Posted on 07/07/2009 1:50:15 PM PDT by Lorianne
Americans pay much more than they should for their food. Thanks to a thicket of subsidies and tariffs that support American farmers and tilt the growing field against cheaper foreign producers, we get ripped off twice: first as taxpayers who ante up for roughly $25 billion in agricultural subsidies each year ($4 billion for milk alone in 2006); then as consumers who pay higher prices at the checkout counter because we can't take advantage of low-price imports.
Subsidies and tariffs were originally intended to help protect small farmers--a purpose they've largely outlived. They keep rolling on, though, because the only people who focus on them tend to be their direct beneficiaries. Spread over tens of millions of consumers, the costs seem small: the average American taxpayer, for example, pays only $322 each year to fund subsidies. But for some of the thousands of farmers who get such payments, the benefits are huge: from 1995 to 2005, roughly 75 percent of subsidy payments went to just 10 percent of the subsidy recipients, who took in an average of $91,000 a year; and 55 farmers received more than $1 million each. Talk about a green thumb.
Given the megadeficit now darkening our fruited plain, $25 billion each year is real money; so is the roughly $2 billion in economic benefits that the U.S. International Trade Commission estimates we would get each year if we lifted all tariffs on food and agriculture items. We'd bring in more than $800 million by lifting tariffs on sugar alone. What's more, by ending this kind of subsidy profiteering and opening our markets, we would not only save money but enable some of the world's poorest agricultural producers to make a buck in the bargain.
(Excerpt) Read more at ideas.theatlantic.com ...
Corporate welfare?
BTTT
In short: let’s export some more jobs overseas, so that the Food Industry can make some REAL money : OUR farmers be damned !
Hell-o ! Has anyone looked around and noticed the big housing developments occupying what used to be prime farmland ?
Has anyone considered what could happen if our food supply were dependent on import ??
Not to mention the Corn overload we get in our food that probably contributes to the obesity epidemic.
I lived and worked around farmers for a long time, and can tell you that they are the most traditional, patriotic, rock-ribbed Conservatives you’ll ever meet, UNTIL the subject of cutting ag subsidies comes up. Then they morph into some kind of a cross between Mussolini and Huey Long.
Sugar is probably the worst in quotas, tariff and price supports. Candy companies are moving overseas because they can buy the sugar at the real price and ship candy to the US without the tariff for cheaper than importing sugar with the tariff and making it here.
Question: Do the farm subsidies enable us to self sufficient in food production? I thought the US was a net exporter of food?
You got it! Who else gets paid not to grow crops?
The last time the US Government got ‘farm policy’ right was during the Whiskey Rebellion.
And some of us farmers don’t “do” government programs.
It is dependent on import ... on imported oil.
lol
I’m sorry, I don’t want “cheaper food” from China and the third world.
Sky King.
His big ranch grew nothing but tumble weed, but he could afford to fly the Song Bird.
He had lots of free time to catch crooks for the sheriff and petrol the border.
Born and raised on a farm, I believe these programs should be killed. In fact, if the programs were gone I think farmers would make more in the long run. Right now most operate at unreasonable expense levels because the government payments are more than enough to live on. If the government payments weren’t forthcoming, most farmers would cut their expense levels (for example: buying smaller, older equipment rather than leasing the latest and greatest) and bring expenses in line. The resulting drop in production would actually raise prices in the marketplace. The downside is that most big operators would go bankrupt, perhaps along with the (UAW-influenced) farm equipment manufacturers....
hh
If you don’t like the product don’t buy it. If you think you can do better, grow your own. What we need is a two week strike by farmers. Most people could live off the fat of their own overfed bodies.
Don’t the people that work for us in Washington really turn your stomach?
The big dairy farm I worked for tried the corn subsidy route once and ended up losing more than if they had simply taken market price at harvest time.
Price controls on the milk only helped lose money at a slower rate.
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