My reason for opposing it was strictly on the basis of being philosophically against handing out billions of dollars to wealthy landowners whose sole qualification seems to be that they are tight with their local congressmen. The handouts continue precisely because the farm bill includes further billions for worthy programs that everyone can support, such as school lunches, nutrition, land conservation, water cleanup.

You are right to be suspicious of Bush’s opposition, however. No doubt there is something diabolical behind it. The most cogent analysis I’ve seen is that this is a sop to the World Trade Organization, meant to indicate that the U.S. is prepared to discontinue the practice of subsidizing commodity crops. We could have a whole other discussion about how the WTO and its trade policies have contributed to the current food crises by stamping out subistence farming around the globe.