Farm Subsidies

[Kat Kid]

Anyone want to post this on GPC?

We'll reap what we sow
The farm bill is loaded with pork and environmentally disastrous provisions.
By Daniel Imhoff

April 10, 2008

If you've ever driven through the southern end of California's Central Valley in September, you're familiar with the grids of lint-strewn cotton fields that blur by for nearly 2 1/2 hours. You might even have pondered the wisdom of planting such a thirsty crop as cotton on a million acres -- an area larger than Yosemite National Park -- in a state facing a water crisis. Then again, you might ask a similar question about the half a million acres of rice, a grain adapted to the monsoons of Asia, on the valley's northern end.

Cheap irrigation water is part of the equation, but there is another common denominator. It's a massive federal legislation package passed every five years known as the farm bill, which House and Senate members are scrambling to reauthorize by an April 18 deadline. Over the last decade, the farm bill has allowed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to shower tens of billions of dollars in subsidies on the nation's cotton and rice farmers (along with corn, soybean, wheat, sugar and milk producers). These subsidies flow whether growers need them or not. They flow even as they damage the environment and our nutritional well-being. They flow, all the while enabling the biggest farms to consolidate into mega-farms.

It wasn't always this way. The farm bill emerged during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression as a temporary financial safety net for family farmers. It included programs to promote soil conservation and distribute food surpluses to the needy. In the seven decades since that genie was let out of the bottle, however, the farm bill has become a high-stakes game of political horse-trading that has changed how we farm and what we eat. Today, more than a third of the budget goes to an elite group of commodity farms that grow grains and oilseed crops, mainly for feeding livestock and making processed foods (and now, fuels).

When current farm bill negotiations started in 2006, a proverbial food fight erupted. An array of nonprofit organizations, including Oxfam, Bread for the World and the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, pushed for a bill that would emphasize farming livelihoods, more effective environmental protection and better nutrition. Prices on nearly all commodities, except cotton, have been soaring. Average 2008 farm household income is anticipated to reach $90,000 -- nearly 20% above the national average. Meantime, commodity farmers were set to receive $13 billion in direct and indirect payments, disaster bailouts, crop insurance and (some worthy) conservation incentives in 2008 alone. Surely, reformers argued, this was the right time to stop throwing money at giant farming operations already making hay in current markets.

They lobbied for a $250,000-per-farm subsidy cap, but that got struck down by a status-quo Senate. They pushed for more locally grown produce in public school cafeterias, a noble effort but minimally successful. The efforts to cut cotton farming subsidies -- which distort global trade -- fell short. They fought for full funding for the Conservation Security Program, which rewards farmers for good land stewardship -- reducing use of chemicals, diversifying crops, saving water, etc. Here, reformers won a large increase, but the fund remains vulnerable; year-to-year, it often gets robbed to fund commodity programs.

A few worthy new programs also were added: funds for organic farming research and to help pay organic certification fees; an expansion of local farmers markets; assistance for beginning farmers; and support for "specialty crop" producers, who for decades have been locked out of the subsidy game. (Specialty crops is farm bill-speak for crops that are actually edible, such as fruits, nuts and vegetables, which many California farmers supply to the nation.)

But, by and large, the farm bill song remains the same: Commodity agribusiness gets the lion's share; reformers get table scraps. Absent a more vocal public outcry, the agribusiness lobby, which spent $80 million in 2007, again holds the winning hand.

What can we citizens expect if the proposed $300-billion farm bill is signed into law? Federally subsidized feed -- corn, soybeans and cottonseed -- for animal factory farms that spread disease, greenhouse gases and dangerous working conditions wherever they set up shop. (Farm bill "environmental quality" programs will even pay up to $450,000 for the construction of lined "lagoons" to be filled with lethal concentrations of manure.) The continuation of America's obesity campaign, which ensures the cheapest and most widely available foods are made up of such high-calorie ingredients as high-fructose corn syrup, refined flours, saturated fats and unhealthy meat and dairy products. And more federally backed exports of California's water -- in the form of cotton and rice, mostly sold overseas.

