July 2011 NHC NEWS A Monthly Bulletin of the Northwest Horticultural Council APPROPs The annual attempt to pass legislation to fund the federal government is always an adventure on Capitol Hill, but never more than this year, with its bad economy, deep budget deficits, and no political consensus on the best way forward.   There are twelve subcommittees of the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee handling the various funding measures that Congress should pass if it is to properly fund the federal government for activities starting October 1 with the new fiscal year. One of these House subcommittees worked on the FY 2012 Agriculture Appropriations Bill, which passed the full House in mid-June.  It now awaits Senate action on a companion measure. C-SPAN is a jewel of our democracy.  It allows anyone with access to cable television to watch the floor debate and votes in the House of Representatives and Senate on appropriations and other proposed legislation. One watching the agricultural debate on C-SPAN in June heard a full range of philosophical opinions and positions on a surprisingly diverse array of issues, from the banal (mohair subsidies) to the highly topical (food safety).  Spirited  discussion was had on the World Trade Organization, our country’s feeding programs for the poor, urban food deserts, the war in Afghanistan, the promotion of organic and local agricultural systems, biotechnology and, somehow, even the abortion issue. At the hardpan base of all this policy clutter was a central issue: the proper size and scope of government, especially in a time of economic trouble.  Do we continue to spend in support of those who grow livestock and crops, as well as the many in need of good nutrition and other services?  Or do we severely cut back, given the nation’s baleful debt.  Even if enough money were to be present, should federal agencies and programs continue to exist, and grow, just because they were once deemed of value? Those who benefit from the work of such agencies as the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service and Agricultural Research Service or HHS’s Food and Drug Administration should not be complacent as this Congress continues to work its will during a most disquieting appropriations process. ¨   EVERYONE HAS HIS “PEAR” A comprehensive biography issued this year written by Professor Jonathan Steinberg—Bismarck: A Life—will be of great interest to students of Germany. As with any such book on a significant personality beyond the reach of current memory, the author draws from contemporary sources for insights on the times.  Here is one by Germany’s foreign minister at a lunch, as that official reflected in the 1880s on the retired, but still troublesome, Prince Otto von Bismarck: “… [He] sat there with a long pear-shaped face.  First as the fruit was served, he cheered up.  His own home-grown pears awakened from his state prosecutorial reflections about a two year jail sentence that awaited the wicked old man in Sachenhausen [Bismarck]…. And, still, if the old Prince had gone to jail, he would have offered him a slice of his ‘Beurée Marschall’ or the ‘Marschall long-lasting pear.’ C’est plus fort que lui. These pears are his joy, is sunshine.  Everybody has his ‘pear,’ so why should not he?” The foreign minister—he with the long pear-shaped face—would have still offered  Bismarck (in this flight of fancy, on his way to jail)  a prized fresh pear— the adjective “beurée,” meaning with “melting flesh”— because that foreign minister’s generous character would have gotten the better of him (c’est plus fort que lui).  Even the wicked Iron Chancellor deserved some joy and sunshine, here in the form of a pear. ¨ Travel Mark Powers July 11-15 – U.S. Agricultural Export Development Council’s FY 2011 Attaché Seminar, Washington, D.C. But perhaps most characteristic of the man, according to Geffroy, was his enthusiasm.  Only Cézanne could exclaim, with almost childlike gusto, ‘I will astonish Paris with an apple!’   Mary McAuliffe Dawn of the Belle Epoque Northwest Horticultural Council 105 South 18th Street, Suite 105 Yakima, Washington 98901, USA Voice: (509) 453-3193, Fax: (509) 457-7615 E-mail general@nwhort.org