Saturday, July 16, 2011

Bureaucrats

I haven’t been really grumpy lately, until I went to pick up some spray from our local farm store. As usual, I arrived with my 55 gallon drum strapped in the back of the pickup for the Omni oil. Omni oil is highly refined mineral oil (baby oil) with an adjuvant that allows it to be mixed with water. For a lot more money, it comes in an organic formulation for farmers who want to fool city people into believing that ‘organic’ produce is never sprayed with pesticides. Instead, they send hippie children and spaced-out hippie chicks in long dresses out to the fields to pick the leaf hoppers off the vines by hand while rainbows dance overhead. You’ve got to love the myth.
Back to the story. I was informed by Randy that they could no longer fill my drum with baby oil. Due to new federal regulations, I had to a) buy it in 2 ½ gallon jugs, b) 30 gallon drums, or c) rent one of their totes with a minimum of 50 gallons fill. They were out of 30 gallon drums, so I rented a tote and bought 70 gallons – enough for two applications.
The first tote leaked, so we had to get another and transfer the contents into the second one, a somewhat messy process. The appropriate ‘Pesticide label’ was applied to my baby oil and away I went.
When I got home, the back of the truck was covered with oil. Mind you, when I put it in my own container I never spilled a drop. But some dumbass bureaucrat in DC decided that they had a better idea and forced it on the nation. Thank you USDA. I feel safer about my food and the environment already. Keep up the good work. At this rate, our food supply might be safe by 2090 – that is if we have any food in 2090. Maybe that’s the plan. No food is safe food. People can’t get food borne illnesses if they don’t eat. Makes sense to me.
Not only is our country broke, it is broken and since we have the best congress money can buy, there is no hope.
As the Chad Mitchell Trio once sang:
“Should I write my congressman?”
“Each Congressman has two ends, a sitting end and a thinking end. And since his whole success depends upon his seat, why bother, friend?”