Congress is starting to work on a new farm bill. My greatest wish is that we abolish all price supports, tariffs, subsidies, and any other corporate welfare notions that have traditionally been part of the farm bill. Keep in mind that the original bill was introduced in the ’30s when a 5th of the population worked on farms. Today, less than 2% of people work on farms and the vast majority of those farms are part of an enormous agribusiness business. The other thing to keep in mind is how few areas are actually supported through this legislation. Corn, cotton, wheat, rice, sugar, dairy, and soybeans are about it. Just about everything else from a farm does not receive any support or protection from the government. When was the last time you were worried about having enough apples, eggs, peanuts, beef, or chicken at the store? These protections cost taxpayers TRILLIONS of dollars every decade, and that money goes right into the pockets of the agribusinesses. One idea that had been floated is to cut off direct subsidies to any farmer that has an income of over $200,000 a year. That proposal has been fought tooth and nail and will probably be defeated in committee. To me the message is clear, give us your money.
Some industries do not receive direct subsidies, products like sugar and dairy are instead given price controls that keep the price artificially high and therefore the supply artificially high as well. We pay plenty extra for these products directly, but also for any product that uses those ingredients. In the case of dairy, we not only pay extra for the products that we consume, but we pay an artificially high price for the dairy products that are not sold. The US government buys (i.e. the taxpayers), at a predetermined price all of the excess product that is not sold. What a racket! The median income for farmers is 10% above the median household income for the nation as a whole. It’s time to stop the handouts, they need to compete for our money…
As you might imagine, the prospects of the farm bill being totally recalled are almost zero. The agricultural sectors have considerable sway in congress (gee, wonder how they fund all of those lobbyists?) but it doesn’t end there. Years ago, the agricultural based congressmen realized that there wasn’t any reason for the more urban areas to want to pay more for products, so those congressmen likely wouldn’t vote for the farm bill. So what did they do? They tied the food stamp program to the farm bill, that gave urban representatives the incentive to vote for the farm bill. Sick, God how I hate politics…
One possible solution to this is to offer a buyout to the farmers. While it sickens me to pay extortion money, it would probably be worth it if in exchange the farm bill laws on the books are completely repealed. If they ever wanted to reinstate any sort of farm subsidies, they would have to do it from scratch and that would be much more difficult. The WTO may be the answer to the problem. Brazil has already won a suit dealing with cotton “against” us. If congress doesn’t get it’s act together and rectify the illegal and unfair support for American cotton growers, Brazil can take some amazing steps in retaliation including ignoring copyright laws. That could cost American businesses of all sorts billions and I don’t think congress can allow it to happen. If American farmers start to believe that these free lunches will dry up sooner than later, they may be willing to be bought out. I can only dream….