farming with my tax dollars
FARMING WITH MY TAX DOLLARS
Maybe I’m not that smart, or more likely I just have not had
the time to dedicate to really studying this topic, but I wish someone would
explain to me how the rhetoric of free trade can co-exist with the practice of
farm subsidies?
I mean if we are going to promote free markets, efficiency,
and survival of the fittest, how can we justify $164.7 billion in farm payments
between 1995 to 2005? My grad
school teachers proposed the argument of national security, which I get to an
extent. Yes, if the US for
whatever reason could not access global food markets due to things like war,
famine, or what have you, yes, we would need to be able to grow our own food. But to this level and in the manner in
which subsidies are doled out to huge farming conglomerates?
Check out the SF Chronicle Article here. It's a good read about the issue and has some interesting insights on the future of California farming. For you market proponents, it depicts the innovations made by Cali-farmers in the small, organic farming space (these guys get a pittance of subsidy that Texans and midwesterners get) versus how the large farming conglomerates operate since they have the government safety net.