But here's the one that's really hard to stomach. More than $4 billion in permanent disaster assistance to growers in the Northern Plains. The brainchild of Montana Democrat and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, this is essentially a trust fund to guarantee income to farmers plowing up prairies and grasslands -- lands prone to drought and erosion -- to plant corn and wheat. Many observers fear a second Dust Bowl.

No final bill has been passed, and President Bush, who signed the extravagant 2002 farm bill, has threatened a veto if considerable reforms aren't made to commodity programs. There is still time to let everyone in Congress know that they should vote on the farm bill as if the nation's very health, future and security is at stake. Because it is. And we deserve better.

Daniel Imhoff is the author of "Food Fight: The Citizen's Guide to a Food and Farm Bill."

[jeffy]

Garth will be all over you like flies on cow manure.

[Kat Kid]

Average household income for farmer @ $90.000.  How impoverished they are.

[AzCat]

Like 80% of the farm bill is food stamps.  Let's cut that farm subsidy first.   

[Kat Kid]

Like 80% of the farm bill is food stamps.  Let's cut that farm subsidy first.   

Let's cut all subsidies and just regulate/tax.  If I see any more millionaires begging for bailouts/handouts I'm going to puke.

[AzCat]

Honestly, what do you expect when the balance of power tips from the private to public sector?  Slash the size & scope of government, slash the amount of regulation, slash taxes, and you won't have to worry about any of it ... and you'll get a far more dynamic and productive nation to boot.

[PCR]

Price floors (subsidies) are terribly disruptive to the entire world food supply.  The problem is that it's all controlled by lobbyists, so essentially, the lunatics are running the asylum. 

[AzCat]

The Ethanol Mandate will disrupt the global food supply orders of magnitude more than any subsidy ever has.

[sys]

The Ethanol Mandate will disrupt the global food supply orders of magnitude more than any subsidy ever has.

ethanol from grain is one of the stupidest ideas humans have ever come up with.  grain-fattened beef is up there too.

[ksu_FAN]

The Ethanol Mandate will disrupt the global food supply orders of magnitude more than any subsidy ever has.

ethanol from grain is one of the stupidest ideas humans have ever come up with.  grain-fattened beef is up there too.

Agree on ethanol.  The grain-fattened beef does taste better.  FWIW.

[michigancat]

Average household income for farmer @ $90.000.  How impoverished they are.

Is that AGI?  That can be very misleading, because most farmers have pretty big incomes, but a lot of expenses, too.

Most farmers I know would be cool if subsidies were eliminated.  And it really is an aristocratic profession, in a way.  You pretty much have to be born into farming to do it.  It's damn near impossible for some random person from the suburbs to just say, "I want to start farming" and go do it full time.

[steve dave]

Average household income for farmer @ $90.000.  How impoverished they are.

Is that AGI?  That can be very misleading, because most farmers have pretty big incomes, but a lot of expenses, too.

Most farmers I know would be cool if subsidies were eliminated.  And it really is an aristocratic profession, in a way.  You pretty much have to be born into farming to do it.  It's damn near impossible for some random person from the suburbs to just say, "I want to start farming" and go do it full time.

The full time part is true.  But farming is a job that is very easy to get into on the side because it is one of the few were you can have a regular full time job as well.  I know a lot of people that work a reg. 9-5 and have some cattle and wheat on the side.  Crop sharing is another way to get into farming with little upfront cost if you have access to the equipment and time on your hands.  Many a farmer will lease/rent you a tractor for a pretty reasonable price and many a freakin' rich landowner will give you a circle of ground for a cut of whatever you grow.  My brother cropshared a circle of corn this year and made a killing.  He has a full time job, no equipment and very little money up front.  Now, corn will not sell for what it did this year every season but it's not hard to get into on the side.

[michigancat]

The equipment thing is kind of a biggie.  I don't know anyone that leases equipment to random dudes.  Plus, you have to put in a lot of cash up front (fuel, fertilizer, seed, not cheap) and hope it rains so you can get your payoff in six months.  Risky as hell.

[ksu_FAN]

Risky as hell.

Yeah.  There are some things you can control, but I've always thought farming was pretty much like gambling with your life every year. 

