Domestic agricultural subsidies on the rise

[Osomir]

Last year, farmers bought insurance for 282 million acres of American farmland. Most of the premiums – an average of 62 percent – were paid by taxpayers. Three-quarters of the insurance subsidies go to four crops: corn, cotton, soybeans, and wheat. And with crop prices rising, both premiums and subsidies have been increasing to keep pace. A program that cost the federal government between $2.1 billion and $3.9 billion from 2000 to 2007 last year rose to $14 billion.

Senate's new farm bill will waste billions on subsidies, critics say - CSMonitor.com

The article contains quite a bit of information. Generally speaking I'd have to say that I hope the bill doesn't pass, IE I am not in favor of higher subsidies for US farmers. In fact, I'd like to see them dropped significantly and the markets become more liberalized. There are especially quite a few crops that we perhaps shouldn't even be growing in the first place (like cotton, where we only have a significant comparative advantage due to subsidies). In times of needed budget cuts this seems like a good area to target from an economic point of view, and it would also serve to open the market up more.

 

[Mr. H.]

Ag has been sucking the big tit for generations.
Arrogant bastards. I fucking hate them.

I got a phone call from my oilfield pumper the other day. A farm (and its mineral rights) was in the process of being purchased, and one of the family members took it upon himself to show up and start bullying my employee. He criticized his work and questioned my operations. He also announced that he was going to drill more wells on his new property.

I called the Sheriff, and then I called the lady who currently owns that farm.
And I'm not done with that fucker yet.

 

[Mr. H.]

Here's the irony... with the billions in subsidies received by the ag industry, the President (He Who Shall Not Be Named) takes it upon himself to falsely tag the hydrocarbon industries as receiving "subsidies" and threatening to "take back the billions in taxpayer dollars" in order to fund his green initiatives.

Now, exactly where would agriculture be without hydrocarbons?

It wouldn't exist as it does today without them.