Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Robin Smith: America's (Subsidized) Fruited Plain

Robin Smith: America's (Subsidized) Fruited Plain — The Patriot Post
"...America the Beautiful was based on the soaring words to a poem written in the 1890s.
...Yet those waves of grain and the fruited plain exist today largely through corporate agribusiness that has prices guaranteed through the massive subsidies of corn and soybeans. 
And in an exhibit of the usual market distortions wrought by government interference, these two staples are used primarily in cattle feed and processed foods not the fruits and vegetables that we know to be healthy for Americans when made available from farm to fork.
...The original intent of the farm bill — which has been renewed every five years since the 1930s — was to protect farmers whose entire financial health could be destroyed by pestilence of insects, floods, droughts or other natural disasters or events outside the control of the growers. 
Image result for agribusiness subsidies cartoonToday, however, subsidies and federal “crop insurance” not only essentially remove all risk from farming, if one qualifies, but these massive outlays of taxpayer dollars typically go to corporate crop-growers.
Around $20 billion in farm subsidies are paid annually with taxes collected from American workers' wages. The largesse goes disproportionately to corn farmers, who in 2010 produced over 32% of all the corn in the world, generating almost $64 billion in revenue. 
Yet most of that subsidized corn is processed into feed for animals or, far worse, ethanol to meet the government standards regarding gasoline mixture.
...The “Family Farm Report, 2014 Edition” documented that 31% of all of the small family or Residence Farms received subsidy payments; by contrast, 80% of midsize and large-scale commercial farms received payments.
Since 1995, 75% of federal subsidies have gone to 10% of farms, the larger agribusinesses
In addition to subsidies, federal crop insurance is supplied with the government (you the taxpayer) paying 65% of the premiums totaling about $89.8 billion over a decade.
...Another fun fact about the farm bill is that most might believe the bulk of the spending would be for the purpose of providing a safety net in the case of potential financial disaster. 
But 80% of the entire cost of the farm bill is attributed to food stamps, which creates an interesting relationship.
...In other words, those who eat the foods sweetened with corn-derived fructose and soy-fed animals used in processed meats are more likely to have blood sugar and cholesterol problems, and, thus, heart problems..."
Read it all!

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