6/7/2008 11:41:00 AM Overall, farm bill worthy of support
Bill Horne
Bill Horne
Folks, the farm bill passed recently. Actually, it passed twice. And it will have to pass two more times. Then you must double this because both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House must each pass it again and again.
If this sounds confusing, well, it is. First, the House and Senate both passed the bill and then the administration vetoed it and then the House and Senate overrode the veto. However, there was a major portion of the bill left out. So, we need a "do-over" of all the above.
Before we get to the farm part of the bill, it is only fair to mention that there is a lot of stuff that is in the bill that is not about farming. Surprise, Surprise. Most of the money in the farm bill, all but about 15 percent, is to support no-farm programs.
Here are a few of the non-farm items that are included in the "farm" bill. Food stamps are a major item and there was an increase this year because a lot more people are eligible and food prices have been skyrocketing.
The WIC (Women, Infants and Children) Program, Meals for Seniors and provisions to aid foreign countries in times of crisis were also funded. There is additional money in the bill for school lunches.
The bill includes whole sections on energy. Financial assistance for research into locally owned wind and solar power is one of the sections. The above, along with energy efficiency studies, are just some of the energy research support.
There is also money for grants on new bio fuels research and the refineries for bio fuels. Bio fuels are corn, the one we are most familiar with, and several types of grasses and sugars.
For those who don't like the super-rich to receive farm subsidies, there is a new provision in this farm bill. This provision puts an upper limit or cap on what non-farm investors can receive and also what large farms can receive.
Subsidies are negative taxes. In other words, the government gives money instead of taking it.
So, why would we want to give money to farmers?
Subsidies cause overproduction. Well, an easy answer is that with an excess of food, our food prices will be lower. Another easy answer is that we should have an excess of food to export.
A more complicated answer is that we don't want our family farms to go bankrupt. This is just like the recent situation where we didn't want our large banks to go bankrupt.
We do, however, think differently about farmers receiving government help than we do about large banks being helped. We don't know the people who run and own huge chain banks and to find out how much money that we gave these huge banks is difficult information to locate.
Farmers we know personally. And, we can easily look and see what each farm receives in total dollar subsidies.
When I began researching the farm bill, I was leaning slightly in favor of it; but after I saw that the bill also subsidizes small businesses that cannot afford to pay a living wage and that it also subsidizes those employees of the big boxes who refuse to pay a living wage, I decided that as a benefit to our whole economy the farm bill does far more good than bad.
Then when I read that Pascal Lamy - he is the head of the World Trade Organization - had criticized the farm bill, I knew then for certain that it must be a good bill for you and me.
As I have stated in the past, the WTO has the power to override our laws, our courts, and our sovereignty.
It is my belief that one of the major outcomes of our giving this power to the WTO is that it will disassemble and dismantle our country piece by piece. So, if the WTO doesn't like our farm bill, then I can see no better reason to think it is a good bill.
Another point that needs to be addressed is that many people are talking about how farm income is going to be at an all-time record this year. This is probably true because grain prices are predicted to lead the way.
However, the large corporations that supply the farmer with seed, weed killer, insect spray, fertilizer and fuel have already doubled, tripled, and in some cases even quadrupled their prices to the farmers.
This means that the subsidies will once again flow from the federal government right through the hands of the farmer and into the pockets of the large farm supply corporations.
So, in a nutshell, the new farm bill sends less money to the farmers, about 15 percent of the bill and more money to the nutritional programs like school lunches, about 70 to 75 percent and more money to conservation and energy.
Support to the American farmers is such a small part of the bill that it isn't even called the farm bill anymore. The new name is "the food, conservation and energy act of 2008."
Bill Horne is a professor of economics at Southern State Community College and a columnist for The Times-Gazette.
