Farm subsidies are the third rail for the Democrat party: Congress critters know that if they touch it, they will die in the next election. Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) said yesterday that that part of the budget will not be passed...he and other farm state politicians will see to that.
He's the farm subsidy king....well until now, now he's growing 600 acres of black walnut trees to trade on the Chicago Carbon Exchange.
Nothing like voting yourself a new graft.
I have know from day one, BO does not know how to tell the truth.
This is bad for farmers because the subsidy allows non-farmers to pay more for land and for retired farmers to take their land out of the market place.
Once CRP was instituted, I watched as the area I grew up in Missouri quickly became predominantly owned by city gentry looking for a place in the country.
A related issue is sugar quotas. The US government instituted quotas on imported sugar to “protect” the sugar industry, predominantly in Florida, and mainly south of Lake Okeechobee. This has resulted in sugar prices in the United States of five times the world price. This is led to the replacement of sugar with high fructose corn syrup in nearly all of our sweetened beverages, and many other products. There are now many reports of adverse health effects from consuming high fructose corn syrup, including obesity.
Another impact of the sugar quotas is that land south of Lake Okeechobee has been increasingly used for sugar production. Swamps have been drained to make new farmland. This resulted in a great reduction of the natural flow of water from Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades, and the fertilizers and other chemicals used in producing sugar cane has further harmed the health of the delicate ecosystem. Many immigrant workers had to be brought in to farm the sugar plantations.
Now, of course, with our new environmental consciousness, the US and Florida governments want to buy back that land to restore it to its natural condition. So the sugar producers made gobs of money by charging inflated prices for sugar, and now they are going to make gobs of money by reselling the land to the government at inflated prices. And, of course, the immigrant farmworkers will still be here. What a country! It’s hard to imagine how the sugar lobby got so much power with the federal government.
The Bum Rap on Biofuels
American Thinker | 5-13-08 | Herbert Meyer
Posted on 05/14/2008 3:59:06 AM PDT by Renfield
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2015711/posts
Campaign to vilify ethanol revealed
ethanol producer Magazine | May 16, 2008 | By Kris Bevill
Posted on 05/17/2008 9:22:13 AM PDT by Kevin J waldroup
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2017389/posts
thanks Gabz for this:
Nation’s Food System Nearly Broke
Madistan.com | February 26, 2009 | John Kinsman
Posted on 02/27/2009 2:07:46 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2195759/posts
and thanks george76:
Wolves kill 11 sheep at ranch
The Billings Gazette | 2/28/2009
Posted on 02/28/2009 9:43:31 AM PST by george76
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2196230/posts
One is the arrival of the NEXT ICEAGE. It's possibly as much as 5000 years overdue, but there has always been some range of variation in the matter ~ never mind that it's happened pretty much on schedule 20 times in the last 2 million years!
The other is a precursor to the ICEAGE ~ it's called severe drought brought by cooler dryer air. We have lots of it. Drought in Argentina. Drought so bad in Australia even the normally humid tropics are burning off in vast fires. Drought in China's wheat belt. Drought in Russia's wheat belt. Drought in every part of the United States except Iowa.
It does not look good this year.
And what is Obama doing about it? Well, he's trying to help the ICE AGE come back sooner with his risky cap and trade scheme. He's trying to disrupt normal agricultural processes by distorting the markets.
It's only going to get worse.
bump