whatdo you think of the farmer welfare or subsidies that have been going on for years??!!!?

Question

all politicians are afraid to touch this issue, but over 550 billion has been given out since it began!!!

im not taking sides, yet !!!
maybe your opinions can change my mind, and i live right smack in the middle of farm and ranch country!!!

Answer 1

There was a move in Congress to create an income cap, which would prevent Arag-business farms from recieving subsidies. There are times when subsidies are encessary do to legitiamte crop loss, the onyl problem is that there are even shady people in farming who manipulate the system in order to mooch off the government.

Answer 2

Where I live, in Montana, most ranches are still family run. They raise the beef you eat, most likely. The past ten years there has been a terrible drought. I have been down into southern Idaho, and they have had the problem that far, too. Water has been rationed, that means less hay and less pasture. I do not claim to know how these subsidies work, but I do know that food is plentiful and affordable. In fact, food is so plentiful that our main problem is over-eating. If food were expensive, people would be screaming about it. Subsidizing farmers subsidizes everyone who eats, including pets.

I think there are always abusing of government programs, but mostly they work for those who rely on them. Much of the agriculture programs of today come from the Depression, which everyone has all but forgotten.

I sure don't want to rely on any other country for our food.

Answer 3

When farm subsidies were initiated we did not have a huge corporate Agra business. These corporations saw an opportunity to get on the dollar bandwagon and took it!. Limited to small farmers was bad enough but this is corporate theft. Just to let you know I am a Democrat so don't jump to the conclusion that Democrats support all giveaways.

Answer 4

I think it made some sense when we produced far more than we could use/export to where it could be used, but now that biofuels are in demand and the price of wheat and soy are up 70% over last year and actual agricultural acreage is down, it amounts to an unnecessary "trickle-up" of taxpayers' money into the pockets of huge agribusiness.

We need to focus on reducing our dependency on foreign manufacturing and energy (like oil). We should plant as many oil crops as we can, and waste none of it while we develop the distribution networks and start building more (bio)diesel-powered vehicles and a solar/hydrogen localized power generation system.

Answer 5

These farmers need to drop the "oh woe is me" attitude and deal with the fact that life changes. Just because 5 generations of their family farmed the same land doesn't mean they are going to. Farming, like all other industries, has been streamlined by technology, which means we can grow more with less. Less land, less resources, and yes, less labor. We've began as an agricultural society, progressed to an industrial one, and now we are an information/technology society. This is America today, so if you are raising your children to "take over the farm" with the expectation that the govt. will always be there to bail them out, you're setting your children up for a big fall.

Answer 6

I am opposed to government subsidies to anyone, including farmers.
We have too much government interference in the US. The government tells farmers what to plant. When the advice is wrong, the bleeding heart liberals make amends by passing out subsidies.

Answer 7

I am not for huge subsidies for anyone..but lets see...

Farmers who work twelve hour days to feed millions of people....and have no power over droughts, pestilence, disease....and all the other things farmers are at the mercy of.

Upper middle class and 20 something "children" needing health care...

We would really need the health care when our farmers go broke and we have to look to China to feed us. They can't even make consumable dog food.

Answer 8

Buy con-agra

Buy Archer Daniels Midlands (ADM)

it keeps prices low by supporting crop surpluses which depreses the price of 3rd world agriculture which we have, through the World Bank and IMF, forced them from subsistence farming to cash crop farming. This just deepens them into the cycle of poverty.

Hurrah for laissez-faire capitalism.

Answer 9

Both parties have played to the farmer subsidies issue.

It's nothing new.

Answer 10

It is clearly time for those families to explore new lines of work. They are not our national foodsource anymore.
Reminiscences of a bygone era.