Farmers worry about effect of $30 billlion in cuts
July 16, 2011 at 3:15 am in Grand Forks Herald
Farm groups are rushing to save government subsidies they’ve long received. President Barack Obama and lawmakers have targeted $30 billion or more in agriculture spending cuts as they try to negotiate a deficit-reduction deal. Farmers say they know they will have to take a hit. But they fear too many cuts will send booming crop prices into a dive, raising the potential for another 1980s-era farm crisis. Continue Reading
Socialism
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I’m sympathetic to the need for subsidies for small family farmers as well as rural airports, and single moms who can’t find a job, and that senior who needs a hip replacement or bypass. All worthy causes. So why can’t we agree to eliminate the tax breaks and loopholes for corporations and raise taxes on the wealthiest among us. Those who have benefited from our way of life the most.
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I lived on a farm when i was growing up and we grew everything we ate the crops provided for the winter months after they were harvested very long days fighting the elements just to make sure we could get them off. I am behind the farmers it is a tough job but if it wasnt for them alot more people would be going hungry. Big corporations should not have the loopholes or tax breaks and i believe the the tax should be rasied on the wealthest. they say we provide jobs for people we if they did the employment rate wouldnt be so high and where are those jobs??? The GOP wants to make sure everybody goes hungry, no place to live and won’t be able to get an education and health ins will be for the wealthest, well when we are gone and no one to do their menial paying jobs they will go broke also. very very sad our forefathers would be so proud of them
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Farmers, oil companies, bankers, the rest of corporate Amerika and the monied elite are the biggest pigs at the federal trough. Their greed has bankrupted this country. It is about time they started paying a modest share! And so it goes…..
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carcassparker did you ever farm? go visit a farm? work on a farm for the summer? the only thing that farmers are rich in is land and they are very proud people they worry about getting the crops in enough rain enough sun and then getting it off in the fall.
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I would rather have the Feds cut Billions from the DEA and FBI to stop arresting and prosecuting people for Marijuana. This year so far 22Billion spent on the war on drugs. I have yet to meet a farmer I did not like, cops on the other hand…and here goes my rant.
Protect and Serve had become Enforce and Harass. I remember being a kid. Police officers would patrol the neighborhood and even talk with us. When is the last time you saw that? Why in the hell would the Fargo PD need motorcycle? I can understand LA, Houston or Phoenix but Fargo? You want to cut spending, target law enforcement and the criminal justice system; those hogs are eating up more than a fair share.
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I agree with how this supposed “War on Drugs” is a huge black hole that just absorbs tons of money for little return…Especially concerning marijuana. So I can agree on that point…As for the othe side of the argument….When I was young and wild I guess I too had some of those feelings towards law enforcement….But then I quit being so wild, stopped drinking, settled down…And an amazing thing happened…I not only never got hassled, but went totally unnoticed by law enforcement. They never really changed…I did….And no I’m not saying that there’s no problems out there, but there’s far fewer of them then I once thought with a blanket approach years ago…
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I don’t have a problem with Police officers. I have a problem with wasting resources.
Yeah let’s keep the train wreck moving. Police will continue to work hard with Facebooks stings, fake pot busts and the state will continue to build castles for the child molesters. Great Plan! Is it working yet?
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Castle must be full. Our system has reverted back to the old days of slapping the cho’s on the hand.
“A Burnsville, Minn., man will serve 150 days in jail for taking hundreds of illicit photographs of unsuspecting girls at south metro libraries and parks and the Minnesota Zoo” GF Herald 7/20/11.
SICK!
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Their modest share consists of taking a little less from the trough. And so it goes…..
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This story could just as easily be titled ‘Don’t Touch My Piece of the Pie’. The Farm Program recipients are no different than the Jet owners, Hedge fund guy, etc. It is always easy to cut the budget till it comes out of your piece of the pie.
I don’t think it should be cut % wise from the Farm Bill than more any other programs. If you want shared sacrifice take 5% or the % agreed upon from ALL programs. Of course some will lose more due to size of the pie, but everyone will give something.
