Farmer-bashing all the new rage

Washington Times ^ | Thursday, July 18, 2002 | S. Richard Tolman

[JohnHuang2]

Farmers are living high on the hog at the federal subsidy trough.

The fact is in 2001 farmers earned their lowest real net cash income since the Great Depression. In 2002, they suffered through the fifth straight year of record low prices for many commodities. And fuel prices are propelling production costs to an all-time record.

[Richard Kimball]

"If the Congress keeps saving family farms at the rate it has the past two decades, they should all be gone in a few years."

Using farming lingo, the only people who will benefit from this are the big corps that know how to get to the federal pig trough. One of the reasons small businesses are drying up is the feds (and states) are doing everything they can to help big corps at their expense.

A few big outfits are a lot easier to control than a bunch of little outfits. I'm sure, for example, that Walmart (started in Arkansas) didn't get any special breaks by having Hillary! on their board of directors.

You cannot currently produce enough off of land to pay for it. That means if it isn't already in your family, you either lease or run it as a tax break. I don't know any local farmer under 60 that isn't doing something else to actually pay the bills. Some of them are fire fighters, truck drivers, etc, and most of them live in double-wides or old houses built during the depression. Oh, there is one fancy farm in our area. Gosh, it's owned by our local Demonrat state representative who also happens to be a lawyer. I'm sure he won't get anything out of the farm bill.

BTW, read an article a while back, and over half the people on the federal board that decides who gets to grow how much citrus fruit are employees of.... Surprise!!! Sunkist!

[Richard Kimball]

When I clicked on this thread, I thought it was about Zimbabwe.

[Freedom4US]

I got in a whole lot a trouble at the Uni when we were supposed to do a paper on farming. I went out and interviewed a local farmer and he explained what all the equipment cost and how much profit he made from year to year. It's amazing -- and I wrote a glowing paper in admiration, not what they wanted for that class at all.

They work hard as hell, and not too many people want to do it anymore. What I can't figure out, when the stock market goes up, farm prices are down. When the stock market goes down, farm prices are down. When we have inflation, farm prices are down. When... Well, you get the idea. One would think these guys would make money at some point.

[RWG]

Farm supports were created to keep farmers in business and food supply constant so costs can stay low...an admission that there is no such thing as a free market, and the only market force there is happens to be the elitists who own the government.

[FreeInWV]

I think your hostility toward farmers is missplaced. 95% of farmers get no subsidies whatsoever. The only ones that get subsidies are agribusinesses that can afford lobbyists and lawyers. Of course a few token farmers are tossed in to make the numbers look good at the Dept of Agriculture. In my county, 23 farmers got a total of $15K in subsidies. That averages to $650 apiece. The money was likely a cost match or loan to pay for some kind of conservation project that the government forced upon them. Small farmers don't get the fat subsidies that you seem to envision. The companies that get these subsidies are Monsanto, Tyson Foods, DuPont, Westvaco, John Hancock Insurance, Chevron, Caterpillar, Boise Cascade Corporation and Archer Daniels Midland. Exactly why an insurance company and an oil company get some of the largest subsidies is beyond me. I suspect it has something to do with their lobbyists.

Its well known that small family owned farms far out produce corporate agribusinesses on a per acre basis. This is because the person working the farm has a huge personal interest in the success of the crop or livestock. Its a livelihood as opposed to a job. Its also in the blood. Your average Tyson employee is not going to stay out in that 95/95% weather until 11PM making hay like I did on Monday night. His exact quote will be "Tyson can kiss my a**!" If you want to see what happens when you let non-owners run a farm, you should look to the former soviet union. Now there is a shining success story. It cost the soviets their country, and they darn near starved to death. As you can see, farmers are actually quite important to national defense.

I agree that some kind of reform needs done. The govt subsidizes anyone who is wealthy enough to have a lobbyist, whether it be the airline industry, the auto industry, the oil industry, the telecomm industry, the shipbuilding indutry, the insurance industry or whoever. Nearly all of the ag subsidies go to massive agribusinesses, which in turn makes it noncompetitive for the small farmers. Left alone, small farmers would be quite happy as long as the country stops subsidizing their competitors. Funding to environmental groups and land trusts should stop. These groups through land purchases and imposition of unethical regulations are making farming non-competitive. They are swiftly driving small farms out of the country. Small farmers don't have the high paid lawyers to fight their government subsidized lawyers.

