A report on farm subsidies doesn’t tell the real story about U.S. agriculture policy, farm leaders say.
“Thousands of family farmers across the state are being helped” by federal farm aid, Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., said.
A report released Tuesday by the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group said North Dakota collected $6.2 billion in federal farm aid over the past decade, the most of any U.S. congressional district.
The report claimed too much aid is going to the nation’s biggest farmers.
Farm leaders said Wednesday that the report is misleading.
Large, heavily agricultural districts such as North Dakota naturally collect a lot of federal aid, said John Crabtree, communications officer for the nonprofit, independent Center for Rural Affairs in Lyons, Neb.
“I don’t think anybody should be surprised by this,” he said.
Pomeroy said the report manipulated statistics to discredit farm policy.
“Figures lie, and liars figure,” Pomeroy said.
He said the report is based on the false premise that aid helps only corporate farms who don’t need it.
In reality, federal aid goes to farmers when prices are poor or bad weather hurts yields, and both conditions occurred frequently in North Dakota in recent years, he said.
Minnesota’s 7th Congressional District, which covers the northwestern part of the state, finished sixth in federal aid with $4.2 billion.
This is the same, tired tactic tossed out by ag-state politicians every time somebody suggests a cut to farm subsidies. They cast the issue as greedy, rich, elitist Washington politicians trying to stick it to the poor family farmers. Whether or not that's actually true is beside the point.
As a non-farmer living in the middle of what is probably one of the union's most ag-centric states I can tell you this: I don't understand why we spend so much money propping up an industry that should be profitable without government assistance. After all, everybody needs food.
We cannot continue to cling to the idea of the “family farm” in an era where such institutions simply aren’t profitable any more. The bottom line is that farming is supposed to be a business. If that business can’t sustain itself then it needs to die out in favor of something else. Propping the old way of business up with government money doesn’t solve any problems, it only prolongs them.
I say we cut subsidies drastically and let agriculture deal with an open market.
And yes, I understand that agriculture policies in other countries may put our farmers at a disadvantage in global trade, but are massive subsidies really the only solution? I mean, the article has part of Minnesota getting $4.2 billion!
There has got to be a better way to handle this situation. A way that keeps our farmers on a level playing field with the rest of the world without unduly burdening the taxpayers. Unfortunately for us, as long as people like Earl Pomeroy are more interested in pandering for votes than enacting sound fiscal policy this isn't likely to happen.