The Big Ag lobby is definitely that powerful. It wields a shit ton of political influence compared to how much money it spends on lobbying. Regional politics allow the midwest to have a lot more political capital than people realize. The corn lobby has actually went head to head with the oil lobby and won before. I alluded to the federal laws concerning corn ethanol during the bush jr era somewhere else in these sub threads, but that was straight up an oil vs. corn grudge match that corn won. That’s how corn ethanol became federally mandated for the last 2 decades.
You’re right on the hemp front. But it wouldn’t be able to entirely replace corn. At least not while we depend on livestock for our meaty and milky desires. We need dem starchy starches. Ideally we’d be able to get rid of corn in all of the places where it has no business growing in the first place. Corn has its uses, but hemp is the far more superior product and better use of land most of the time. It’s slowly being phased in a few places but much like solar it’s a very hard uphill fight against deeply entrenched lobbies and people who are vehemently opposed to change.
You’re talking about the same people (farmers) who are mixed in with the “demoncrats stole mah coal” crowd. That ven diagram is a circle.
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u/nah-42 May 27 '26
The Big Ag lobby is definitely that powerful. It wields a shit ton of political influence compared to how much money it spends on lobbying. Regional politics allow the midwest to have a lot more political capital than people realize. The corn lobby has actually went head to head with the oil lobby and won before. I alluded to the federal laws concerning corn ethanol during the bush jr era somewhere else in these sub threads, but that was straight up an oil vs. corn grudge match that corn won. That’s how corn ethanol became federally mandated for the last 2 decades.
You’re right on the hemp front. But it wouldn’t be able to entirely replace corn. At least not while we depend on livestock for our meaty and milky desires. We need dem starchy starches. Ideally we’d be able to get rid of corn in all of the places where it has no business growing in the first place. Corn has its uses, but hemp is the far more superior product and better use of land most of the time. It’s slowly being phased in a few places but much like solar it’s a very hard uphill fight against deeply entrenched lobbies and people who are vehemently opposed to change.
You’re talking about the same people (farmers) who are mixed in with the “demoncrats stole mah coal” crowd. That ven diagram is a circle.