Comments on: Fairness for Small Farmers: A Missing Ingredient in the U.S. Farm Bill

By: Brad Wilson

Brad Wilson — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 02:03:02 +0000

Farmers getting subsidies actually get less than the others, for example, compared to fruits and vegetables. These prices don’t self correct in free markets, so free markets cause the problems. Subsidies compensate for only about 1/8 of the trillions in reductions making it 7/8 reduction instead of 8/8. Fruit and vegetable farmers have also been penalized, but not as much (as measured by prices as a percent of parity, with subsidies added on top of prices for grains, and cotton in the comparison). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQkeDza3bM0&list=PLA1E706EFA90D1767&index=1

By: Gladwyn d'Souza

Gladwyn d'Souza — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 15:41:04 +0000

Nice analysis of the both the state’s role in land use changes from agriculture which threatens us with climate change; and the local polices that displace small scale producers in favor of destructive land use change: “Yet government policies the world over tend to favor industrial-scale, chemical-dependent production of raw commodity crops at the expense of small-scale farmers and organic growers who produce real, nourishing food.” For example city of San Mateo recently got an eight unit multifamily backyard agriculture program to remove two beehives because the bee hive regulation in the city permits two hives only in Single Family Homes. Fortunately other organizations like Oxfam’s Behind the Brand program are trying to take the issue back to the beneficiaries- http://www.oxfam.org/en/grow/campaigns/behind-brands

By: Christopher Fisher

Christopher Fisher — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 21:42:22 +0000

Many thanks for the excellent overview – I look forward to sharing with my fellow Grangers here in the Sonoma County area

By: Deb

Deb — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 14:44:59 +0000

You would think the situation about the farm bill would be all over mainstream news, because it is alarming! The American people need to be aware of how big farm food production makes us sick.

By: pam hughes

pam hughes — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 03:01:07 +0000

We need to change the laws so all farmers can be successful. We also need better healthier food, not

By: Stephen McDaniel

Stephen McDaniel — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 02:54:24 +0000

Exactly why i posted an analysis
Agriculutural subsidies working against the health of America???
at http://www.freakalytics.com/2010/03/12/agriculutural-subsidies/

By: Brad Wilson

Brad Wilson — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 01:48:36 +0000

The biggest injustice in the farm bill is the reduction (1953-1995) and elimination (1996-2013) of market management Price Floors and Supply Management. Corporations called for this, as Wenonah Hauter shows in ch. 1 of Foodopoly, to run small farmers off and cause concentration, but really to provide hidden subsidization (from cheap market prices) for agribusiness buyers. The reductions add up to about $4 trillion, 8 times larger than the belated compensations to the victims (subsidies). These have been reductions for all subsidy recipients of all sizes, and gains for all agribusiness buyers. To fix it we need to restore Fair Trade Price Floors and supply management, and to protect consumers, Price Ceilings and Reserve Supplies. This is “The Hidden Farm Bill: Secret Trillions for Agribuisness.”This all is not mentioned here. Find it in “Farm Justice Proposals for the 2012 Farm Bill.” The problems identified here are real, but not the assigned causes and solutions. The same applies to Crop Insurance, which has had revenue compensations added to it as a new kind of “firetruck” for the fires of agribusiness exploitation through cheap market prices, which come not from the PRESENCE of subsidies, but from the ABSENCE of Fair Trade Price Floors. The grain buyers, then, are the biggest beneficiaries from crop insurance, even though they own no land and have no coverage. They benefit from what the Revenue Insurance component covers up, cheap market prices, from zero price floors, plus volatility, caused by the absence of both Price Floors and Ceilings, and the absence of both set asides and reserve supplies. No subsidies have ever been needed with Fair Trade Price Floors, like we had 1942-1952, and in fact, for many of those years, these Farm Bill provisions had no net costs, but rather made a profit. It would be extremely harmful to small US and global farmers to stop all production of crops that were not food, as suggested here. It would be immensely destructive of our food system. On this point read “Don’t Grow Clover, ‘Hay,’ Oats, (Corn)? De-Bunking a Farm Bashing Myth.”

By: Laura Avery

Laura Avery — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 22:11:13 +0000

Current multi billion subsidies of corporate commodity-producing farms must be taken off the table so taxpayer resources can best be spent on building a local and sustainable food system for now and the future.