I am a farmer, and no, I don’t get any largess from the Federal government. What I do get from government at all levels are onerous regulations, and organized cartels euphemistically called “markets” which are the only way to sell my produce.

Agricultural subsidies gradually appeared as farmers were driven into bankruptcy by these governmental (lobbied and paid for by “agribusiness”, the seed producers, meat packers and shipping interests) as a way to keep them solvent. Just eliminating the payments to farmers would cause an economic shock to the system the likes of which we’ve not seen for a long time. If the system is to be reformed (and it must be, as it’s unsustainable over the long term in it’s current form), it must be reformed holistically – the impediments, regulations and privileges the government affords to Big Agribusiness must be eliminated in conjunction with the elimination of price supports.

Most of the shills currently supporting farm subsidies are Big Ag interests (the Northeast Dairy Compact mentioned in the article was such a quasi-governmental organization – there are many, many others too numerous to list). They understand that if the price supports were removed the farmers would sink under the current system, as would they, because they’re unable to restructure due to regulation. And they realize that if the regulations were removed they’d have to compete in a free market rather than as a oligopoly, with the attendant reduced profit margins But, mysteriously, they never seem to mention this aspect of the issue…

Let’s really reform agricultural policy in the country and not give in to the temptation to score quick political points by throwing farmers under the bloated bus of regulated Big Agribusiness.