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Ethenol should be cut completely; what a boondoggle!!
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Farmers are caught in an impossible situation. They have come to rely on federal subsidies in order to survive. It is very complicated. What yanks my chain is how so many farmers, who are naturally conservative, complain about poor welfare recipients being “on the government dole” while they cash their enormous subsidy checks! They consistently vote Republican and now they can watch the Republicans (with the help of the Democrats) destroy the farm bill and protect the rich and Korporate Amerika. And so it goes…..
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I thought “freedom to farm” was supposed to fix this subsidy mess. What happened?
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It’s about time this happened. The gravy train is stopping for everyone these days and farming is no exception. We can’t afford to give out big subsidies to farmers who are very profitable and are millionaires. Also we can’t continue to pay out CRP money for people not to work. This puts allot of politicians on the hot seat as these cuts will not be popular. Such is life. These folks are paid and elected to make the tough decisions to make our economy work for all Americans.
Rural America continues to shrink in population and farming becomes more mechanized. It’s a fact of life. Rural America will continue to shrink and we can’t keep pouring money into it like it’s going to come back. Let’s get on with the cuts and then do the same for corporations, the military, the oil companies, banks, the auto industry etc. If we are a capitalistic society then let’s back away from this socialistic agricultural system and let farming stand on it’s own.
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For all of you complaining about cutting farm subsidies, I want you to do as Daisy said and spend a summer working on the farm. I want you to get up at sunup and work all day until sundown. I want you to work in the fields growing crops, feeding cattle, mending fences. I want you to worry about the stresses that are associated with farming. I want you to worry about not getting enough rain or getting too much rain. I want you to worry about fuel prices. I want you to worry about fertilizer prices. Then in August, I want you to worry about what appears to be an amazing crop and the prospect that it could be destroyed by hail or other severe weather. I want all of you with your 9/5 jobs to worry about working your butts off and pouring your heart into everything associated with your job and then not getting paid. How many of you want to work a job with the prospect of not getting paid?
I understand this socialism mindset about farm subsidies. Yes there is abuse of the system as with any other subsidy program. However, don’t lump the actions of a few into everyone. Farmers work very hard all year round without getting a steady paycheck. Some years they do well and other years they can barely scrape by. Not EVERY farmer milks the system. Pay the farmer a fair price for their product so they can make a decent living and we could probably stop most subsidies. However, in order for that to happen it means we will wind up paying more at the grocery store. How many of you want to see your grocery bills go up? How many of you will bitch if you have to pay $5.00 for a loaf of bread?
I am so tired of Tea Party people bitching and moaning about too much government. Instead of complaining find a solution!!!!! We have some of the lowest taxes in the world but yet we complain about the government taking our money.
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bobby..I don’t know where you farm, but try to stay real. Most farmers in the valley are closet tea party and the only reason they are up before dawn 48 weeks a year is to go to town for breakfast. Not many farmers in my neighborhood fool with cattle.
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I grew up on a farm too. It was a long time ago. My dad never got any government subsidies for cattle. To my knowledge, nothing has changed. Cattle aren’t subsidized like many crops. Subsidies are perhaps necessary but I wonder how much of those subsidies actually go to large farms and enable them to put small family-owned farmers out of business.
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Glenn hit the nail on the head. The now farmers are the new big oil, and the next bubble to burst! If they have a good year, they make millions, if they have a bad year, they make millions. The complaint of getting up and working so hard, who doesn’t? And who makes them do this than? I bet they do this “hard work” because of the MONEY!
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I don’t know what all the different subsidies are, but I recall that some were to pay farmers to give some fields a break so they aren’t ruining the soil by over planting. I also believe that some of the subsidies help to some extent keep our ag on an equal playing field with countries that give much heiver subsidies towards ag (And with the horrible results of NAFTA at least some segment gets a help against the other markets)….In other words not all the subsidies are a bad thing I don’t believe. Unless I’m wrong and they’re just more corperate welfare now days……But I do like the comment about the farmers who generally have felt the Republicans were their guys are now seeing what has really entered the hen house….And it has big bad teeth…Chomp…Chomp…
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I work on a farm. There aren’t any reasons for these continued payments. If a farmer can’t make it on $9 wheat and $14 dollar beans then maybe they need to rent their land out and get a “city” job. On the other hand, there is no reason to take from the wealthy and give to the poor. What happened to EARNING a living rather than being given things. Free enterprise has made people with money successful. The American Dream is still a reality. Get a work ethic, and get a job. Don’t live outside your means. I’ve seen people oustide the mission with cell phones! Spend on what you need and stop asking the government to give you money that others have earned!!!