[steve dave]

The equipment thing is kind of a biggie.  I don't know anyone that leases equipment to random dudes.  Plus, you have to put in a lot of cash up front (fuel, fertilizer, seed, not cheap) and hope it rains so you can get your payoff in six months.  Risky as hell.

Risky no doubt.  But, you can easily get a farm loan from any rural bank for the list above.  Rural banks fire out farm loans to anyone.  The key to the equipment is knowing someone that has some and just asking.  This kind of goes back to your, "Not anyone from the suburbs" thing because obviously a lot of people in JoCo don't know many farmers but anyone that lives in rural KS knows 50 people with farm equipment and most farmers are notoriously trusting (to their detriment in some instances).  

[michigancat]

The equipment thing is kind of a biggie.  I don't know anyone that leases equipment to random dudes.  Plus, you have to put in a lot of cash up front (fuel, fertilizer, seed, not cheap) and hope it rains so you can get your payoff in six months.  Risky as hell.

Risky no doubt.  But, you can easily get a farm loan from any rural bank for the list above.  Rural banks fire out farm loans to anyone.  The key to the equipment is knowing someone that has some and just asking.  This kind of goes back to your, "Not anyone from the suburbs" thing because obviously a lot of people in JoCo don't know many farmers but anyone that lives in rural KS knows 50 people with farm equipment and most farmers are notoriously trusting (to their detriment in some instances). 

farm loans are even scarier than just putting up the cash.

[Saulbadguy]

My in-laws are farmers, they sell Pioneer seed along with farming soy, wheat, corn, etc.  I think it would suck, he works 7 days a week always doing crap around the farm, and customers are always needing their seed orders. 

I always mention to my wife how stupid I think it is that they have a farm with no chickens.  If I had a farm, i'd try to make it entirely self-sufficient, with cows, pigs, chickens, etc.  You could feed the garbage to the pigs, they'd be happy.

[steve dave]

The equipment thing is kind of a biggie.  I don't know anyone that leases equipment to random dudes.  Plus, you have to put in a lot of cash up front (fuel, fertilizer, seed, not cheap) and hope it rains so you can get your payoff in six months.  Risky as hell.

Risky no doubt.  But, you can easily get a farm loan from any rural bank for the list above.  Rural banks fire out farm loans to anyone.  The key to the equipment is knowing someone that has some and just asking.  This kind of goes back to your, "Not anyone from the suburbs" thing because obviously a lot of people in JoCo don't know many farmers but anyone that lives in rural KS knows 50 people with farm equipment and most farmers are notoriously trusting (to their detriment in some instances). 

farm loans are even scarier than just putting up the cash.

Duh, but farmers don't deal in cash.  Even big timers deal strictly on credit.  If any farmer worth his salt ever amasses any amount of cash and DOESN'T buy more land or equipment he's not a REAL farmer.

[michigancat]

My in-laws are farmers, they sell Pioneer seed along with farming soy, wheat, corn, etc.  I think it would suck, he works 7 days a week always doing crap around the farm, and customers are always needing their seed orders. 

My dad is a much lazier farmer.  He pretty much only works 7 days a week during wheat harvest, and once in a while when the cows are having babies.  He visits us in KC, like, all the time.  HIS FARM DOESN'T HAVE DEBT, EITHER!

[Saulbadguy]

My in-laws are farmers, they sell Pioneer seed along with farming soy, wheat, corn, etc.  I think it would suck, he works 7 days a week always doing crap around the farm, and customers are always needing their seed orders. 

My dad is a much lazier farmer.  He pretty much only works 7 days a week during wheat harvest, and once in a while when the cows are having babies.  He visits us in KC, like, all the time.  HIS FARM DOESN'T HAVE DEBT, EITHER!

They told me the secret to making $$$ in farming is to not have any debt on the land and equipment.  They always try to get me to drive the combine, I refuse.  Looks scary. 

[steve dave]

They always try to get me to drive the combine, I refuse.  Looks scary. 

Duh, farm stuff is uber-scary    Plus, if you &@#% something up it isn't a, "oops, haha, I chipped some paint, sorry bro."  It's, "Holy F*cking hell!  I ran a $200K combine into your $75k sprinkler system and totally f*cked that sh*t up!" 

