Reprinted with permission From the September, 2009 issue of the Ester Republic.

Out of the blue. Thats what I thought when I heard the news that Obama’s justice department has launched a broadly-scaled antitrust investigation of ‘Big Ag’. How can they manage this new front in what is an ongoing ideological battle between the ‘left’ and the ‘right’, I wondered, embroiled as they are within healthcare reform and economic troubles? For the most part, Obama’s administration has been unwilling to take on additional big issues until it can put the healthcare and the economy to bed. Education, for instance, has stayed off the radar despite the looming renewal of “No Child Left Behind.” Obama is already being hammered by some for taking on too much too soon (though arguably this comes from those who would just as quickly criticize him for doing too little if circumstances were different). But to Obama’s credit, news of this new initiative slipped off of the news desks as quietly and as quickly as it slipped on, obscured, no doubt, by the healthcare firestorm and all but missed by the talking heads. (more…)