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Taxpayers Turn U.S. Farmers Into Fat Cats With Subsidies

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/taxpayers-turn-u-s--farmers-into-fat-cats-with-subsidies-201500681.html?page=2 said:
In 2011, the median income of commercial farm households -- those deriving more than half their income from farming -- was $84,649
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I've got to admit, I'm having a tough time getting angry about a career that requires 60+ hours a week getting paid 85k a year - and note, that is for the entire household and not just the farmer. I suppose you could argue who should subsidize this, but to try to attack the "fat cats" seems like a non-starter to me.
 
Its an interesting subject.. because the way to improve profitability to American farmers, keep cheap food, and get rid of subsidies is to have more government regulation.

why is it that I know where my shoes come from, and where my car was made, and where my computer was made... but I have no idea and no means of finding out.. where the food I put into my children is grown?

If we required food coming in to this country to pass the same standards as the food grown locally, and/or to be labeled accordingly, then we would probably not need the massive subsidies required to make farming profitable.
 
pdog said:
I've got to admit, I'm having a tough time getting angry about a career that requires 60+ hours a week getting paid 85k a year - and note, that is for the entire household and not just the farmer. I suppose you could argue who should subsidize this, but to try to attack the "fat cats" seems like a non-starter to me.
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From the article

In 2011, the median income of commercial farm households -- those deriving more than half their income from farming -- was $84,649, almost 70 percent higher than that of the typical American household.
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In 2011, the latest year for which data is available, 26 farmers each got annual subsidies of more than $1 million; more than 10,000 received $100,000 or more. One grower of tomatoes and peppers in Florida enjoyed a subsidy of $1.9 million, according to the Environmental Working Group.
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The real #'s are considerably higher than the #'s you cited
 
Not sure if Treasury depicts these subsidies as "Agriculture" outlays, but those have increased from 18 billion to 32 billion this year(2013 fiscal).
 
sangha said:
From the article





The real #'s are considerably higher than the #'s you cited
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The number I posted was real and directly from the article, I just didn't see the point that you discovered - and yes I agree - nobody should be getting a million dollars in subsidies for ANYTHING. I'd be interested to know if those were corporate farms or individuals.
 
pdog said:
The number I posted was real and directly from the article,
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I did not see where the article describes farmer (or even one farmer) as being "a career that requires 60+ hours a week getting paid 85k a year"

Could you quote from the article where it says that?

I just didn't see the point that you discovered - and yes I agree - nobody should be getting a million dollars in subsidies for ANYTHING. I'd be interested to know if those were corporate farms or individuals.
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The point is that the #'s you quoted are not representative of the actual situation. I'm pretty sure that the average is calculated based on what every eligible farm receives, therefore it includes corporate farms as well as individually owned ones. I bet the corporate farms are generally larger and receive bigger payments than the "family farms".

Like you, I have no problem with programs that help hard working individuals earn a living doing something that is essential to the nation's well-being by giving them a modest subsidy. I do have a problem with giving large payments to businesses that would be profitable without those payments.
 
The real tragedy is how we treat corn and sugar. We use corn (food) as a fuel and we keep prices high with high tariffs on sugar, a source for fuel in Brazil.

What do food producers do? They use corn (food) to make sweeteners (high fructose corn syrup) which is much worse for you than using actual sugar.

Let's hear Mrs. Obama discuss this issue!
 
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