Farm subsidies

Here is a link to a database showing who gets government subsidies:

http://farm.ewg.org/farm/

Now I have no problem helping farmers out, but check out the link and see how many corporations are getting money to NOT grow crops. I know people in my area that make over $100,000 a year and do nothing. The world is in a food crisis, and we pay farmers to NOT grow crops, does this make sense? Check out the database and see who is getting the big money in your state.

I am personally acquainted with many of the farmers receiving subsidies. I don't know about the ones with corporate sounding names, because I don't know who owns them, but on that list are people that I have known for my entire life,including my brother in law, his father, friends of my sister, guys I used to date, relatives, so I know them WELL. Do scroll this all the way through for a small county in a place like Kentucky or Tennessee and then click on the breakdown per year

AND THOSE ARE 10 YEAR FIGURES for the grand totals. I suggest checking out the list farther in and you will see that what looks like a lot of money after breaking it out by crop and year, it isn't so much, especially the smaller independent farmers. My brother in law got $145K according to the summary page...over a 10 year period. The most he ever got in one year was $26K and almost $4K was a disaster subsidy,probably due to drought or maybe a barn fire. I know my sister is living in a nice little house, and they make ends meet and save money but she doesn't have a lot of money to throw around either. She is frugal by nature and necessity.

YES I RESENT THE HELL OUT OF THE CORPORATE FARMS THAT HAVE MOVED IN AND ARE REAPING ALL THIS MONEY THROUGH A PROGRAM DESIGNED ORIGINALLY TO HELP THE SMALL FARMER AND ENCOURAGE PROPER CROP MANAGEMENT AND CONSERVATION OF THE LAND. but I know what the small farmer faces every day and no matter what their politics, religion etc. I love them deeply and respect them tremendously for doing this work that they truly love. Because make no mistake, they LOVE what they do and they do it well. None of them would consider doing anything else it is in their blood.


HOWEVER I will say this:

the individuals with whom I am acquainted will also be riding the roller coaster of weather and other influences on the other crops they grow. Let's say the farmer has 2000 acres ..the subsidy is based on the farmer NOT planting the entire acreage in one crop every year. The farmers will naturally let a field lie fallow periodically to refresh it, this is good land management. So probably every one of these farms grows some wheat, some soybeans, some corn etc. Crop rotation, etc. They probably also have some type of livestock, cattle, pigs, dairy etc. which has to be paid for and fed.

The subsidies secure the farm against severe losses on the crops that are being grown in the event disaster strikes. Otherwise all the farmers would just collect the subsidy funds and move to Jamaica. Let me tell you, every person whose name I saw on that list that I recognized is a HARD WORKING sunrise to sunset worker, getting dirty, breathing dust, pollen, chemicals, risking severe disabling or fatal injuries, dealing with equipment failures and malfunctions and hoping the rain comes at just the right time and there isn't a flash fire that takes out the corn crop and the tobacco barn doesn't implode ( a major consideration there) and fixing the combine or the seed driller with wire and a prayer, and the increasing cost of fuel and other petroleum based necessities to run the farm ......irrigation costs..

OH yeah the insurance premiums on the house, the barns, the sheds, the equipment, the crops that are in the field, life insurance on the breadwinner. Even with the subsidies, things can get tight. Most of them are paying off notes on land purchased or remortgaged after a bad crop year; many of them also sub-farm land owned by others (old ladies, absentee owners etc) and get a commission on the crop; landowner gets income, farmer gets a cut. So all the expense involved in working someone else's land is theirs ..and we haven't gotten to actual living expenses, this is just business expense

And I know farmers who are working their butts off in the field and also have second jobs. Don't know how much subsidy money they are getting, they are not on the list, unless farm name is how they are listed and I don't recognize it.

So as in everything else there are always two sides to every story. This is my city girl point of view of my roots.

