USA FArm Subsidies.Socialism? Corporate welfare?

[Freddy]

I dont see how you conclude reducing farmland caused the profit per acre to triple. Grimm never did take the farmland out of production, but was considering it at this one point in his (unknown) farming career. He was considering it due to commodity prices being so low there was no profit. His wheat profit is likely a temporary condition market wise and likely shifted greatly from last year for Grimm, due to an unusually cold and wet spring in MN.

 

One or two years of positive gains and profits does not negate the actual history of commodity profits for farmers and their downward spiral over the last 65 years.

 

Nobody with any experience in the world of commodities trading understands this margin of increase and will tell you the product is over-valued by speculators. This signals to me it is a temporary condition on that alone, without adding in the fact that more acreage (over 5 million acres) has been reintroduced into commodity growth between 06 and 07 in the USA alone.

 

I havent been following the weather in the Ukraine area this year to see if the drought there has been relieved yet (the start of the increased wheat run in the fall of 06 or 05 I cant remember which) nor have I followed the wheat conditions of australia (another supposed source of the wheat run by India).

 

I have spent no time on the falling dollar value making US commodity markets more attractive to other countries either. Another (hopefully) temporary condition.

 

BTW, a baker can produce around 70 loaves of bread per 50 lbs of wheat flour. This is pure wheat flour, and not a mixed grain breads.

Also, there is a significant amount of farmland formerly planted with wheat which is now planted with corn because planting corn is more profitable. This has contributed to the rise in wheat prices.

[Cedars]

Also, there is a significant amount of farmland formerly planted with wheat which is now planted with corn because planting corn is more profitable. This has contributed to the rise in wheat prices.

 

No, not really.

Corn

05 - 81.7 million acres planted

06 - 78.3 million acres planted

07 - 93.6 million acres planted

 

Wheat

05 - 57.2 million acres planted

06 - 57.3 million acres planted

07 - 60.4 million acres planted

 

Heres easy to run queries on all the grain crops.

NASS - Statistics by Subject - Crops & Plants

 

There are additional links below each returned query for additional information.

 

BTW, Wheat grains can be stored over multiple years (recommend 3 years or less) without significant loss of nutrient value. Even well stored grains that are 5 years old are ok to use as flour, but there is reduction in nutritional value. Once its converted into flour its shelf life is around 1 year under optimum conditions.

[Michaelangelica]

Some years ago I was told about an Irish farmer (from a friend living there) who cultivated, or maybe ran stock on land he was paid to let lie fallow. I can't remember which.

He was visted by the Agriculture Police who had picked his (illegal!) activities up via sattalite

 

There is something fundamentally wrong with this.

[Michaelangelica]

The Hypocrisy of Farm Subsidies

Published: December 1, 2002

 

When Mexican corn farmers tramp through their fields behind donkey-drawn plows, they have one goal: to eke out a living. Increasingly, however, they find themselves saddled with mountains of unsold produce because farmers in Kansas and Nebraska sell their own corn in Mexico at prices well below those of the Mexicans.

The Hypocrisy of Farm Subsidies - New York Times

Farm Subsidies That Kill

 

*

 

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Published: July 5, 2002

 

J'accuse! I hate to condemn a colleague this way, but our tax dollars are going to pay an indolent New York journalist for not growing wheat on the West Coast.

 

Could there be a worse indictment of American agricultural policy, rendered even more scandalous by the new $180 billion farm bill signed by President Bush?

 

Agricultural trade and poverty at Resilience Science

 

The Hive: New York Times Calls For An End To Agriculture Subsidies

guest column: george wuerthner's "on the range"

Questioning Agriculture’s Accounting Practices

 

By George Wuerthner, 6-11-08

 

 

 

The US Congress passed a $286 billion farm bill. A significant percentage of that farm bill consists of food stamps and other food assistance for the poor. But the farm bill has plenty of goodies for farmers. For instance, the bill allows producers with an adjusted gross income of $1.5 million annually to obtain subsidies. Furthermore, price supports kick in if commodity prices drop a mere 10 percent over two year averages.

 

These and other financial and other benefits are showered upon American farmers despite the fact that nation-wide full-time farmers are doing quite well. The average full-time commercial farmer will earn $229,000 this year according to the USDA—many times what the average American earns. In 2007 approximately 1 million farmers received more than $5 billion in direct crop subsidies, with 60 percent of that funding going to the top ten percent of producers. This figure does not include many other subsidies from the Conservation Reserve Program, drought insurance, and numerous other payments that help to booster farm incomes.

 

Despite the fact that we continue to borrow money at unprecedented rates, there are still limits to the federal treasury and every dollar going to farmers is one less dollar available for some other worthwhile project or sector of society—many in far more desperate need of federal assistance.

Questioning Agriculture’s Accounting Practices | Travel & Outdoors | New West Network

[Michaelangelica]

This goes to air tomorrow.

 

Usually a good show worth listening to

 

FREE TRADE VS FAIR TRADE

Reporter: Jane Shields

It's an ideological battle between those who want a fairer, better deal for the poor farmers in the developing world - and those who say the best way to get that is having a world wide free market.

There are fault lines in both arguments.

Background Briefing - 13 July 2008 - Free trade vs fair trade

 

Sunday 13th July 9.10am

Tuesday 15th July 7.05pm

Wednesday 16th July 4.05am

 

The audio of each Background Briefing is available on-line for four weeks after the program goes to air. To listen back to recent programs or download them to your computer or mp3 player, click on the links below:

[goku]

Like I said, our country is a republic that serves the wealthy, not the

Democracy that it should be serving the general population.

 

sounds like you're gona vote for the terrorist.

 

have you ever heard, ''and to the republic for which it stands'', "ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country" ??????

 

 

well i'm not a corporation just a small farm. but there is alot of abuse of the farm subsidies. i use some farm subsidies and they do help, a little. what would really help me is to cut out the middle man. i could sell milk at 2$ per gallon and make a killin.

 

if the government is involved you can bet there's something wrong.

[REASON]

sounds like you're gona vote for the terrorist.

 

How do you figure? "Dubya" isn't running this time.

 

But if he was, I'm sure you'd be right on board. :naughty:

[lemit]

I hadn't noticed this thread before now.

 

I don't know if it helps, but I've asked my member of Congress--a member of the Agriculture Committee--to help stop the payments I get for doing nothing. Those payments are based on soil conservation, but soil conservation should be part of farming anyway. (Modern corporate farming depends on pumping chemicals onto the surface of the land in hopes of getting a single, high-yield crop out of them.)

 

The current system makes no sense. I get about $5000 a year from it. I would be very happy to forfeit that income to make the land productive in the way it was when I was growing up: using animal waste for fertilizer and using grasses and legumes to feed the animals and build up the soil so it could support row crops and be ready to begin the cycle again.

 

Of course, as long as people who make more money than I do--pretty much everybody in the system--aren't interested in changing things, nothing will happen.

 

--lemit