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Get real. We all are subsidized by things. We send our kids to schools. Your health insurance isn’t a gift from God, it is given in part by the government tax break that corporations get by giving it to you. Apartments are subsidized. State colleges and universities are government subsidized. VA hospitals are subsidized. How about the pensions to the military-subsidized (and don’t go off on how this is a good subsidy because they earned it and then complain about city or county pensions). Roads are subsidized. Do we all like to have police and fire? Working hard is great, I absolutely agree, but farming was not always a cash cow. It used to be that farmers could hardly afford to do it, but did for the love of the land. Wheat and Beans did not always make this much and they might not in the future. Most farmers I knew worked other jobs–many still do. I would agree that the “farm” subsidy should be for working farms and that the tax breaks to farms should be looked at because we all see how family vehicles and gas are run through the farm, but let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Cuts can make things work more efficiently. Now is when we will see if our newly elected Berg and Hoeven can do their job in Congress to ensure that the people of ND are heard.
And the people outside the mission might be homeless, but if you don’t have a phone #, very few people will hire you.
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There are many different facets of the Farm Program. The biggest part of the farm bill is for Public school hot lunch programs and other USDA food programs. I think the “subsidies” that everyone is talking about are the actual dcp payments farmers receive. I am pretty sure that many if not most of all farmers would be glad to give those up if we were then allowed not to report our acreages planted and allowed to clean out a few filled in drains and allowed to choose freely which crop to seed or not. The DCP payment would be a pittance compared to the gains we can make doing all the other things. The whole farm program idea was for the government to make sure we planted enough acres of each commodity to feed the people. Throw that out and it will truly be a free market system. Food prices will go up. We will have more control over which commodity we choose to seed with no repurcussions or penalties for seeding say too many acres of edible beans per se. In the end, the subsidies may be cheaper than the shelf price of groceries. I would gladly give up that DCP payment for that freedom. The “Freedom to Farm” was a fallacy. Those of us that chose not to report our acres because we didn’t have to by law, have been penalized ever since. The next year mandatory reporting was back. We lost some of our grower history as a result. Things may be good on the farm now but the wheel always turns and the lifers have been seen it. The people may be begging those “subsidies” to be restored in a few years.
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I don’t think this is the correct time to cheerlead for something that would cause food prices to increase….My semi is paying between $3.75 to $4 per gallon which last 5 or 6 miles (Or less in hills) down the road…Between that and a weaker dollar we’ve seen a real price inflation with food. To many of us that’s just an unpleasant hassle, but to the people who are already having a tough time stretching their money for necessities this would spell real tragedy.
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I agree with Dave, I farm and I would gladly give up Direct payments. Direct payments are two things, one it is to control what you do with the land and the other is to supply cash to land owners.
Land owners are who really receive direct payments. The farmer gets the direct payment but it ultimately goes back to the land owner in higher rents. Farmers typically will raise rental rates 10 dollars if subsidies go up 10 dollars. I feel Direct payments just raise our land rents. I would love to see the direct payments disappear.
The direct payment has been strictly used as leverage by the government to keep farmers from improving land. Essentially they are renting some of our rights we have as land owners.Direct payments make up 14 % of the Farm program.
9 % goes to Conservation projects which sound good in theory, in reality they have gone away from their original plan to protect erodable soil to saving the pheasants and ducks. the latest farce is WRP (Wetland Reserve Program). In this program, the government is leasing a parcel of land for 30 years from a land owner with the payments all up front. Essentially owners are getting as much or more than the land is worth in a lump sum. This in turn causes these land owners to go buy a better piece of land (WRP land is typically poorer land) and pay with taxpayer money. In 30 years the government paid a land owner for an extra parcel of land and he now owns two parcels.
