Yeah..., tell me about all the "Price Supports" where farmers are paid NOT to grow certain crops..., never heard any stories about those payments being refused! Have you?
https://www.fsa.usda.gov/FSA/webapp?area=newsroom&subject=landing&topic=foi-er-fri-pfi
I believe it is 24 million acres that are in the CRP program where farmers get paid to NOT raise crops.
Those aren’t price supports. I’m not sure there are any price supports left, maybe for sugar and peanuts.
CRP acres are under contract for 10-15 years, and are subject to many rules. Natural habitat for animals has to be enhanced, and the land is accessible to the public. CRP acres are rented for public wildlife habitat, and to slow water runoff.
Good point.
There is a long list of ways the farm industry has been favored in contrast to the other sectors. That would include subsidies for crop insurance, the food stamp program, mandate for ethanol in gasoline, reduced state and local property taxes for agricultural assets such as land and equipment, and the supply of subsidized labor through our immigration system.
For the most part, farming has become a big business while still being viewed in light of the 1930's.
i remember this like yesterday but can’t find any pics of the car...
William T. “Cadillac” Smith, a former longtime state senator from Big Flats, died Tuesday morning. He was 94.
Smith represented the area in the New York state Legislature from 1962 to 1986.
A lifelong Big Flats resident, he ran his family’s 1,200-acre farm along State Route 352 for many years.
He got the nickname “Cadillac” after a stunt he pulled in 1961 to protest the government’s farm subsidy program.
He took money sent to him by the government for not growing corn, bought a shiny Cadillac, put a sign on the back thanking President John F. Kennedy for his generosity, and drove it to Washington, D.C., where he was greeted by Republican congressmen. The stunt was featured in Time magazine in 1961.
Shortly afterward, he was approached to run for political office, said his son, Michael Smith, the sixth-generation owner of Smithome Farms and a Big Flats town councilman.
“He was a conservative Republican, a down-to-earth farmer, and a good guy you could come talk to,” Michael Smith said. “He would stand up for the little guy.”