Copyright 2001 Journal Sentinel Inc. Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel (Wisconsin)
December 26, 2001 Wednesday FINAL
EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 20A
LENGTH: 382 words
HEADLINE:
Subsidies and family farms
BYLINE: FRANZEN
BODY: The nation's taxpayers got an
early Christmas present this month when the U.S. Senate failed to approve a
badly flawed farm bill. But taxpayers should beware: The
measure, or one very much like it, could be back early in the new year.
Do the nation's family farms and farmers need taxpayer
help? Depends on how you define them. If you mean Farmer Smith's family farm in
central Wisconsin, probably. If you mean the corporate produce and dairy
factories that have helped push the family farm toward extinction, probably not.
And if you mean "farmers" such as billionaire Ted Turner, basketball star
Scottie Pippen and members of the Senate Agricultural Committee who collect farm
subsidies, the answer is emphatically no.
The fact is,
too much of the federal subsidy accorded to farmers doesn't go to the small
farmers who need it the most. According to The Heritage Foundation, 60% of
America's farmers are not allowed to apply for subsidies; meantime, Turner has
received subsidies over the past five years that are 38 times greater than the
median farm subsidy over that period.
This is because
subsidies are based not on need but on crop. Ninety percent of subsidies are for
five specific crops: corn, wheat, cotton, rice and soybeans. There are no
government programs for eggs, poultry, cattle, nuts and most vegetables. The
result is that, in an attempt to increase farmer incomes, the federal government
subsidizes those who plant favored crops -- as Turner did on his ranches --
while it excludes many low-income farmers who don't grow the right stuff.
The Democratic farm aid bill scuttled in the Senate would
have increased those subsidies by 65%, at a time when farm income has been at an
all-time high, while doing little to change the overall system. There also was
no urgent need for the bill: Current authorization does not expire until next
fall.
What's needed, of course, is an overhaul of the
entire farm subsidy program. Although there is time to study that before next
fall, the political reality is that it probably won't happen unless
congressional representatives with backbone take up the cause of farmers who
really do need the help. Are members of the delegation from Wisconsin, which
represents a healthy number of family farmers, up to that task?
Document 10 of 420. 