Dan Owens may have stopped writing at the Blog for Rural Affairs, but his new effort, Whiskey Burn, maintains his insightful and often incendiary thoughts on agriculture policy. This post on pending conservation cuts is a must read for anyone concerned about the bait and switch tactics Congress has employed with conservation funding in favor of billions in unfettered dollars to commodity programs.

If we saw even the slightest hint of cutting farm program payments, the vaunted commodity machine would swing into action. There would be no end of press releases, news stories, DC visits, and other strategies mobilized to defeat any potential cut. (Not only that, but anytime the temperature gets above 90 or it doesn’t rain for more than 10 days straight, that machine cranks up, demanding “disaster” assistance. Sometimes I think they do it just to keep the “machine” well oiled. More likely, they’re just laying the groundwork for future greed). Yet time and again, conservation (and other things we care about) get the shaft, and no more than a peep or two is heard from the sustainable agriculture community. What’s going on?

Read the whole post here.

And it should be noted that Brian Depew and CFRA newcomer Steph Larsen are ably filling the void left by Dan's absence.