Farm Bill Pros And Cons

This cartoon, by Mike Keefe in May of 2008, is a humorous crack at the corporate corruption within the farm bills that the U.S. passes every five years or so. The idea of a ‘farm bill’ originated as part of FDR’s New Deal during the Great Depression, called the Agriculture Adjustment Act. The idea behind this legislature was to compensate farmers for not growing crop on a percentage of their land, in order to induce market growth and raise the selling price of crops. With this bill the Department of Agriculture was given the power to more or less regulate the agricultural market. Farmers, desperate for income (and food), took the subsidies and were instructed to not use certain acres of their land. If the prices did not go up, then the Government guaranteed a minimum price per bushel contained in federal loans. This was good and well as the prices stabilized and caused food production to grow and flourish, until 1936, when the AAA was found unconstitutional. A new farm bill was put

Many critics of the farm bills claim that the authors and re-writers have investments in the big farms and therefore continue to use this legislature for in their own self-interest. Theoretically, farm subsidies should help small, family farms more, however, getting their hands on a state subsidy is an arcane and complicated task. Those who barely make ends meet by plowing their fields and harvesting their crops don't have time to get into this shady business and lack funds to hire a lawyer or tax consultant to handle it for them. Thus, agricultural subsidies flow mostly to big producers who thereby gain another advantage over their smaller competitors. Big agribusiness has the means to effectively siphon off subsidies. Family farms don't, and their businesses suffer because of