Last updated on 2011.06.17
According to the Environmental Working Group, lifetime South Dakota farmer Michael Melius received $53,846 in farm subsidies between 1995 and 2009, all of it for conservation.
Mr. Melius thinks he's received enough farm subsidies. He thinks everyone has received enough farm subsidies. Melius wants to end this federal wealth transfer:
Ending direct payments is not the same as imposing a new tax or ending a tax break. Direct payments are old, but they weren't created by our founding fathers. They aren't in the Constitution. They are wealth transfers, and they were never meant to be permanent.
Supporters of farm subsidies need to justify the need for them. With farmers flush and the country deep in debt, it could be argued that farmers owe it to their country to give up subsidies.
But I think it's sufficient to argue that the farm program has been a success. It's supported farmers through hard times, resulting in a profitable, aggressively growing industry that no longer merits federal welfare [Michael Melius, "Time to End Farm Subsidies," Minneapolis StarTribune, 2011.06.01].
Read the full op-ed, and you'll learn in more detail why farmers don't need our help any more and why farm subsidies simply "distort the free market."
Making the free market freer, cutting federal spending, stopping government redistribution of wealth---ending farm subsidies should be a no-brainer for conservative Republican Congresswoman Kristi Lynn Arnold Noem (all that is why you guys voted for her, right?).
But send her a copy of Melius's essay anyway. She'll need extras to share with her new pals on the House Ag Committee as they get to work on the next Farm Bill.
Related: I learn via Understanding Government that bipartisan support is building to end the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit. EWG's Sheila Karpf says subsidies for corn ethanol are stifling development of "potentially superior alternatives" like biofuel from algae and switchgrass.
Cory why doesn't Kevin Weilands name come up as a potential challenger to Noem? He was willing to take on Herseth so why not Noem?
Weiland has some great things to say about Farm Bill reform.
I can't say for sure whether Weiland in being mentioned in the quiet conversations about 2012 or not. Weiland stepped back from challenging SHS in 2010 in part due to DC pressure and in part due to his commitment to being there for his family. In the 2012 race, DC might not pressure him, but there's no sign he's in a different place with his family priorities that would make it any easier for him to step away from home and medical practice to campaign full-time.
Does this sum things up? Melius says because ethanol has brought prosperity to farming we should end farm subsidies and should start by eliminating direct payments. Direct payments are a commodity subsidy. According to EWG, Melius has only received conservation subsidies in the form of CRP contracts. Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) pays landowners for planting their land with grasses (big bluestem and switchgrass) and trees in some cases while leaving it idle 10 to 15 years.
The direct payments do not amount to much in relation to the present high commodity prices so no one is busting up pasture to get the direct payment money. If anything they are quitting the farm program so they can farm the marginal areas without having to deal with any sort of conservation compliance. Crop insurance is still available regardless of farm program participation. I think there is a good chance direct payments will be eliminated in the next farm bill but am curious on people’s views about conservation related subsidies.
On the related subject (I did some math, all my own, so you may want to check) if 30 percent of the US corn crop goes into ethanol we presently have over four billion bushels to work with. Imagine a square mile section of land completely covered with 180 feet of corn and that is what four billion bushels looks like. It takes an area 200 miles by 200 miles to produce it at a yield of 155 bu/acre (US average). As viable as the technology may be, where does one domestically find that much switchgrass and algae? It appears cellulosic is to corn what corn is to oil of which the US burns seven billion barrels per year.
Ag subsidies driving obesity rates: http://www.npr.org/2011/08/10/139390696/is-u-s-farm-policy-feeding-the-obesity-epidemic