...the mega-corporations, like Archer-Daniel Midlands, and ConAgra.

like 'Long Vue Farms' and 'Frog Level Farms" I expect these may also be large family holdings of some sort;

I have NO idea who owns those farms. Studying the list, and relating it to what I know of the locations of the various farms, etc. it looks like it is all proportionate to total potentially farmable acreage with percentages subsidized to lie fallow or not be replanted in a given crop, or not planted in a particular crop for x number of crop cycles.

Corn is planted twice in this area..early corn planted in spring; late corn planted in july for harvesting in Sept. Wheat is planted in Dec and harvested in June. Tobacco is a year round nightmare, and soybeans are harvested in late fall..beans usually go into the wheat fields after the wheat is combined.



Fortunately, the Big Guns you mentioned have not come in and bought out this county yet..
probably because those farmers are just not about to let go of their family land.

Well not me personally, but a partnership I was involved in got a few hundred bucks in disaster relief payments for a levee that washed out in the 1997 floods.

I can't wait to tell my sister they are in the internets.

I bookmarked the home page 'MULCH' as it is really interesting

I found out my great friend who is for reasons I do not even begin to comprehend a Republican and has a farm in another county in KY is receiving NO subsidies and is farming no traditional field crops at all. She does have a nice little mushroom farm going in a wooded area of her property, some horses and grassland for horses to play in, kitties of course. She plans to build a home there (totally green home ..she wants to be off the grid) eventually once she can get the design she wants.

She is an environmental lawyer who has held positions in USDA, EPA and the Kentucky equivalent of EPA.

None of us liberal Democrats who know and love her have ever been able to figure out WHY she is a Republican, considering her social views on just about everything.


:wtf:

She acted as agent for our family farm, which was rented to a neighbor in a crop share agreement. My mother was not in favor of farm subsidies, but the neighbor felt that a small farmer could not survive without them.

Several people I went to school with are also on the list. They are all hard working individuals, not corporations.

In Nashville, 37205 is the zip code where you find old money and lots of it:

http://farm.ewg.org/farm/addrsearch.php?s=yup&stab=TN&mailfips=47037&city=&zip=37205&z=See+Recipients&last=&first=&fullname=

The only farm in 37205 is State Farm Insurance!

So people can check it out and see just how much money is going to the big corporations. I think that small farmers need help, and they should get it, but when big corporations buy up land and let it set, then get paid for it, that makes me mad!

Individuals who retain ownership of the land, while leaving it for tenant farmers to work.

If doing so helps them get contracts with local merchants, I'd be okay with it, I suppose. But I doubt very much that's the intention.

Are they just letting the ground grow up in weeds??
If they are not growing crops on these acres??.....do they just set idle??
I'm here in Iowa and am totally confused by your assertions.
I see no ground setting Idle...........I see much highly erodible ground in conservation reserve program. I see much of the flood plains being returned to wetlands with tax payer help.
Your assertion that farmers are buying land and getting paid huge sums to not grow anything...is not true.
I checked my local county on your provided site. I personally know each and everyone one of those people. Where are these mega-corps???
Many of the ones listed the highest are multi-family farm corps.....and some others hire several employees.
I'm all for stopping waste and greed.
Why are you perpetuating hysteria??
What is your true goal here??

Helping the small farmers was bad, did I? I am pointing you to a site where you can see that big corporations are making millions in subsidies.

And I never said regular farmers were buying up land, but the big corporations are! The biggest operation in my country has thousands of acres of land they bought up and are not getting paid NOT to farm it.

Please stop trying to put words in my mouth that I did not say!

What are they doing to the land??
Is it growing up in weeds????? ..Please answer this question...
I'm sorry ....I don't believe you.

Maybe our laws are different that yours....I don't know.

I know of no big corporation buying land and letting it set idle.

I never said helping any farmer was bad....let alone small farmers....

The top twenty in my county....a large Iowa county.....are family corporations.

It's dry land wheat farming. The land is idle, period. Some farmers I know have sold all their equipment.

I really don't care if you believe me or not. And yes, they are getting paid NOT to farm it!