foodperson.com

Here I sit in the middle of farm country, in a region that still has a moderate number of small-ish working farms, and I have to go elsewhere to find out that a key congressional subcommittee has advanced a piece of the farm bill that will continue enriching a few and do nothing to help most farmers. It also doesn’t help those of us who eat and pay taxes. Keep reading to see who it does help, and why you should care.

You can read about it in the Washington Post:

The action left in place the system of income supports and guaranteed prices that has cost taxpayers more than $70 billion since 2002. Environmental groups, the Bush administration and budget watchdogs say that the program is too generous to big commercial farmers in a few states. But yesterday’s vote by the House Agriculture subcommittee on general commodities signaled that the farm bloc is geared to defend the subsidies, despite record profits and soaring prices for commodities and farmland.

Or, you can read about it in the New York Times:

Amid growing calls for alterations in farm policy, the House panel that oversees subsidies to farmers voted Tuesday to maintain the status quo by extending current policies for five years.

The Times even had a follow story today, which gives a little hope that business as usual might be in a little trouble. I didn’t hear about it, though, in the Kansas City Star, Topeka Capitol-Journal or the Wichita Eagle, the three biggest newspapers in this farm state, which is home to two members of the subcommittee that unanimously endorsed the continued farm subsidies. (OK, the Star is in Missouri, which is also represented on the ag committee, but the Star covers both states.)

Assorted blogs have written about it, though, such as U.S. Food Policy and The Ethicurean, which has a whole roundup of news items and links about it.

The Star did have a wire service story on June 11, about farm subsidy recipients. It started, “From Texas billionaires to Washington lobbyists, it’s no secret that wealthy people can get federal farm subsidies.” Your tax dollars at work. (Go to the Farm Subsidy Database if you want to see who’s getting the cash; you have to click on one of the buttons about a newsletter to get to the db. You’ll also see a notice that a new version is available, which it is, but you’ll have to register your email address and get a confirmation email etc. to see it.)

If spending your tax dollars to make rich people richer isn’t enough reason to demand change, then perhaps you won’t like spending your tax dollars to encourage the production of cheap, bad food while doing almost nothing to encourage the production of good food. See this earlier post on this blog that links to Michael Pollan’s excellent column on the subject.

OK, end of rant. But, once again, please tell your lawmakers we need a change!