White House pushing farm subsidy cuts?

Chmee · Post by **Chmee** » 2005-02-05 03:50pm

Ok, here's the first one I've seen that screams 'Second Term' .....

President Bush will seek deep cuts in farm and commodity programs in his new budget and in a major policy shift will propose overall limits on subsidy payments to farmers, administration officials said Saturday.

Such limits would help reduce the federal budget deficit and would inject market forces into the farm economy, the officials said.

The proposal puts Mr. Bush at odds with some of his most ardent supporters in the rural South, including cotton and rice growers in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi.

The new chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, and more than 100 farm groups are gearing up to fight the White House proposal. The administration's willingness to push the proposal, despite such protests, suggests how tight the new budget will be.

Most of the subsidies are paid to large farm operators growing cotton and rice and, to a lesser degree, corn, soybeans and wheat.

Mr. Bush would set a firm overall limit of $250,000 on subsidies that can now exceed $1 million in some cases.

The proposal comes as the administration is seeking significant changes in other programs long considered sacrosanct, with the proposed revamping of Social Security to allow personal investment accounts and a move to shake up the Civil Service system.

Mr. Bush's farm proposal found support from some people who frequently criticize his policies.

For example, Kenneth Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, a research and advocacy group, said that it would reduce payments to large agribusiness operations and that the savings would reduce pressure on Congress to cut conservation programs.

"This proposal is a very big deal," Mr. Cook said. "I am stunned and impressed. The Bush administration is opening the door to reform on the most contested issue in agriculture policy today. Taxpayers will no longer have to subsidize every bushel of grain or bale of cotton. They will no longer have to subsidize the demise of the family farm."

NYTimes Link

Mayabird · Post by **Mayabird** » 2005-02-05 08:13pm

About damn time.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2005-02-05 08:17pm

Finally. The fucking farmers have been earning taxpayer dollars for WAY too long, now.

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2005-02-05 08:40pm

Gosh, they might have to actually...no...compete? Naah, that's crazy talk!

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2005-02-05 08:47pm

Master of Ossus wrote:Finally. The fucking farmers have been earning taxpayer dollars for WAY too long, now.

Earning?

And yes this is a good thing. Farmers suck up more tax dollars than welfare and unemployment recipients, and they live far more comfortably. The farm industry really just needs to be privatized completely. Personally, I think that farm families will be coming to an end within a generation. Farming is a business where you can do everything right and still end up massively in debt because of the weather. American families simply don't have the capacity to wether that storm without assistance from tax payers; corporations do.

Chmee · Post by **Chmee** » 2005-02-05 09:52pm

Durandal wrote:
Master of Ossus wrote:Finally. The fucking farmers have been earning taxpayer dollars for WAY too long, now.
Earning?

And yes this is a good thing. Farmers suck up more tax dollars than welfare and unemployment recipients, and they live far more comfortably. The farm industry really just needs to be privatized completely. Personally, I think that farm families will be coming to an end within a generation. Farming is a business where you can do everything right and still end up massively in debt because of the weather. American families simply don't have the capacity to wether that storm without assistance from tax payers; corporations do.

I think you'll see plenty of 'family' farms for organics & semi-exotics, but the day when a dairy or pig farm could compete against agro-business are done.

frigidmagi · Post by **frigidmagi** » 2005-02-05 09:56pm

Ah fuck... There go alot of my friends.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » 2005-02-05 10:01pm

Chmee wrote: I think you'll see plenty of 'family' farms for organics & semi-exotics, but the day when a dairy or pig farm could compete against agro-business are done.

Actually up here in the Great White North, a large number of farms are converting from cows/pigs/goats to elk/bison or deer. And apperently they are making quite the profit off of it. Might be something for US farmers to consider.

The Kernel · Post by **The Kernel** » 2005-02-05 10:02pm

The problem with this is that if you kill farm subsidies without actually enforcing EPA regulations (which the Bush Administration has been gutting) you make it impossible for the small farmers to compete with the conglomorates.

This is a good thing in itself, but they are still giving a leg up to the larger corporations (as they can flagrently violate environmental regulations) which is going to cause a disparity between the large farmers/ranchers and the family owned farms.

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2005-02-05 10:20pm

Chmee wrote:
Durandal wrote:
Master of Ossus wrote:Finally. The fucking farmers have been earning taxpayer dollars for WAY too long, now.
Earning?

And yes this is a good thing. Farmers suck up more tax dollars than welfare and unemployment recipients, and they live far more comfortably. The farm industry really just needs to be privatized completely. Personally, I think that farm families will be coming to an end within a generation. Farming is a business where you can do everything right and still end up massively in debt because of the weather. American families simply don't have the capacity to wether that storm without assistance from tax payers; corporations do.
I think you'll see plenty of 'family' farms for organics & semi-exotics, but the day when a dairy or pig farm could compete against agro-business are done.

Precisely. The traditional family farms will die out. A few will adapt and remain to become profitable in some other related area (like growing organic products) that is too much of a niche market for the corporations to take interest in, but that's about it.

frigidmagi · Post by **frigidmagi** » 2005-02-05 10:21pm

I'm not happy about this. I completly understand why it has to be done, but... Well, I'm right next to the people who could lose homes, jobs and such to this, so it's hard not to be sadden.

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2005-02-05 10:55pm

frigidmagi wrote:I'm not happy about this. I completly understand why it has to be done, but... Well, I'm right next to the people who could lose homes, jobs and such to this, so it's hard not to be sadden.

Like I said before, it's a terrible business. You can do everything right and still wind up broke at the end of the year. Your friends chose that profession, and the taxpayers are tired of paying for it.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2005-02-05 11:30pm

The biggest beneficiaries of farm subsidies, in raw dollars, are the big agri-busines corporations. However, they could survive without them. The small farms can't. Of course, the small farms aren't surviving anyway. I work in the industry and I see it every day. Big farms with thousands of acres and assets in the tens of millions of dollars make money. Small family farms go bankrupt--in the months I've been at the company I'm at, virtually every collection letter I've written has been to a small family operation trying to stay profitable selling staple crops. The only small farms that remain successful are the ones selling speciaized crops or to a niche market.

And compounding the problem, in the Northeast, there's tremendous pressure on profitable farmers to leave the business anyway. They can make millions selling their land to developers. The older generation, for the most part, is staying with it, but they're dying off, and a lot of their kids are looking at the amount of work that goes into farming, the risks involved, the constant cycle of debt, and deciding it's just not worth the bother.