How bad is it?
What can we citizens expect if the proposed $300-billion farm bill is signed into law? Federally subsidized feed -- corn, soybeans and cottonseed -- for animal factory farms that spread disease, greenhouse gases and dangerous working conditions wherever they set up shop... The continuation of America's obesity campaign, which ensures the cheapest and most widely available foods are made up of such high-calorie ingredients as high-fructose corn syrup, refined flours, saturated fats and unhealthy meat and dairy products. And more federally backed exports of California's water -- in the form of cotton and rice, mostly sold overseas.Ironically, when Gingrich's radical free-market Republicans took office in 1994, the bloated farm bill of the day was one of their prime targets. They put together a package that was supposed to increase subsidies temporarily to wean farmers off Uncle Sam's bloated teat.
You can guess how well that worked. Once the subsidy increases were in place, no-one had the political courage to actually do the weaning. The next time the farm bill came up was right after 9/11, and agribusiness used National Security as a catch-all excuse for even BIGGER subsidies (we must secure our food supply!).
Now, with food prices soaring to the highest levels in decades, nobody really thinks farmers need subsidies. But that's not stopping agribusiness from demanding them. And unless we do something, it looks like once again, they're going to get them. It's a great deal. They spread $80 million around in campaign contributions and lobbying costs, and in exchange they get billions and billions of taxpayer dollars.
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