Those subsidies make it possible to export millions of tons of food so cheaply that native farmers in places such as Jamaica can’t possibly compete.

By guaranteeing U.S. farmers a minimum payment for commodities such as corn, rice and soybeans, the government encourages overproduction. That drives down the market price, forcing even higher subsidies and creating surpluses that can be shipped to Jamaica and elsewhere.

For a short time back in 1996, Congress recognized how nonsensical all this is, and passed a bill that was supposed to have begun phasing out the worst parts of the farm-subsidy program.

The idea was that farmers should decide what and how much to plant based on the market, as opposed to what many of them called “farming the program.”

Both major political parties had reasons to support this idea - Republicans because they are supposed to favor getting government off people’s backs, and Democrats because they are supposed to oppose corporate welfare.

There is no doubt, by the way, that farm subsidies are corporate welfare par excellence. Although the program began as a way to aid poor family farmers in the 1930s, by last year nearly three-quarters of the money went to the richest 10 percent of American farmers.

Recipients of five- and six-figure farm subsidy payments included John Hancock Life Insurance Co., Chevron, banker David Rockefeller, and basketball star Scottie Pippen. Even former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay collected a few bucks.

Link

Related Leave a Comment