The Farm Bill Is For Farmers, Right?

Time and again we’ve been told by certain rather populist politicians that the farm bill is necessary to help poor, hard-working farmers. We’re also told it’s necessary to create a secure food supply and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Kent Conrad, for instance, has said that the farm bill “makes major investments in the food and energy security for our nation.”
But if that’s true, why is there a massive subsidy for handmade cheese in the Farm Bill? How does that help out the average farmer, or help create a secure food supply? Or reduce our dependence on foreign oil? And what does rebuilding historic barns have to do with those things?

Buried in a massive farm bill moving through the Senate is money for handmade cheese, repairs to historic barns and programs for stressed-out farmers – spending that critics say is wasteful.
For that and other reasons the $286 billion bill has been excoriated as too expensive by conservatives, taxpayer advocates and the Bush administration, which is threatening to veto it.
Still, the five-year legislation remains politically popular in Congress, where lawmakers see ample opportunity to include policies and projects that help their states as they head toward an election year. And those who object to the bill’s large tab often end up supporting it for fear of opposing programs popular with their voters.
“People are literally getting bought off for peanuts,” said Scott Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense, which opposes the legislation and most farm subsidies.
Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the top Republican on the Budget Committee, says it’s bad fiscal policy.
“I’m not sure many Americans would agree that stress assistance programs for farmers or artisan cheese centers are a good use of their hard-earned dollars,” Gregg said.

The pork in the bill to fund programs for “stressed out” farmers is particularly galling. What other industry receives funding from the federal government to relieve the “stress” of its workers? Hey, I wouldn’t mind the government paying a therapist to listen to my problems, but I’m pretty sure the rest of you who would foot the bill would mind.
Now, I know a lot of people out there think the farm bill is necessary. That farmers deserve the subsidies they get, and without them our country would be worse off. I’m not one of these people, but one thing we should all agree on is that if we’re going to have a farm bill it should have a narrow focus on helping the farming industry and not funding all these ancillary projects like handmade cheese and historic barn repair.
Projects that, frankly, should be passing Congress on their own merits.