Calling Out The Star's Agriculture Ignorance

A Agri-writer brilliantly takes apart lazy reporting and editorializing from Kansas City's paper-of-record.

The Star enthusiastically wants to displace people for the sake of bison. A spirited rebuttal of this silly eco-scheme challenges The Star's misguided opinion.

"A recent editorial in the Kansas City Star was picked up by the Wichita Eagle. It suggested that perhaps it's time to dust off the 1980s "Buffalo Commons" concept and turn a vast swath of northwest Kansas into a national park populated by buffalo. They suggested starting with Greeley and Wallace counties -- which by the way aren't actually northwest but west central.

The writer said population has dwindled to next to nothing and agriculture accounts for only 3 percent of the gross state product and that is diminishing annually, so we might as well create a park that would sequester carbon and attract tourists.

The very idea that it might be time to displace 4,000 hard-working Kansans and turn their property into a national park is scary enough. But the ignorance of the value of agricultural production to the economy is appalling. Agriculture is not 3 percent of the Kansas GSP and shrinking. It's 15 percent and growing, even if all you do is add up the market value of ag sales."

It's (not so) stunning that The Star misrepresents, ignores or disregards simple facts which don't support their agenda and more evidence of this practice comes to light every day with the help of the Internets. The Star's corporate branding offers a make-believe world in which newsies are objective and a few optimistic employees even believe this urban legend . . . Meanwhile as The Great Recession dismantles Kansas City's Daily Newspaper an increasing number of media watchers realize that it's no big loss.