Empty sloganeering

To the editor:

After reading Rob Port’s column titled “Time to End the Corporate Farming Ban” I came to the frightening conclusion that he perhaps knows even less about farming than I do. It certainly left me none the wiser about any benefits of this bill.

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Given his self-proclaimed expertise in this matter, I would have expected more of a marshaling of the facts and a logical analysis to support his position that passing this legislation was a good thing. However, most of his column was just empty sloganeering around a classic “straw man” argument involving workers in an era before unemployment insurance and food stamps. These laborers were opposed to new textile machinery because it would take away their livelihood. According to the author, any human suffering resulting from technological change is of little consequence.

I take issue with an opinion piece, especially in the High Plains Reader, that promotes a pro-corporate agenda without examining issues of economic justice. You don’t have to be “fair and balanced.” For that, we have Fox News.

Joseph Sleckman
-Fargo