1
POPSGreenback Acres - Growing the Welfare Crop The payments now account for nearly half of the nation's expanding agricultural subsidy system, a complex web that has little basis in fairness or efficiency. What began in the 1930s as a limited safety net for working farmers has swollen into a far-flung infrastructure of entitlements that has cost $172 billion over the past decade. In 2005 alone, when pretax farm profits were at a near-record $72 billion, the federal government handed out more than $25 billion in aid, almost 50 percent more than the amount it pays to families receiving welfare.
1
POPSSocialized Farming In rural America, the LDP is a topic at backyard barbecues and local diners along with the high school football team and the weather. Despite its name, it is neither a loan nor, in many cases, payment for a deficiency. It is just cash paid to farmers when market prices dip below the government-set minimum, or floor, if only for a single day. ad_icon The LDP has become so ingrained in farmland finances that farmers sometimes wish for market prices to drop so they can capture a larger subsidy. "Most smart farmers are cashing in on it," said Bruce A. Babcock, director of the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University. "It shows me that farmers are being overcompensated."
0
POPSDown On The Farm... A refresher on the farm subsidy programs. Interesting that Obama would dare take on such an entrenched group in his state of the union, especially when he appointed former Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa to Agriculture Secretary, whose state was top in direct payments under the farm subsidy program for 2007.
5
POPSWind Farm Fakery To keep electricity supplies going, the grid must have permanently available alternative conventional power sources equivalent to the maximum capacity of the wind turbines, ready to step in when the wind stops. This in itself is hugely inefficient, adding greatly to costs and, as they have discovered on the Continent, threatening to destabilise the grid or bring it to a halt when wind speeds change dramatically.
0
POPSIs wind the new ethanol? I think the differences between wind and ethanol are pretty substantial, to put it mildly. But they do both enjoy subsidies (with the occasionally stated idea that eventually the subsidies will be withdrawn once these infant industries have matured.) There was a similar argument in Friday's Economist from a solar company executive who said that one problem with subsidies is that companies spend their time paying lobbyists to keep the subsidy rather than paying scientists to improve the technology. I'll clipmark that next.
2
POPS The Biofuel Scam The timing is coincidental, but the report came out just as Senate and House leaders were weighing a plan which would leave renewable energy out of the next congressional energy bill. I'm sure there's some larger logic to explain that omission. But it might have a little something to do with the political muscle of the farm interests, a powerful lobby that knows its way around the corridors of power. All this is giving the cynics a field day. Each dollar spent on biofuel subsidies is a dollar not getting invested in other, possibly cleaner technologies. But the only people squawking seem to be the folks involved from those particular fields. I'm not advocating dumping ethanol research and production, but the selling of biofuels as the all-American favorite has been a marketing tour de force. That doesn't necessarily mean it's smart decision-making.
4
POPSSubsidies still flow as Corn Farmers Prosper Hhhmmm, an African-American or Latino seeking public assistance is denigrated as a taxpayer's burden. A midwest Anglo republican voting farmer receiving public assistance......pure apple pie americana.
0
POPSFarm Subsidies - Money for the Rich The US used to make fun of the Soviets and their "5 Year Plans". The US farm programs make the Soviets look like a bunch of hicks in the way that it lards up money for extremely selective groups and people. If we want to save some money - how about knocking off all the "price supports" - just give the farmers money for not doing anything. It would be cheaper for us all around.
1
POPSChina reports on Indian Farmer Suicides Highlights both the significant gap between farmers in india and those in other countries- and the complicity of government sources and scientists in the current crisis. Death toll: 147 in the first two months. The agriculture authorities blamed the low yield of cotton to spurious Bt cotton seeds but Tiwari said there has been few spurious cotton seed in the market since U.S. bio-agriculture giant Monsanto lowered the price from 1,780 rupees (39.56 U.S. dollars) per bag to 750 rupees (16.67 U.S. dollars). Other factors that worsen the situation are reducing price of cotton in the market and competition from cheaper cotton imported from the United States. The cotton price dropped by 60 percent since 1995 but the U.S. subsidies to its 25,000 cotton farmers reached 3.9 billion dollars in 2001-02, doubling over that in 1992.
1
Pops
Newest Clips
Latest Comments
Most Pops
Print
Save
Turn on live update