http://www.kansas.com/2011/04/24/1820540/subsidies-on-the-table.htmlIf everything is now on the table for federal budget cuts, that includes payments to those who put food on our tables.
The deficit debate could be a turning point for Kansas lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who’ve long seen agricultural subsidies as essential to protect the nation’s farm families and food production.
“To get serious about the debt is to tackle entitlement reform, and that includes the farm bill,” Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., recently told the Agribusiness Club of Washington.
Just as he was as chairman of the House Agriculture Committee for the 1996 farm bill, Roberts will be a key player in writing the 2012 farm bill (his seventh as a lawmaker) — now as ranking Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee.
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The question is which subsidies is he talking about, the $30 million in grants to small and mid-sized farmers, or the $15 billion given out to agribusiness corporate welfare.
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/26961/20100604/farming.htmSmall farms get small help compared to subsidies for agribusiness
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In 2009, Congress doled out $15 billion in farm subsidies. According to Food First, 90 percent of that sum went to the production of five crops - corn, wheat, rice, soy and cotton.
"Most of that 90 percent went to the large farming corporations," Shattuck said. "Much of those commodities were not used for food, but for animal feed and industrial applications. Cotton is not even a food."
The subsidy system primarily assists agribusiness, firms like Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill. Mid-sized farms, although they often appear to make a great deal of money, often and the year in the red because of costs.
"A mid-sized farm will typically have $500,000 in sales and $600,000 in costs," she said. "At the same time, ADM, with the aid of their farm subsidy, will buy corn for cheaper than it cost the mid-sized farmer to produce it."
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It will be important to know which subsidies are being cut. Somehow this all fits into their "prosperity for me, austerity for you" theme, I am certain.