Deep Bond between Idaho Mormons and the Beer Industry

Headline of the day:

ABSTINENT MORMON FARMERS GROW BARLEY FOR BEER

The story delivers on the promise of that delicious headline, too. Behold:

Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo might seem like an unlikely person to be pushing a bill to cut federal taxes on small beer-makers: A member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he abstains from alcohol.

But Crapo's effort, with senators from Oregon, Massachusetts and Maine, illustrates the deep bond between Idaho Mormons and the beer industry.

A few more, each offered without context for maximum comic effect:

• Church founder Joseph Smith offered this revelation in 1833, "Strong spirits are not for the belly, but for the washing of your bodies."
  

• "I've often wondered about the correctness of doing it," said Scott Brown, president of the Idaho Grain Producers Association and a Mormon who grows barley on 5,000 acres near Soda Springs. "But somebody is going to grow it, whether members of the LDS church do."

• "People will look at me and say, 'You're a Mormon, why do you grow barley?' " he said. "I just don't have a problem with it. I don't think people who drink beer are bad."

I should mention that my family moved to Salt Lake City midway into my sophomore year of high school, and that may have singed me just a bit. In fact, its a good piece of journalism and pretty interesting.