When it comes to farm subsidies, overwhelmingly Republican rural Kansas has always been willing to set aside the GOP principle favoring free markets over government handouts. But a new W.K. Kellogg Foundation poll of voters in Kansas, Iowa and Minnesota shows a strong willingness to draw the line on subsidies at $250,000 per farm, with 67 percent supporting payment limits (as a majority oppose cuts in USDA jobs, nutrition, environmental and commodity subsidies programs). Despite the Kansas Farm Bureau’s opposition to caps, the time may well be up on these quarter-million-dollar payouts from Uncle Sam. Good riddance.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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10 Comments
Ever been to a farm Rhonda? Any idea what it costs to plant, maintain and harvest a crop in a year? Not to mention fuel, equipment, buildings, property taxes, etc. I hope you didn’t say all that on a full stomach. The family farm is a mainstay of this great country. When you sell them out to the giant Corporate farms, you will be the first one on here compaining about the higher prices at the grocery store!
A good site for information on farm subsidies is the Enviornmental Working Group’s Farm Subsidy Database. One can do a search by city, zip or name to find recipients of farm subsidies.
Search Kansas database:http://www.ewg.org/farm/region.php?fips=20000#search
Homepage: http://www.ewg.org/
You’ll see cutbacks in the farm subsidy program the same day you see the Feds going after exorbitant profits by the large oil/drug/(fill in the blank) companies.
Well if I have a large farming operation, I think I will divide it up into four portions and get a million a year instead of two hundred and fifty thousand. Oh sorry, that’s already been done.
The family farm, heh, that’s a quaint notion, KanSam.
Don’t you mean serfs for Archer, Daniels, Midland and the two or three other huge agri-businesses that set ag prices in this country.
Remember when farm radio reported on the price of chickens? Now they don’t even bother because the prices are set by the big buyers who furnished the farmer the chicks.
There’s a direct cause and effect between our farm subsidies and NAFTA and the huge influx of illegal Mexicans. They can’t compete against our subsidized corn, and we’re destroying the local Mexican corn growers.
Farming in this country is more concerned with farming gov’t funding than they are with farming crops.
It’s another good example of “welfare for the rich” which is the motto of the Republican party.
I’m actually getting tired of the old aurgument that the Family Farm is the Main Stay of America. Same with people making BaseBall a national past time. Like these industries are somewhat special and deserve special treatment.
They are businesses none the less and family farms, or any farm should not recieve a dime of government subsidies.
I know they will say that without the family farm, prices of food will skyrocket and we will be in soup lines starving. Yeah Right! The farmers in Kansas, Iowa, and Minnesota, I would say 90% of them, don’t even grow what we eat. Rather, they grow animal feed.
They go to their local county extention office and ask, “what can I grow, that I can recieve a subsidy for?” That is why you only see farmers growing crops that are subsidies. You don’t see them growing Stawberries, Watermelon, or any other food humans eat. The farmers don’t want to work that hard. Grain is easier, and it is easy with government subsidies.
I say, if you cannot make it without government subsidies, then you don’t need to be farming. In all honesty, it would be a lot better to have several large corporations run all the farms.
Your family farmer is also the largest employer of illegal immigrants and they treat them like crap. I’ve known family farms where a family of illegal immigrants were working that farm, but they housed them in a dirt floor shack.
Also! Farmers take advantage of a government program, for which they get paid for not growing a thing, but to turn their fields wild for wildlife habitat. Many farmers are doing this in Kansas and riding the gravy train. And sense they don’t farm, the local hardware stores and shops in small towns are going out of business because farmers don’t need supplies. They just go on european ski vacations and forget about their own communities.
Farming needs to be efficient, not subsidized. $250,000 is a lot of money to one person. But that is not enough for farmers. They don’t want to work. They just want to bark orders from a pick-up truck at poor illegal immigrants toiling their fields for low pay.
Pookie used to work with a guy who farmed on the side. “Farmer Brown” wasn’t really interested in farming; all he was interested in was how much he could make on subsidies.
“Farmer Brown” had a heart attack one day, fell into the pig pen, and the hogs ate him.
I’m pretty sure there’s a moral here; just can’t decide which one to pick.
Joe, Sounds like this really hit home with you. Do you know what % of farmland is corporately owned and what is family owned? I’ve been looking for it on the web but have been unsucessful.
Joe,A few corporations becomes a near monopoly that ends up with us over a barrel. We, as consumers, need more elasticity of supply than that.The problem then becomes how do we help the smaller producers without the big ones ripping off the program. One of the biggest family fortunes in the state was started back in the early ’50’s by them buying up worthless, unplantable farm land, and collecting over a million a year for not farming it.Trying to design a program that actually helps keep a large number of suppliers and processors going becomes a next-to-impossible task when the corporate monopoly interests own the congressional committees that are charged with designing them.Ending the programs would also aid the corporate producers, since it would eliminate their competition.We’ve gotten in a heap of trouble depending on a small group of major suppliers of oil. Let’s not make the same mistake with breakfast!
So how do we feel about conservation set asides? Last I heard it could reach $55 per acre per year to plant grass and leave the land out of production. “Grass” can be Bhrome, and that’s good forage waiting to be harvested.