The No Farmer Left Behind Act

Wall Street Journal ^ | 14 November 2007 | Staff

[shrinkermd]

Perhaps it's beneath the dignity of Members of Congress to shop at a grocery store, but if they did they'd know that food prices are rising faster than at anytime in 17 years. Milk now costs $3 a gallon in many states. Eggs, oranges, peas, tomatoes and rice are selling at or near all-time highs. The biggest winners have been corn producers, as corn prices have doubled in two years -- thanks in part to new mandates for ethanol.

All of this is translating into the best gains in farm wealth in decades. Total farm income is expected to leap by 44% to $73 billion this year, according to the USDA. The average income of full-time farmers hit $81,420 last year, with large corporate farms earning in the millions of dollars. Meanwhile, farmland prices in the past five years have increased by $200 billion a year, or an average asset gain of $100,000 per year per full-time farmer.

And yet Congress is writing another five-year farm bill as if this were 1936 and the Okies roamed the plains. The House has already passed a $286 billion bill, and the $291 billion version now moving through the Senate may be the largest feast of subsidies ever served up by Congress. The bill's estimated $25 billion in direct crop payments, and another $10 billion in "emergency assistance" and insurance subsidies, are stacked as high as an Iowa silo

[shrinkermd]

"...About $4 of every $5 in the Senate bill go straight into the pockets of the growers of five commercial crops: corn, cotton, rice, soybeans and wheat. The idea of subsidizing corn growers at today's prices makes about as much sense as government sending a check to every American who owns Google stock. But that's not all. The powerful sugar, honey and dairy lobbies have also won expansions of their price supports. These government price guarantees come even though the World Trade Organization ruled last month that U.S. cotton subsidies violate American trade agreements.

[Slapshot68]

“Milk now costs $3 a gallon in many states.”

$4.50 here on the eastern shore of Maryland.

[Vigilanteman]

Maybe farmers could start paying market wages for field hands if the WSJ would quit shilling for illegal immigration too.

[KarlInOhio]

makes about as much sense as government sending a check to every American who owns Google stock.

Where's my check?

[edcoil]

The fed gives our money to farmers NOT to grow stuff and here in our state, they get money for water to water the plants they are paid not to grow.!

[Dixie Yooper]

If we lose Google, we loose our ability to search the web.

If we loose our farmers, we can always get all of our food from China. (sarc. off)

[bpjam]

I bought Baidu instead so I suppose I’m not going to get a check. (Of course, I hit $100 a share in gain in about a week earlier this month before I pulled took some schnitzel).

This ethanol nonsense is the biggest scam since Global Warming. Unless of course we can admit that the only reason we really have to put up with this ethanol is that ‘global warming’ has given ADM and ConAgra the excuses they need to get CongressCritters to hand over the Federal Treasury to them.

The really, really sick part is that each gallon of ‘ethanol’ is subsidized by like $1-2 a gallon and consumers pay the exact same price for the corn as they do for Saudi crude!! If this is such a brilliant idea and supposed to be so much more effecient than crude, why does it cost so much in spite of the huge Federal subsidy to the producers????!!!

So, two huge agribiz’s get massively rich along with a few hundred other individual corn farmers who are getting to ride the free train for now. And we’re building ethanol refineries by the pair but we’ve still yet to build any new crude refineries since the 70s. Boy, what a great ‘energy policy’ we have here kids.

[Southerngl]

$3 for milk? It’s $4.50 in Georgia, and we are usually the last to feel the pinch of high food prices because of the farming around here and the lower fuel prices.

Where the heck is it $3???

[agere_contra]

Absolutely agree. Ethanol only works as a fuel due to the magical power of subsidy. It’s demented.

[curiosity]

Anyone want to place any bets on how long it will take the corn lobby shills to show up on this thread?

[ontap]

Yea! i got ripped the last time for saying ethanol pushed the price of corn up. They said ethanol had no effect of corn prices.

[ThisLittleLightofMine]

Pacific Northwest 2 gallons for $5.69 or $2.99 a gallon.

[steel_resolve]

These government price guarantees come even though the World Trade Organization ruled last month that U.S. cotton subsidies violate American trade agreements.

THIS SHOULD POSE AN INTERESTING DILEMNA TO dEMOCRATS IN FARM STATES, WHO ARE USED TO BOWING DOWN AT THE ALTAR OF INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION.

[Mr. Lucky]

We’re already here. Watching you.

[66-442hot]

Minneapolis - Walgreens $3.03

[Fraxinus]

They said ethanol had no effect of corn prices.

They must be smoking the same stuff as those who say that the Invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with oil. I believe that the effect of ethanol on corn prices is less than that of the drought in the SE US though.

[traviskicks]

The irony is that even these thieving farmers and their lobbyists would probably be better off without the government subsidies...:

Farmers rediscover allure of tobacco No longer subsidized, crop gains acres in U.S.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1899911/posts

[shrinkermd]

Yes, that is an excellent post and point; however, human nature is such that most will trade security for freedom every time it is offered. Sad but true.