Iowa Earmark

The 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Bill that President Obama recently signed includes an earmark of $1.8 million for the Agriculture Department's Swine Odor and Manure Management Research Center in Ames, Iowa, whose "multidisciplinary research teams generate and integrate knowledge for evaluation and development of new management practices that minimize nutrient excretion, malodorous emissions, and the release of pathogens into the environment as well as have a positive impact on livestock health."


Something stinks in Iowa and it’s not just the cows and swine
It’s this earmark for Ames Iowa that quickly comes to mind
When the common man’s life savings are quickly losing ground
With banks and businesses failing and finally closing down
And unemployment statistics are surely on the rise
We are spending millions (1.8) to study some cow pies
Just to minimize excretions and malodorous emissions
And the release of pathogens in the air and the herds healthy conditions
With bail outs in the billions, millions ain’t that much
But to counter Mother Nature through research is out of touch
I’d rather spend the millions (and I guess it’s just my quirk)
Shoring up the businesses and getting folks back to work

You see, I grew up in the mid-west; grandpa worked at the Stockyard Bank
And when I’d go to visit, I’d complain about the ‘stank’
And Grandpa’d put his arm around me and said let tell you Sunny
That smell is what the farmers call the real smell of money
While the smell is still obnoxious I understood just what he meant
The smell was the smell of hard work, and hard work pays the rent
Let’s not worry about excretions and smells that hit our nose
That’s just the way God planned it; that’s just the way it goes
Let Mother Nature handle this as she has throughout our past
And cows and pigs and all livestock passively pass gas

Mdailey
03/23/09