Farm Subsidies Do More Harm than Good

Farm subsidies are an outdated response to the Great Depression, but in this global recession, the last thing we should do is undermine global trade by over-subsidizing our farmers and giving them an unfair advantage over poorer nations.

Subsidies may help some struggling small farmers, but the vast majority (3/4) of these tax-funded handouts is given to the largest 10% of farms. This program needs to be revamped, scaled back, or just plain cut from the budget. In this recession, demand and production of food will drop, but we fat-assed Americans eat twice as much as we need to be healthy so there is no danger of famine.

Farmers in western desert states are given incentives to grow thirsty crops that require flood irrigation, which is just asinine. Water is becoming our most precious resource and we need to rethink all the wasteful practices in agriculture when in comes to water rights. States are allowed to set their own rules, but perhaps the EPA should step in when states have decades old policies than are detrimental to the global environment.

Last year, $687 million dollars was given to farmers in CA and AZ alone. Through loopholes in the law, some wealthy Americans who don’t even farm or happen to be deceased still collect subsidies. If we intend to make any headway in paying down the national debt and jump starting our economy, maybe we should stop giving the “Haves” more money to hide in offshore accounts and create healthcare-bearing jobs for the “Have-nots”.