voters, then sided with the insurrectoonists. I look forward to the news from Michigan once again being about our beautiful lakes, with Antrim County's being one of the most spectacular!
Look—the choice to be ignorant and to propagate Flak—disinformation & lies—is NOT done by “good folks.” In fact, people spreading rumors like, “the covid vaccine inserts government chips to spy on you” are people who now have put this nation’s children at terrible risk of covid-19. They are evil, they are traitors, they are neo-Nazis—anyone who recognizes this SHOULD be afraid. I have only contempt for Trumpanzees—including family members, and that’s not ever going to be resolved. Sad, but true and hang them all.
Dawna, I completely agree with you. When they signed on to this cult, they gave up all rights to be called "good people." Their words and deeds speak for themselves.
I posted a comment on my Facebook page. The bottom line of my comment was that although Ed McBroom may be an admirable person, and he may have performed his civic duty with respect to the report that he was asked to compile, his political naïveté (nee, gullibility) is what shows through in poster crawlers. The question I posed at the end of my comment was, how do we engage Ed McBroom in a respectful way in order to get him to understand how badly he had been manipulated by the Republican leadership in the Republican State Senate. Undoubtedly, McBroom feels is badly about this, not so much about what he did, but the cringeworthiness of the request, and how he embarrassed himself in front of his colleagues. This is on them, and not on him, but the emotional impact is quite the opposite. This is what happens when you betray the betrayer when you are not a party to the inside game.
Mr. McBroom undoubtedly feels like he's been sucker-punched by his own side. Conservatives are tribalists to the core, and the shame of doing the right thing and then getting ambushed by his buddies might just get him to quit politics forever. He'll never admit that his erstwhile friends were wrong.
Bravo Lucian! Another wonderful essay. We have a horde of dangerous folks afoot who cannot understand how propaganda is used to shape their lives. They, unfortunately, have too much impact on the rest of us. The trmpers won’t get vaccinated, and young people are infecting and sometimes killing their parents (front page Post story on Missouri). Adherence to The Big Lie will complicate our lives until that crowd either dies from Covid or gives up. Like Joe Hill said: don’t mourn — ORGANIZE.
Ed is collateral damage to the increasingly BS crazy GOP. Sure, he is a hard working farmer and tried to do the right thing after the election but he is also one of the reasons Trump and his ilk have been able to insinuate themselves into the party apparatus by seducing him that they are supportive of his special interests like being anti choice. Trump and his supporters would support the Anti Christ if it got them elected to power. In fact, I can make a case Trump is the anti-Christ but that is a subject for another time.
Does Ed have enough buyer's remorse to support ANY Democratic positions like one man/one vote? Probably not if it meant electing someone who didn't attend the Baptist Church. Don't get me wrong. Ed sounds like a stand up guy. Anyone who will look after orphans the way he did deserves great props. But, as an elected official he also has a civic duty and in Michigan's Upper Peninsula that generally means voting lock step for the Republican agenda full on.
We depend on farmers of all stripes for our bread and butter. The citizens of Antrim County Michigan can depend on Ed McBroom for the truth in this matter.
Yes, and I am hoping that McBroom's courage will rub off on the other Republican state legislators in the U.P. and Northern Michigan.
Political violence == Not good.
Every day I work, I drive past 300 miles of farms in California’s Central Valley. I can always tell what’s in season by the trucks hauling produce. Yesterday l passed hundreds of tomato haulers fully loaded, every 15 minutes a garlic hauler, and the occasional truck loaded with melons or cucumbers.
And of course I pass plenty of dairy farms.
Silly as it may sound, Ed has restored my faith in farmers. Before I was truck driving, I knew a few farmers, and they were all incredibly intelligent and honest. But now, driving through all these farms and orchards, I see the occasional political poster, and the message is always ignorant. I was starting to develop a bad attitude.
Ed McBroom is what I have long thought a farmer is.
Ed McBroom is the kind of farmer my Daddy Brian was. An honest and hard working man. A smart man. A kind man. The rest of those threatening bumpkins are not "good people" in my opinion.
Exactly. You’re speaking my language.