As far as I am concerned the most important part of the farm program is subsidized crop insurance. That portion is 8 %. As far as I am concerned, this is the only important portion of the program to a farmer.
The rest of the farm bill is food stamps and nutrition programs, this makes up 66% of the farm bill.
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DCP is a voluntary program. Just because you farm, you don’t need to participate if you don’t want to. If that’s your choice, you don’t need to report acres and you can drain or tile all of your land if you want to.
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True, but if all my neighbors take money and I don’t, it isn’t long before they are paying more rent than I am and I am landless, and a farmer needs land to farm. But in reality if they lower payments much more, then there is almost no reason to stay in the program if we have a fairly good insurance program.
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Ever heard the saying “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.”? Any farmer that voted Republican deserves to be cut-off. I have heard farmers complain so many times that we live in a welfare system that gives money out left and right. Well, if we are going to make cuts to the so-called “welfare” left, we need to make them to people voting on the right also. Yes, most farmers vote conservatively for some reason. Maybe this will make you think next time you step into the booth.
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I find it hard to believe that most N.D. farmers are Republicans; here in Minn. it seems like most farmers are Democrats. Always has been that way here.
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That’s because in MN they have the DFL (Democratic Farm Labor Union) and if farmers vote right, then they shouldn’t complain when they get what they voted for. That goes for those who vote right as well. We all have to measure our consciences and decide what is more important.
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I am pretty sure that a majority of farmers out there use this program in the correct fashion… of course there are some who don’t. Really anyone who owns the land can absorb these sub payments… or so I’ve noticed with my job.. and of course a link that is posted on the farm subsidy website helps too (http://www.ewg.org/agmag/2011/06/city-slickers-continue-to-rake-in-farm-payments/) … Farmers need crop insurance… there’s no doubt about it. If some of you whining on here knew anything about weather, and how many different types of bad weather farmers have had this summer, you just might understand why it’s very important. Also… the CRP program… That’s the one thing in place to keep natural types of land in place and thriving with wildlife. Leave that alone. And p.s. I agree 100% with the drug task force stuff.. If pot was legal and being taxed…. it’s hard to say really how much taxes it would raise, but it would be a LOT. For anyone on here that might be really blind… lots of people smoke pot. Lawyers, doctors, CEO’s, etc… not just the people with long hair listening to the Grateful Dead. There would be seriously tons of money coming off of pot if they figured it out. “oh but it burns brain cells and people hit kids with their car because they are so high!” NOT..
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Every farmer I have met is a millionaire. Farm subsidies are a total waste of taxpayer money. Get rid of them. I won’t feel sorry for you because you can’t spend your winters in Cancun or Hawaii.
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Phil wrote
Every farmer I have met is a millionaire…
Phil…you make that sound like a bad thing?
Phil..do you have any investments, stocks, ..aren’t you hoping to make money with your investment?
Maybe you should get out there and do the same thing as those millionaire” farmers…quick…I’m sure its really easy to do.
Buy some land and them just sit back and collect those massive subsidies.
Uh yea phil…you must not own any land….maybe land appreciation had something to do with those farmers net worth.
Massive subsidies…where do I sign up?
I farm..and I’m not getting any massive subsidies…take them away….I sure won’t miss them…and the land I rent might be cheaper next time I negotiate the contract, too.
Subsidies?..its the American consumer that is subsidized…cheaper and more plentiful food is what those subsidies bought…its the way our government controls agriculture…like a carrot and stick approach.
Yes…agriculture is enjoying an uptick now…but it hasn’t always been this way, and I wouldn’t count on it staying here very long, either.
Here is some history about food production that you class/wealth envy socialists might want to read up on..
http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/stalin.htm
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Where are the subsidies for mom and pop stores so they can compete against WalMart and Target? Would that be any different than propping up the family farms so they can compete with really big corporate farms?
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