What do farmers think of this?
Community
Contributors to this thread:
No food stability, no civilization.
If you ask a typical farmer, they want federal programs to go away - until they need something.
It is not easy being a farmer. It is not also easy to live without food.
Produce guy here. I could deal with a lot of this regulation if we had a fair market, but my main competitor is Mexico. No regulation and 1/10th the labor cost. They make it harder and harder every year.
Most farmers I know don't want government help. But when wheat prices are less than they were 45 years ago but a tractor cost 20x the amount it did 45 years ago, most stick their hand out. The government has kept commodity prices the same or less while everything else doubles in cost every ten years. The government thinks as long as food is cheaper everyone will be happy to live their life and not pay attention. I think that philosophy has run its course.
You need to also be aware that over 80%of the "farm bill" goes to school meal programs.
Food production is not something that can be easily stopped and started. Good food policy that insures a stable food supply could easily be justified under the "general welfare" clause, but there are many pitfalls.
It takes years to get an orchard or cow herd into production. That requires some market stability to justify the financial risk, but if nobody is willing to take the risk, food supplies dry up until the potential profits overtake the risks.
I could deal with a lot of this regulation if we had a fair market, but my main competitor is Mexico. No regulation and 1/10th the labor cost. They make it harder and harder every year.
Thanks to NAFTA!
"Thanks to NAFTA!"
What a fine trade agreement that was!!!!!
buckhammer's Link
If you want to see how much the government is involved in farming, use the link and go to ewg.org's website and use the search engine in the farm subsidy data base to see how much money in handouts your friendly neighbor is receiving.
I have 5 farmers within a 10 mile radius of my home that have received over a million dollars in subsidies in just the last 15 years.
Most farmers I know borrow heavily to get their crops in the ground..........seed, planting, weed control, fertilizer, etc. Very, very few have the financial means to cover all those costs up front of growing, harvesting, and merchandising a year of crop production.
Subsidies paid to the farmer probably loosely equate to the sums borrowed..........in effect subsidizing the banks that loan the money. Without the security of those subsidies, loans may not be extended by the banks, driving many operations out of business, which would lead to the real corporate farms taking over more production (not a father, two sons, and a son-in-law that manage a multi-million dollar corporation that has been on the same land for 3 or 4 generations)
rock50, I have wondered whether government programs have served to preserve family farms or hasten the international corporate takeovers.
I am not sure.