The Farm Bill is really our Food Bill (I am quoting Robyn O’Brien here!).

The Farm Bill is really our Food Bill (I am quoting Robyn O’Brien here!).

An important read for anyone who eats in USA.

An important read for anyone who eats in USA.

An important read for anyone who eats in USA.

It is about your food and your money people. We need to get smarter about this issue!

Have you left some things out? What about the CRP program? It’s basis was for land and water conservation, but it has resulted in providing huge payments to wealthy farmers to not farm. It’s welfare for the wealthy!! It doesn’t help at all with the need for healthy farm products.

We as a country have to make a decision about who and what we want to encourage when it comes to farming.

We as a country have to make a decision about who and what we want to encourage when it comes to farming.

We as a country have to make a decision about who and what we want to encourage when it comes to farming.

As long as the race for President starts in Iowa, the farm bill will not be reformed to comply with reality. Genetically-modified corn and soy, allergy-inducing (and celiac disease-producing) wheat, raised-to-be-ruined rice (I refer to white rice, which is a nutritional disaster), and worst of all, cotton, which uses 25% of the pesticides and 10% of the fertilizer on the entire planet, will continue to be subsidized, to the detriment of our food, land, and waterways. The so-called farm bill sickens me.

Have you sent this email to Michelle Obama? I would think she might find it informative.

As a person having been involved in agriculture my whole life, I am opposed to these “welfare programs” on the production side. All they are is simple welfare. I can see some merit in programs like the SNAP deal, but beyond that… no. The market will adjust to what it needs to be without “welfare”. As long as there are people, food production will be there and in time it will adjust to some sort of balance. I do not accept or take part in these programs. People that do are stupid because the government does not just give you money without some strings attached. Some day it will come back to bit those parasites in the rear end.

Notable information

We have a 23 acre farm but about 1/2 of it is in wetlands and forested. We work with the Conservation District and Stream Team to try to improve the small creek that runs through the place. We use almost no chemicals, compost our horse manure and spread it on the hay fields and harvest the hay to sell. The wife wants timothy for our horses and the climate here isn’t good for growing timothy so we sell our hay and buy timothy. I also do some haying for a few of my neighbors. We get no help from anyone other than the consultation and one work party a year to work on experiments to reduce the reed canary grass that crowds out the creek. The SNAP program is one of the few really successful programs the government has done. It has indeed increased nutrition in poor families. It galls me that so much government aid goes to mega companies who don’t need it while the local people who grow food don’t get help partly because, as someone alluded, there are so many strings attached it’s just easier to do without the government.

One of many really good reasons for growing as much of your own that you can. Or visiting your local farmers market and stocking up on local produce and preserving it. Cheap food=poor health=increased medical costs, obesity, disease and early death. Even urbanites and many apartment dwellers can garden with a little bit of research. I am increasingly thankful for my garden, my chickens and my local farmer friends who grow organic produce and meats WITHOUT subsidies.

Corporate agribusiness likes these subsidies and you can bet they will do as much lobbying as they need to make sure things stay as they are

No farm subsidies for ANY GMO crops!

When programs are designed to reward benefits on a per acre basis the result is these dollars are capitalized into the price of farm land. Therefore the greatest benefits are awarded to those with the most land. When the government assumes production and marketing risks farmers do not budget for the risks assumed by the government and are enabled to bid land prices higher resulting in a narrower margin of profitability with the end result being the small farmers are driven out of business from the narrow margins of profitability.

When programs are designed to reward benefits on a per acre basis the result is these dollars are capitalized into the price of farm land. Therefore the greatest benefits are awarded to those with the most land. When the government assumes production and marketing risks farmers do not budget for the risks assumed by the government and are enabled to bid land prices higher resulting in a narrower margin of profitability with the end result being the small farmers are driven out of business from the narrow margins of profitability.