[michigancat]

They always try to get me to drive the combine, I refuse.  Looks scary. 

Duh, farm stuff is uber-scary    Plus, if you frack something up it isn't a, "oops, haha, I chipped some paint, sorry bro."  It's, "Holy F*cking hell!  I ran a $200K combine into your $75k sprinkler system and totally f*cked that sh*t up!" 

I totally f*cked up some crap when I was little.  Like, majorly.

[Saulbadguy]

They always try to get me to drive the combine, I refuse.  Looks scary. 

Duh, farm stuff is uber-scary    Plus, if you frack something up it isn't a, "oops, haha, I chipped some paint, sorry bro."  It's, "Holy F*cking hell!  I ran a $200K combine into your $75k sprinkler system and totally f*cked that sh*t up!" 

I totally f*cked up some crap when I was little.  Like, majorly.

DO TELL

[michigancat]

The worst was when I was like 11 and completely smashed a grain cart auger on one of those huge telephone polls that cut across fields and don't follow the roads.  I was crying and sh*t, but everyone was cool, because I was 11.  That was by far the worst.  Lots of other little stuff, but nothing really memorable.

[steve dave]

The worst was when I was like 11 and completely smashed a grain cart auger on one of those huge telephone polls that cut across fields and don't follow the roads.  I was crying and sh*t, but everyone was cool, because I was 11.  That was by far the worst.  Lots of other little stuff, but nothing really memorable.

I was once hauling ass (like, 19 mph) down some dirt road in a new swather and came upon some crapty old bridge with concrete side rails and just assumed I could fit.  I about went through the windshield and old man Dave was not impressed. 

[Saulbadguy]

Did your farms have "farm dogs"?  They have like 4.  They "keep the coyotes away".  All I see them do is kill cats. 

[michigancat]

The worst was when I was like 11 and completely smashed a grain cart auger on one of those huge telephone polls that cut across fields and don't follow the roads.  I was crying and sh*t, but everyone was cool, because I was 11.  That was by far the worst.  Lots of other little stuff, but nothing really memorable.

I was once hauling ass (like, 19 mph) down some dirt road in a new swather and came upon some crapty old bridge with concrete side rails and just assumed I could fit.  I about went through the windshield and old man Dave was not impressed. 

LOL!

I hit a mailbox once with a combine.  Smashed the f*ck out of it.  We had to go buy a new one. 

Did your farms have "farm dogs"?  They have like 4.  They "keep the coyotes away".  All I see them do is kill cats. 

No.  Coyotes are pussies.  They don't do sh*t.  I guess there's been a dog or two in the past, but they all get hit by cars and die.

[steve dave]

Did your farms have "farm dogs"?  They have like 4.  They "keep the coyotes away".  All I see them do is kill cats. 

Dogs just showed up (cats to).  We never actually bought or obtained a dog or cat any other way.  They could all stay if they liked Ol' Roy dogfood because that's what they got.  Plus, if the dogs chase cattle you had to shoot them.  Some would get shot, like a lot of times, and still run away.  They would later show up like nothing happened and if they didn't chase cattle they were cool to stay and eat Ol' Roy dogfood.  Agree with Rusty, coyotes are harmless.  It's just an excuse for rednecks to shoot something. 

[Saulbadguy]

Did your farms have "farm dogs"?  They have like 4.  They "keep the coyotes away".  All I see them do is kill cats. 

Dogs just showed up (cats to).  We never actually bought or obtained a dog or cat any other way.  They could all stay if they liked Ol' Roy dogfood because that's what they got.  Plus, if the dogs chase cattle you had to shoot them.  Some would get shot, like a lot of times, and still run away.  They would later show up like nothing happened and if they didn't chase cattle they were cool to stay and eat Ol' Roy dogfood.  Agree with Rusty, coyotes are harmless.  It's just an excuse for rednecks to shoot something. 

Yeah, that's how they got their dogs. Just show up.

[michigancat]

Oh, actually one of the farm dogs mauled me when I was two or three years old (I still have a noticeable scar on my face).  Grandpa busted a cap in his ass.