$50 Million In “Stimulus” Money Went To Subsidize Feed For Fish Farmers
Hope and change:
OSAGE BEACH, Mo. (AP) — The United States is about to spend $50 million in stimulus money on fish food to help fish farmers who have been struggling since feed prices jumped 50 percent last year.
The money could provide algae to nourish clam and oyster larvae along the Pacific coast, fill the bellies of tilapia in Arizona and feed catfish, trout and gamefish in the Midwest and South.
Supporters say many fish farms are in already poor areas. They say the money will help keep the farms going and preserve jobs in areas hard hit by the recession and lacking other industries.
Right. Because nothing says “help the poor” like subsidizing clam and oyster farmers.
What’s interesting about this though is that the high price of fish farm feed is likely the result of government meddling in the market. It used to be that fish feed was made from other fish, but this long ago became to expensive for most fish farmers. Today it’s rare to find farm fish that were fed food made from other fish. These days most fish farms use a feed made from vegetables. Most notably corn, wheat, rice and soy.
So what is driving the cost of those crops up? Ethanol, either directly by sucking up supplies of corn for use in fuels instead of foods or indirectly by diverting crop lands to fuel crops or inflating demands for other grains as the price of corn goes up.
The government mandates ethanol use. The government subsidizes ethanol production. This creates artificial demand for corn, which in turn inflates the price of food crops. Which has a secondary impact on feed for livestock - including chickens, pigs, cattle and fish - which in turn drives up the price of those foods.
Unless the government steps in again and begins subsidizing the feed prices their subsidies elsewhere in the food chain inflated.
