Good Morning, Everyone. Soggy and gray again here. No change expected in the near future. But then what do we expect since it is almost Thanksgiving.

I saw this item on Huffington Post just now. I think Oregon's Rep. Peter DeFazio has an excellent point. But then I wondered from the beginning about the wisdom of relying so heavily on financial industry insiders for creative thinking on the recession. And everyone knows that the stimulus, bailout, and other measures have all been totally skewed toward big finance and have done diddly squat for everyone else. But then I am already getting tired of the campaign ads touting how "X," "Y," or "Z" has all these grand plans (totally non-specific, of course) to stimulate business and 'create jobs.' If you believe them I have a beautiful bridge and some wonderful swampland to sell you. I will give you a very good price.

Food First reports that the European Food Safety Administration has rejected the application made by a Monsanto/Cargill joint venture to produce a lysine boosted variant of genetically modified corn in Europe. The article makes some interesting reading.

Barry Estabrook at Politics of the Plate has a couple of very unsettling posts. In one he describes slavery in the South Florida tomato fields. I have read about these kinds of conditions in Europe over the last couple of years. There is a price to pay for cheap goods. Unfortunately, the end user is not the one who pays. The other post concerns a supermarket chain that has been fighting against labor organizations trying to improve working conditions and which now seems to be engaged in filming not the protestors on the picket line but their very young children. Of course, they are maintaining a 'plausible deniability' but I seriously doubt that the photographer would be involved if they didn't encourage him.