Farming

Here is my favorite type of solution, one that solves two problems (or more).

Problems:
1) the Gov pays farmers tons of money to NOT grow. While I would love to get paid to not grow, as I don't grow a lot of things, it is stupid.
2) Framers that do grow tend to over use fertilizer and the run off makes significant impacts on the environment.
3) Organic farming is good, but too expensive to be viable for most farmers, and organic food is too expensive to buy much of. Farmers complain it is to inefficient and low yielding.

Solution:
Only subsidize farmers to grow organically or in certified ways that minimize fertilizers, pesticides and impacts to the environment. This should be especially emphasized near waterways where run off is particularly harmful. The farmers that are not growing can now afford to grow "inefficiently". The price of organics will come down for the consumer. The environment will be less impacted. The Government may not spend less money, but at least all of it goes to actual production of food.

I had been waiting for years to meet Al Gore when he was VP to lay this on him, but never quite got the chance. Only recently have I been hearing others talk about this seriously.

Simple Solutions

Most problems have such simple solutions, the problems lie in the people that implement them. Everyone is so wrapped up in their own point of view and vested interest that good simple solutions rarely get implemented. This blog is just a random sprinkling of simple things I have thought of over the years. So simple they will never get implemented.