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If I had any say in agricultural policy I would try and create a system that rewarded smaller farms and discouraged corporate investment and monopolization. As I said before, these policies would encourage farmers to remove environmentally fragile land from production, use soil conserving techniques such as contour plowing with smaller equipment and manure based fertilizers with as few pesticides and herbicides as possible. I would also classify the huge feedlots and slaughter houses as industrial facilities and place them under the same environmental rules as any factory.
I would also stop our dumping our agricultural surplus on foreign countries as we would try and prevent the surplus in the first place. If we did have a surplus in a very good year some would be stored for the next year and some shipped to regions with crop failures and famines.
All this requires skilled government planning and regulation and some people would object to the socialistic aspects. I dismiss these considerations as we already have agribusiness socialism in our current system that is not providing either the prices or the stability we really need to sustain a reliable agricultural system. The current over production system with its heavy dependence on chemical fertilizers and pest control chemicals has raised our long term risk to an unprecedented level. We are wasting our Midwestern soil and underground water at an unsustainable rate in order to satisfy the demands of far away investors. This is risky, dangerous and, in the long run, foolish.
Very good post.You touched on alot of issues that I already wrote about, plus you went into alot of detail about the environmental aspects. I wanted to bring up this topic earlier but was to busy writing about NAFTA and dumping and things like that. I especially liked what you had to say about the socialistic aspects. When the govermnet puts any restriction on the free market that favors the little guy, a lot of people bring out the socialist boggey man; then they turn around and support David Rockafeller/Citibank bailout socialism. They support socialist policies when they re-distribute wealth upwards but when it comes to social programs that benefit the poor and the middle class, they go all Joe the Plummer on you. This just concentrates all the wealth and power into a few hands, while the rest of us struggle to get by. I don't know about everyone else, but I don't want the United States to be a country with a poor majority and a very rich and small upper class. But this is where we are headed if things don't turn around.
Farm subsidies were meant to help a farmer when there was a bad weather season. We're paying farmers millions of dollars when they are having record yields and good grain prices. This is whats causing land prices to soar along with cash rent prices. We're actually paying for the land these farmers are buying. Then there's the subject about them not paying any taxes,( sales, gas and income ) if I could not figure out how to make a living in the last 60 years, i'd look for another job. It's time to start weaning them off all the subsidies.
I just found out that our local distiller of Vodka, Tito's, is not made from either potatoes or wheat but rather corn. So is Vodka the latest in a long list of consumables that are given subsidies? Should we really be substituting 80 proof liquor?
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You touched on alot of issues that I already wrote about, plus you went into alot of detail about the environmental aspects. I wanted to bring up this topic earlier but was to busy writing about NAFTA and dumping and things like that. I especially liked what you had to say about the socialistic aspects. When the govermnet puts any restriction on the free market that favors the little guy, a lot of people bring out the socialist boggey man; then they turn around and support David Rockafeller/Citibank bailout socialism. They support socialist policies when they re-distribute wealth upwards but when it comes to social programs that benefit the poor and the middle class, they go all Joe the Plummer on you.
This just concentrates all the wealth and power into a few hands, while the rest of us struggle to get by. I don't know about everyone else, but I don't want the United States to be a country with a poor majority and a very rich and small upper class. But this is where we are headed if things don't turn around.
