Relying on bureaucratic largesse and federal agencies to dictate our farmingpractices has proven a slippery slope, one that has kept Californiafarmers’ legs churning while the economic position of theirfarms has been declining. Industrial farming concerns that lobby tofederal agencies cannot be trusted to draft sound, sustainable farmpolicy for the state.

In 2008, more than half a billion dollars was donated to help elect California lawmakers, with another $360 million going to support or oppose the state’s various ballot measures. By anyone’s reckoning, these totals are staggering, and are unlikely to shrink in the future, given the costs of running political campaigns in the state. Worse, it is clear that money has become the principle means of achieving access to legislators and the resultant influence so coveted by lobbyists.

On December 2nd, rationalized as a quick fix to the budget deficit, Mayor Richard Daley said that the City of Chicago had agreed to Lease all 36,000 Chicago metered parking spaces for 75 years for a lump sum of $1.16 Billion dollars. The owner of this Lease: J.P. Morgan Chase.

Throughout this year's election season, talk of the pitfallsof partisanship permeated the national conversation while the citizenry lauded candidateswho pledged to tear down barriers and end politics as usual. The prospect ofchange spurred an inordinate share of voters to shun party loyalty and embracepragmatism.

The election became a resounding critique of the ultraisticpolicies and parochial doctrines that crippled a national economy and alienatedlarge segments of the populace.

Watching the conduct of Governor Schwarzenegger with respect toCalifornia's economy, one often feels a painful desire to slap the formerCyborg across the face and snap, "Don't just do something, stand there!"

Unfortunately,the worst part is that if the governor obeyed such aninjunction, it would arguably do more for California's economy than all thehysterics that Schwarzenegger and his cabinet are engaging inover the current problems.

With California facing an 11.2 billion budget deficit, Governor Schwarzenegger called lawmakers into a special session Monday and announced a fiscal emergency in the state.

"Without immediate action, our state is headed for a fiscal disaster,and that is why with more than two dozen new legislators sworn intoday, I am wasting no time in calling a fiscal emergency specialsession," Schwarzenegger said.

Unable to reach a compromise on a plan to reduce state spending and raise taxes, the debate will carry on into the session of new legislators who were sworn in this week.

Perhaps it is a function of a Western independence, or a simple and clear recognition that a stale policy isn’t necessarily the best policy; or a combination of both. Either way, Californians have wholeheartedly embraced the idea of Legislature term limits over the last 20 years. In February, Proposition 93 was proposed to change the current term limit law and voters defeated it, evidence that Californians are still supporting state term limits.

California's dependence on a global food economy has placed local consumersat great risk. A state’slong-term economic security is predicated on its ability to feeditself and to continue to do so without exhausting its naturalresources. Such security cannot be realized under our current globalfood system.

As we approach December, it was "only" two months ago that the Governator was threatening to veto the budget even after a 78 day stalemate in the legislature. Now, after California's voters have passed a measure to spend nearly $10 Billion dollars on a high speed train, legislators are still trying to close this year's budget gap by a variety of measures from raising taxes on pets and car registration to cutting mediacare programs funding for education.