I agree it is time to call it a Food & Farm Bill and it is long overdue that we demand that legislators stop subsidizing grains through big agra which are really subsidizing the fast food industrial complex and the meat industrial complex and these are directly responsible for disease and spiraling Health Care costs, environmental pollution, and the decimation of small farm economies all over the world as we dump subsidized grains on their markets which then also adds to our immigration problems as farmers go north looking for work. Just like we need to stop subsidizing the carbon industry and instead help clean renewables instead, it’s time to shift subsidies from big agri-business and grains to vegies, organics, small farming and healthy soil. Time for smarter alternatives.

Yes and I know some very wealthy absentee land owners/non farmers who are getting subsidies to grow corn. It’s obscene and It needs to stop.

A tool of diplomacy, you mean a big stick. Our not so free market system is wreaking havoc on small farmers all over the world including the US.

Our Texas and Louisiana rice subsidies destroyed Haiti’s small farm economy. Our Corn subsidies wiped out Mexico’s small farm economy and many others in Latin America.

And no I don’t want all subsidies eliminated, I want them shifted to activities that pass through the filter of is it Healthy, Sustainable, Ecological and do you need the subsidy. It also needs to be means tested. Subsidies are helpful to help new beneficial industries off the ground. Big Agra Petro Chemical Farming does not deserve another dime.

The analysis of the farm bill debate as given above shows many strengths and insights. Whether it is true in all its particulars would require a little research. But we know that a democratic solution to the farmers’ plight is the right one. The problem is that farm subsidy programs have almost always wound up catering to the larger farms while small family farmers fall through the cracks. My grandfather was a small tobacco farmer in eastern North Carolina and I heard my grandfather and grandmother say more than once that the allottment and commodity program was corrupt and run by the politicians for the benefit of the big farmers. They died poor and received little from the governement except social security. My father was in the feed and seed business for more than thirty years, and he went “agribusiness” and favored abolition of the government support system. Yet most of his customers were small farmers, and many went down the tubes. I think, in this country, we have a capitalist myth that leads us continually back to the proposition that balanced budgets and laissez faire are somehow inherently good for the economy and more fair. But I do not believe it. A farm program that is too complex will be hard to administer on the local level and will cost a great deal to operate. But we must not allow our leaders to turn their backs on the small farmers. The economy is best when the great majority are prosperous–put money in the hands of the people and you will create markets and sustain business. This is the most fundamental insight of liberal economic theory and always its great foundation. Government has always contributed and government can do more to promote healthy food and make it available cheaply. The biggest problem that farmers face today is that they have become a forgotten minority group in the U.S.–with a huge urban population that has become unemployed, idle, ignorant and decadent. The small farmer, like the small business owner, will provide an important part of the solution to this delimma. Farmers need to speak up and speak out, find ways to work the democratic process to make their voices heard– don’t abandon government to big business out of conservative, laissez faire ideology.

There is a lot of waste in the farm subsidies, a lot of the people in congress get farm subsidies, but don’t have farms!
Just like the welfare there will always be some that take advantage. We need better funding for Watchdogs! Why won’t those in congress/senate do anything about it? They are almost all corrupt!

While congress tells you that we need to slash the budget certain interests are sacrosanct. This program and other big government/big business programs will not feel the swing of the budget ax.

Farm bills designed to provide benefits on a per acre basis reward those who control the most acres the largest benefits. Federal crop insurance which guarantees income, investments, and profits also reward those who control the most acres the highest valued benefits. If the government is going to be handing out financial security blankets why should any one farmer be receiving more dollars in benefits than than another farmer?

In my attempts to help people choose healthy foods I recommend that people support the Environmental Working Group in their endeavor to support the increased availability of organic foods. Let your representatives know that you are aware of the upcoming “Farm Bill” and that big business interests are not benefiting the American’s diet.

Blah blah blah more government interference and dependence.

This is outrageous. Go to EWG to voice your opinion and get word to your congress person!

