Don’t we pay farmers to NOT grow crops?
Yes we do. My wife inherited a farm recently and we had to go to the local federal farm office to deal with that. The Feds have had a program for years that pay you to not grow anything. 10 or 15 years ago they wouldn’t let you keep the ground mowed or anything. Now after 15 years of trees growing that couldn’t be legally cut they say that you have to cut the trees to stay in the program!
There are also other programs that pay farmers or subsidize them to some extent. I was told that the program paying you not to grow was originally based on the theory that letting some ground lay fallow was stopping erosion and that benefited the public at large. Now they want the trees cut down to promote wildlife. “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”
I guess that since the depression there have been more bad years than good years for farmers and that is why these programs,as unconstitutional as they are, have stuck around.
I sure don’t think so that was a Reagan era program but it would be great if someone did the research and let us all know.
I know there is a program that takes marginal land out of production, the owner gets an average of $40 per acre and it has to be seeded to a natural state and is basically an environmental program.
Recently we dealt the Chi-Coms tons and tons of soy beans. It got me wondering if we are going to pay our debt to them in food.