McBroom is a yfuth teller. The trump bsse cannot handle the truth :( 😞
I've experienced damage to my personal vehicle when I had Democratic political stickers posted. I live in an ignorantly proud GOP voting area in East Texas and my door handles were broken twice until I removed the stickers.
I'm really sorry. Some people just hate an opinion different from their own. 😠
Especially the evangelicals here in East Texas who worship the GQP because they hate abortions and love guns.
I live in MO. I regretfully, but purposely, don't attach political stickers. I'm afraid someone might run me off the road or damage my car. We all know who I'm talking about.
I've a friend in MO who says the state is suffering from a mental illness caused by Fox opinion network. I haven't watched regular TV for over 40 years, but I'm better informed because of the reputable journalism online. None of it is lies and if it were they'd lose credibility quickly.
Foxophrenia?
I’m so sorry to hear that happened to you.
Free political expression has to be hidden hereabouts or suffer for opening ones mouth especially about the ochre Moron. I'll certainly be thankful when he suffers prosecution for his crimes. There's still those who think he'll be back in the WH in August.🙊🙉🙈
😣
I'm a retired farmer who has Ag friends from Canada to Mexico who have been affected by the US government promoted GMO monopoly and have never planted them or used the toxic pesticides that are found in all drinking water if you drink from any surface reservoir.
We refuse to eat crap food. I shop at Trader Joe’s because they have no preservatives and no GMO in any of their food, and of course my wife and I are health food co-op members and Whole Foods shoppers. I was pleased when WF finally went GMO free.
My wife has worked professionally with local organic farmers for 20 years.
The first genetic modification was done by Gregor Mendel, a monk, in 1853. The process is used daily, and despite what you believe, you eat genetically modified food every day and have your entire life. GMO is not an ingredient, and organic food is usually genetically modified — as is ALL food produced since 1853. You and your wife have expensive pee, but not superior health or food. I also despise pesticides having read Silent Spring in the early sixties; however no one can tell the difference between an organic potato and one not labeled organic. And organic does nor mean pesticide-free. Big Ag is big ag and it produces organic food, too.
Oh.
“The Non-GMO Project has reached out to Trader Joe’s a number of times over the years, and we remain hopeful that at some point we will be able to forge a meaningful partnership with them. To date, it has been very difficult to ascertain the credibility of their non-GMO claims. We know that many consumers believe Trader Joe’s to be a GMO-free store, but without transparent standards or third-party verification this is impossible to confirm. Many other retailers–independent grocers, co-ops, and Whole Foods Market–are leading the way by requiring rigorous testing and labeling, and it would be great to see Trader Joe’s follow suit.”
Circa 8000 BCE Humans use traditional modification methods like selective breeding and cross-breeding to breed plants and animals with more desirable traits.
1866 Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk, breeds two different types of peas and identifies the basic process of genetics.
1922 The first hybrid corn is produced and sold commercially.
1940 Plant breeders learn to use radiation or chemicals to randomly change an organism’s DNA.
1953 Building on the discoveries of chemist Rosalind Franklin, scientists James Watson and Francis Crick identify the structure of DNA.
1973 Biochemists Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen develop genetic engineering by inserting DNA from one bacteria into another.
1982 FDA approves the first consumer GMO product developed through genetic engineering: human insulin to treat diabetes.
1986 The federal government establishes the Coordinated Framework for the Regulation of Biotechnology. This policy describes how the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) work together to regulate the safety of GMOs.
1992 FDA policy states that foods from GMO plants must meet the same requirements, including the same safety standards, as foods derived from traditionally bred plants.
1994 The first GMO produce created through genetic engineering—a GMO tomato—becomes available for sale after studies evaluated by federal agencies proved it to be as safe as traditionally bred tomatoes.
1990s The first wave of GMO produce created through genetic engineering becomes available to consumers: summer squash, soybeans, cotton, corn, papayas, tomatoes, potatoes, and canola. Not all are still available for sale.
2003 The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations develop international guidelines and standards to determine the safety of GMO foods.
2005 GMO alfalfa and sugar beets are available for sale in the United States.
2015 FDA approves an application for the first genetic modification in an animal for use as food, a genetically engineered salmon.
Timeline of Genetic Modification in Agriculture
2016 Congress passes a law requiring labeling for some foods produced through genetic engineering and uses the term “bioengineered,” which will start to appear on some foods.