Undoubtedly to the dismay of environmental activist groups chomping at the bit to disparage the “evil empires” of the big bad produce and pesticide industries, the latest federal data shows that U.S. fruits and vegetables don’t contain unsafe amounts of pesticide residues.

Several environmental groups – chief among them the Environmental Working Group (EWG), authors of the much-flawed “Shoppers Guide to Pesticides” – have been whining for months about the lateness of the Pesticide Data Program’s annual report typically issued earlier in the year by the USDA.
The statistics were released on May 25 and announced that 99.7 percent of all the fruits and vegetables tested for pesticide residues passed inspection with flying colors. “This report shows that overall pesticide residues found on foods tested are at levels below the tolerances set by the EPA,” wrote USDA administrator Rayne Pegg in a letter accompanying the report.
Despite consistent findings such as this that the U.S. food supply is safe when it comes to concerns about trace amounts of pesticides on produce, activist organizations such as EWG and other green groups continue to spew false claims that unfairly dub fruits and vegetables as “dirty,” using their annual Shopper’s Guide as a method of alarming consumers – particularly loving mothers who want to avoid poisoning little Johnny – without providing a modicum of solid scientific evidence to back up their claims.
To wit, a survey of toxicologists conducted by George Mason University in 2009 showed that 79 percent of scientists agreed that the EWG and other activist groups overstate risks. In contrast, the scientists in the survey rate most government agencies as accurately portraying chemical risks.
But positive reports such as the most recent from the Pesticide Data Program are anathema to activist groups like the EWG. You see, positive stats serve to reduce their financial bottom line and in their eyes this is simply unacceptable.
In 2008, EWG reportedly received nearly $6 million in contributions.

Thought maybe you should share this information with your contributers and readers!

You complain about “ethanol, solar & wind energy” subsidies. Those subsidies for fledgling clean-energy companies are minuscule compared to the multi-billion dollar subsidies going to Big Oil — to the massively profitable petroleum industry which has been massively subsidized for over a century. The tiny subsidies for clean energy are simply taking a very small step toward leveling the playing field with Big Oil. If you remove the huge subsidies for fossil fuels, including both petroleum and coal, there would be no need to subsidize ethanol, solar & wind energy.

yes you should! without the subsidies the prices in the store would increase dramatically and the farmer might finally make the income they deserve!
but then of course you all would be whining about how much food cost!

I’m angry that 70% of grain goes to feed livestock. you can feed 10 times as many people if that grain went to people instead of cycling it thru animals. I’m angry about the pollution and water waste used to torture and confine animals for food which goes on to give us heart disease, cancer, auto-immune disorders and obesity. Not to mention we’ve got 7 billion humans and rising on this planet and using 1.5 planet earth’s in terms of resources. we need to stop being so wasteful and using the earth like a toilet. These subsidies are old world… i understand why they were created but not why they keep going…

Check out the farm bill and how this will impact the quality of food available to us and supports the largest farms regardless of need, instead of supporting smaller farms who produce healthy fruits and vegetables

anyone who knows anything about the farm bill would know that very very little of that budgeted money ever triclkes down to the farmers growing the crops. It is lost in administration, food stamps, food pantries, welfare, and many other non ag programs. Most farmers, large or small, recieve much of an income supplement from the ag programs in place today. All farmers would much rather see farm commodity prices to the levels they should be. Without these programs, farmers would actually make more money. The reason the government keeps these programs in place is to keep food inexpensive in the united states!

That doesnt even make any sense! What does GMO have to do with the farm bill? And do you even know what GMO crops are? Most of them are simply modified thru breeding. Only a few GMO species have gene modification. If you do not know what you are talking about, please refrain from the talk. Your ignorance make you tree huggers look stupid!

Not sure how the numbers would stack up, but if homeowners would plant real “victory gardens” in their front and back yards, and apartment dwellers did more container gardening, I think you’d be surprised how much more food could be grown organically. Organic gardening and farming scales when more people participate directly.