Your tax dollars at work

9/20/09 Eleven cat litter storage buckets, recycled

Your tax dollars subsidize my cat litter.

Perhaps I should explain.

The U.S. Farm Bill is a document that is both more highly complex and less understood by the general public than quantum theory. One delightful part of this (continually re-authorized) document is the outrageous government subsidies for corn production. To make an unbelievable and long story short, our government has decided to make corn basically free to corporations, who then use it to make huge quantities of cheap, unhealthy food. Corn is so cheap that farmers must produce massive quantities of it (goodbye, small American farm!) and still need to get PAID by the government to turn a profit.

To further raise your blood pressure I recommend reading The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, and watching the documentaries King Corn and Food, Inc.

So, since the top dogs at Archer Daniels Midland and McDonald's are all too happy to accept your financial support, I decided to get in on the action.

We've replaced the usual clay litter (c'mon, do you think cats in the wild search out clay to crap in?) with litter manufactured from corn. It goes by the rather hyperbolic name of World's Best Cat Litter. Yes, Bird and Trane will now enjoy their private moments in a bed of granulated corn product. Since this litter comes in a bag rather than a plastic bucket, I won't be storing up any more of those containers. I had a huge stack of those buckets, because they seemed too useful to get rid of. I am using some of them, but I found eleven in the shed that were just empty and taking up space. This morning, I took them to be recycled at the Casco dump.

It's corn-litter-in-a-bag from here on out.

And, since your tax dollars support the production of that corn, the savings get passed right along to me. I thank you, and so do my cats. In fact, if you like, feel free to imagine that they are thinking of you as they step into the box each morning.