2017 GMO apples are available for sale in the U.S.
2019 FDA completes consultation on first food from a genome edited plant.
https://allianceforscience.cornell.edu/blog/2016/05/gmo-safety-debate-is-over/
One of your best lines yet: "staredinto themaeof the trump base"
Thank you, Lucian, for brightening my day with this wonderful piece. Delightful.
Yoopers are good people, but just as McBroom says, it is sad to see how they have been fooled by the former guy and his fellow criminals. Unfortunately, one of them is our congressional representative, Jack Bergman, who is not even from Michigan. He hales from Louisianna and Washington DC (Lieutenant Colonel, Ret.), bought a cabin in the U.P. to establish residency, bamboozled the voters, then sided with the insurrectoonists. I look forward to the news from Michigan once again being about our beautiful lakes, with Antrim County's being one of the most spectacular!
“Yoopers” = U.P. ers
It took me a minute.
And what are U.P. ers?
Upper Peninsula of Michigan residents
Thank you, Roland.
Thank You Roland!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escanaba_in_da_Moonlight
Sorry about that Roland. Thanks for figuring it out!
Learn something new every week: “Yoopers.”
Outstanding article, thank you.
Look—the choice to be ignorant and to propagate Flak—disinformation & lies—is NOT done by “good folks.” In fact, people spreading rumors like, “the covid vaccine inserts government chips to spy on you” are people who now have put this nation’s children at terrible risk of covid-19. They are evil, they are traitors, they are neo-Nazis—anyone who recognizes this SHOULD be afraid. I have only contempt for Trumpanzees—including family members, and that’s not ever going to be resolved. Sad, but true and hang them all.
Dawna, I completely agree with you. When they signed on to this cult, they gave up all rights to be called "good people." Their words and deeds speak for themselves.
I posted a comment on my Facebook page. The bottom line of my comment was that although Ed McBroom may be an admirable person, and he may have performed his civic duty with respect to the report that he was asked to compile, his political naïveté (nee, gullibility) is what shows through in poster crawlers. The question I posed at the end of my comment was, how do we engage Ed McBroom in a respectful way in order to get him to understand how badly he had been manipulated by the Republican leadership in the Republican State Senate. Undoubtedly, McBroom feels is badly about this, not so much about what he did, but the cringeworthiness of the request, and how he embarrassed himself in front of his colleagues. This is on them, and not on him, but the emotional impact is quite the opposite. This is what happens when you betray the betrayer when you are not a party to the inside game.
Send him a free subscription to Lucian’s newsletter.
Mr. McBroom undoubtedly feels like he's been sucker-punched by his own side. Conservatives are tribalists to the core, and the shame of doing the right thing and then getting ambushed by his buddies might just get him to quit politics forever. He'll never admit that his erstwhile friends were wrong.
Bravo Lucian! Another wonderful essay. We have a horde of dangerous folks afoot who cannot understand how propaganda is used to shape their lives. They, unfortunately, have too much impact on the rest of us. The trmpers won’t get vaccinated, and young people are infecting and sometimes killing their parents (front page Post story on Missouri). Adherence to The Big Lie will complicate our lives until that crowd either dies from Covid or gives up. Like Joe Hill said: don’t mourn — ORGANIZE.
Ed is collateral damage to the increasingly BS crazy GOP. Sure, he is a hard working farmer and tried to do the right thing after the election but he is also one of the reasons Trump and his ilk have been able to insinuate themselves into the party apparatus by seducing him that they are supportive of his special interests like being anti choice. Trump and his supporters would support the Anti Christ if it got them elected to power. In fact, I can make a case Trump is the anti-Christ but that is a subject for another time.
Does Ed have enough buyer's remorse to support ANY Democratic positions like one man/one vote? Probably not if it meant electing someone who didn't attend the Baptist Church. Don't get me wrong. Ed sounds like a stand up guy. Anyone who will look after orphans the way he did deserves great props. But, as an elected official he also has a civic duty and in Michigan's Upper Peninsula that generally means voting lock step for the Republican agenda full on.
An honest man. There is no room in the GOP for honesty, only idolatry for Trump.
Pearls before swine