Farm Bill Passes Senate...

[simply dave]

While still a HUGE money pit IMHO, some progress is being made to unravel the gov't/corporate control of price control. For anybody who's interested, it costs the typical American corn farmer more per bushel than what he/she sells it for. The difference of course is made up in the form of subsidies. There are also subsidies for "mono-cropping" (growing just one type of crop) and having fields lie dormant/unproductive in an effort to control the market. Companies such as Cargill pay big dollars in political contributions and such to help form farm policies. Cargill happens to be one of the biggest purchasers of American corn. See where this is going?

Farm Bill Passes Senate

For anyone who would like to learn more about America's food programs, check out "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan.

 

[billfred]

While still a HUGE money pit IMHO, some progress is being made to unravel the gov't/corporate control of price control. For anybody who's interested, it costs the typical American corn farmer more per bushel than what he/she sells it for. The difference of course is made up in the form of subsidies. There are also subsidies for "mono-cropping" (growing just one type of crop) and having fields lie dormant/unproductive in an effort to control the market. Companies such as Cargill pay big dollars in political contributions and such to help form farm policies. Cargill happens to be one of the biggest purchasers of American corn. See where this is going?

Farm Bill Passes Senate

For anyone who would like to learn more about America's food programs, check out "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan.

When the farm bill was originally passed it was a great problem and indeed corn and wheat farmers were losing money or really just break even.

That was when wheat was $2 bushel and Corrn was about $2.5. Now both trade above $6 and farmers have been raking it in for some time.

The original program was a product of the Reagan administration and was a brilliant program. If they would have left it un-altered, it would have phased out on its own.

As is typical, they kept changing the terms and never phased out the subsidies.

 

[simply dave]

When the farm bill was originally passed it was a great problem and indeed corn and wheat farmers were losing money or really just break even.

That was when wheat was $2 bushel and Corrn was about $2.5. Now both trade above $6 and farmers have been raking it in for some time.

The original program was a product of the Reagan administration and was a brilliant program. If they would have left it un-altered, it would have phased out on its own.

As is typical, they kept changing the terms and never phased out the subsidies.

Interestingly enough, it appears as if the northern farmers of corn and soybeans are embracing the idea of reducing/eliminating the subsidies and the southern soybean and peanut growers are against it. That is something I did not know.

 

[billfred]

Interestingly enough, it appears as if the northern farmers of corn and soybeans are embracing the idea of reducing/eliminating the subsidies and the southern soybean and peanut growers are against it. That is something I did not know.

It is because in order to receive the subsidy, you have to set aside a certain portion of your crop land - like 20%.

Northern farmers receive enough rain naturally that they do not have to irrigate. Southern farmers do and it is the majority of their crop expense. So the margins and profits are much higher on northern farms so they will make more money on planting 100% of their crop land than they will receive from the subsidy.

 

[themondtster]

Watched the movie Food Inc. It touched on some of this. Said it was the cause for the fluctuations of migrant workers because we put lots of Mexican farmers out of business. Then because of this businesses advertising in Mexico busses illegals here and employed them. Also used largely in humanitarian aid, yet has little nutritional value.

 

[simply dave]

Watched the movie Food Inc. It touched on some of this. Said it was the cause for the fluctuations of migrant workers because we put lots of Mexican farmers out of business. Then because of this businesses advertising in Mexico busses illegals here and employed them. Also used largely in humanitarian aid, yet has little nutritional value.

Excellent documentary. I would encourage everyone to take the time to watch this documentary. What I found particularly damning was the history of "appointed" officials in the FDA and USDA that are former executives of the industries they've been appointed to oversee!!!

 

[SpyWizard]

When the farm bill was originally passed it was a great problem and indeed corn and wheat farmers were losing money or really just break even.

That was when wheat was $2 bushel and Corrn was about $2.5. Now both trade above $6 and farmers have been raking it in for some time.

The original program was a product of the Reagan administration and was a brilliant program. If they would have left it un-altered, it would have phased out on its own.

As is typical, they kept changing the terms and never phased out the subsidies.

when fuel costs were $.72 a gal corn was 2.20... 3 yrs ago when fuel was $3.75 corn was still 2.10 .... it's only been in a couple yrs that corn has gone up..

the death of the family farm is the end product of price fixing...

My opinion, Is its still 1/2 the price that it should be, foreign countries need to feed them self.. but many are now so us producing our own fuel is a great thing sand oil is good..

 

[EnderJE]

Excellent documentary. I would encourage everyone to take the time to watch this documentary. What I found particularly damning was the history of "appointed" officials in the FDA and USDA that are former executives of the industries they've been appointed to oversee!!!

It irks me that those types of appointments happen so often.

 

[SpyWizard]

but that's just my knowledge and experience in my own life time..

 

[redsamurai]

foreign countries need to feed them self.. ..

a thousand yes's to this statement. We have overfarmed the shit out of our land, you can't grow anything on traditional farmland here without putting down layers of chemicals first. The fuck with that. People around the world need to start figuring out how to cultivate their own land and not be reliant on the U.S and our GMO's we're trying to peddle everywhere.