Forgive the nod to Salt-n-Pepa for the title of this post, but the NYT reports today that Rep. Waxman has made some serious concessions to the ag community on the climate bill. 

The biggest is that farm emissions regulating will come under the ag department, rather than the EPA. This is a big deal. Tom Vilsack is the Secretary of Agriculture, who we graded a 'D' in his first 100 days, whereas the EPA is run by Lisa Jackson, who received an 'A-'. You can read about our grades here. 

Here's the thing. 90% of the hogs and 97% of the poultry produced in the U.S. come from factory farms. We're seeing a massive decrease in family farms and a massive increase in factory farms. 

This results in a skewed political perception. You see, giant agribusiness is able to influence political leaders the same way Monsanto, ExxonMobil, or Philip Morris does. But, then the politicians have political cover because they're fighting for farmers - people all Americans agree are good. 

But, agribusiness is not made up of stoic older men in overalls chewing on a corn cob pipe and getting up at 5AM to slop the hogs. It's the same wealthy special interests in business suits as any other polluting industry - and pollute they do. 

Of course, under the proposed revisions in the climate bill, we won't know how much. Because that's another key change agribusiness wants - to not have to report on their greenhouse gas emissions. 

I've been a believer in the climate bill, and Reps Waxman and Markey, for a long time - but as they continue to water it down to make it palatable to more and more industries, I'm feeling like it'll end up being just so much hot air.