While we are at it, the USFS should remain under the Dept of Agriculture. Timber is a crop, not some tree hugging weirdo's private playground.

Before you condemn your average American family farmer as welfare scum, you should look and see who they are. Have you ever actually met one? Go to http://govinfo.library.orst.edu/ag-stateis.html and look up your county. One of the many databases there will show you who in your county got a subsidy and how much it was for. You should drive by that guy's house. Most of the money that the govt spends does not impact them whatsoever. Things like subsidized water and sewer systems, highway systems, inner city programs, playgrounds, urban renewal, business development zones, retraining programs and anything with the word infrastructure attached don't mean spit to them. Be sure to look at how the entirety of govt spends your and their taxdollars. Consider things that most farmers do not get like unemployment insurance, earned income tax credits, day care credits, nicely paved roads, good police coverage and cable TV with broadband internet access subsidized by the govt. What about the gasoline that their tractor uses? Over $0.80 of each gallon is spent on highways which they will rarely use, but you will use every day. For each thousand gallons, they spend $800 to make your highway nicer.

Now ask yourself whether that guy in the John Deere hat is sucking more money out of the govt or whether you are.

[BikerNYC]

There will be many who speak out against farm subsidies.

Only capitalists.

[DoughtyOne]

If you had any idea what was taking place in the pharmaceutical industry right now, you'd lay off the capitalist vs socialist mantra. There are times when the capitalist system doesn't cure all ailes. There are currently upwards of fifty important medications that are unavailable from any pharmaceutical source.

Snake bite antivenin, tetanus, certain third generation anti-biotics and other items can't be purchased at any price right now.

How would you like to see that happen to food?

Look, we live in a corporate environment right now that is as cut throat as I have ever seen. In the interest of the bottom line pharmaceutical houses are dropping items that have been mainstays for decades. Some of those mainstays are the best treatments available. Some of those items are the only treatments available. They are single sourced and dumped on a whim, even though profits are still being made. It's just that those profits aren't top dollar and skew the corporate reports.

I pitty the person who gets snake bit this year.

I would submit that doing away with farm subsidies might be the biggest snake bite of all.

[BikerNYC]

There are times when the capitalist system doesn't cure all ailes.

You're right, of course. But then again, it never claimed to. It's the most efficient system we have, not the most holy.

Rather, it is socialism that claims to cure all ailes.

[DoughtyOne]

What's worse than socialism? Well it's those who support it. Those folks on the left are downright scarey. I'm not a fan of socialism and the damage it does to incentives, and all the marxist agenda that goes with it, so I am sympathetic to your arguement.

If a suggestion to do a top to bottom evaluation of farm subsidies was raised, with the emphasis of intelligently protecting private farms vs corporate farms, I'd be all for it. I am rather confident that the present system is out of whack, and in need to tweaking. Frankly I think we could accomplish all we need to on a lot less money.

The food supply is about the only interest I want the government's fingers in when it comes to protection. There might be one or two others. But let's be honest, the government screws up everything it touches. The least possible amount of governmental intervention would be my goal.

[BikerNYC]

And I understand your argument. It is appealing. But I don't see why we should try to prevent the concentration of farm power into a few hands when that concentration is going on in the corporate world every day. Should we have bailed out Arthur Anderson because now we have fewer big-time accounting firms controlling the market? Why shouldn't farming be subject to the same market conditions and subject to the same tireless path of market concentration and domination by a few giants?

Unfortunately, one prediction by Marx, that industry would continue to merge and concentrate until only a few corporations dominate any one sector, seems to be coming true. To me, it's a sign of lack of creativity and drive. It's much easy to buy a business than to build one.

[toddst]

It's much easy to buy a business than to build one.

Yes it is. If we had less regulatory and tax load on start-up businesses there would be more happening, our overall economy would grow stronger and more rapidly.

[BikerNYC]

I can't disagree with that!

[Consort]

[Tailgunner Joe]

bttt

[gcruse]

The farmer in the Dell?