Farm subsidies are the most expensive subsidies that the government doles out. They are also, perhaps the ultimate, but secret third rail of American politics. While entitlements are discussed out in the open, farm subsidies are rarely talked about.
The amount of money spent is lopsided too. Not much of it is going to local farms but to big agriculture.
All told, the U.S. government spends $20 billion annually on farm subsidies, with approximately 39 percent of all farms receiving some sort of subsidy. For comparison, the oil industry gets about $4.6 billion annually and annual housing subsidies total another $15 billion. A significant portion of this $20 billion goes not to your local family farm, but to Big Aggie.
(Note that this $20 billion annual farm subsidy figure doesn’t take into account the 30+ years of ethanol subsidies to the corn industry nor export subsidies to U.S. farmers issued by the USDA.) –Activist Post
Farm subsidies are often painted as the last refuge of the American small farmer. But even a close examination of where farm subsidies go reveals that nothing could be further from the truth. The 10 largest recipients of aid receive between $14 million and $23.7 million, averaging $18.2 million, or approximately $1.8 million per year for what are giant agricultural combines. Part of this is a deliberate result of United States agricultural policy which began after the Second World War when farmers were told to “get big or get out.”
In an in-depth article titled Food Is Freedom: How Washington’s Food Subsidies Have Helped Make Americans Fat and Sick, author Brian Miller explains how these subsidies are not helping the public, but rather harming them. The free money is only making Americans fatter and sicker. They are also costing the taxpayer a substantial amount of money.
Farm subsidies are a major driver of the obesity and cancer epidemic in the United States as well. Every time Washington interferes in the private sector, they are picking winners and losers. The winners chosen are companies producing food that’s high in calories and low in nutritional density. These foods are the ones that contribute to making Americans sick and fat because it distorts what food is available at what price. Some of these foods can barely even be called that too!
When the United States Department of Agriculture invented the food pyramid, they made sure it favored them only back in 1992. Everyone is familiar with the food pyramid, the alleged template for a healthy diet. The original Food Pyramid urged Americans to eat as many as 11 servings of carbohydrates per day, in addition to another four servings of fruit (i.e., more carbs). Meat, poultry, eggs, fish, beans, and nuts were to total only two to three servings per day between all of them. Fat, even plant fats from avocados or olives were to be shunned and avoided.
This has not done our society any favors. Recent numbers indicate that the “vast majority” of American adults are overweight. According to the most recent Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data, adult obesity rates now exceed 35% in nine states, 30% in 31 states and 25% in 48 states. Perhaps indulging and carbohydrates and avoiding fats isn’t the best way to maintain healthy body weight. And the USDA, even though they have now discontinued the food pyramid, have not addressed this.
The USDA’s latest version of the Food Pyramid is known as MyPlate, and some insight into how it was created and what purpose it serves can be found with the previous pyramid (the Eating Right Pyramid) and why it was discontinued. The Eating Right Pyramid, the original Food Pyramid, was replaced due to industry concerns from beef and poultry farmers that their product was not being presented properly.
An alternative to MyPlate is the Healthy Eating Plate from the Harvard School of Public Health. This stresses whole grains, healthy proteins, and fats, drinking water and other sugar-free drinks, and adequate amounts of vegetables.
Harvard School of Public Health Department of Nutrition Chair Walter Willett claimed that, “like the earlier U.S. Department of Agriculture Pyramids, MyPlate mixes science with the influence of powerful agricultural interests, which is not the recipe for healthy eating”. -Activist Post
Basically, what people are being told to eat is what the government subsidizes with their money. It isn’t about health. It’s about who can generate the highest amount of food, and in the majority of cases, that food is far from healthy or even necessary in the human diet. In fact, Dr. Marion Nestle, the former chair of the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University stated: “There’s a great deal of money at stake in what these guidelines say.”
The government doesn’t care about your health. They care about money, and just like Big Agriculture, you won’t get the right answers on nutrition from the ones who profit off you NOT knowing.
H/T [Activist Post]
I eat what I dam n well please.
Just because city folk are too stupid to be selective
in what they eat is their problem.
I haven’t been to a McDonalds in years.
I take exception to paying farmers NOT to grow food.
I also dislike the Corn Ethanol subsidy because ethanol
in our fuel is pure politics and has no rational basis in facts
and data.
Aloha.
Agree,,
If they cant make it on their own they should not be in the business.
Big ag is bullshit
You got that right, ya hit the nail on the head. What subsidies do is make farming into Communism. It makes makes a very real possibility of the government having the right to take over farms nationwide.
When an economic emergency happens, they have enough investment in all of these farms to have the right to take them over and nationalize them..
Subsidies also exponentially ramp up the price of land and stall out average Patriots who want to move out of the Blue states and into the more friendly Red Rurals. The price of land is sky high and it is due primarily to CRP and Conservation checks.
The average Land Owner uses the check to blow on extra big pickups, F-350’s, the average person cannot affford, and vacations to the Bahamas in the winter. Why should the taxpayer support land owning aristocracy? This will really blowback on the average land owner when the commies point this out to the masses and use it as an excuse to take over farms.
Patriots do not practice communism. It’s why Republicans are losing in some districts, because the Democrats have bought the votes.
I own land and refuse to accept the checks, the average is 20,000 bucks a year, but goes up to 100,000’s for the bigger (so-called) farmers. You can easily imagine how that inflates the prices of land and keeps out average people from realizing their rural dreams. This is by design, by the way, for leftist agenda 21 people are the bureaucrats in charge of it. It isn’t farming anymore, it’s communism.
What subsidies do is make farming into Communism. It makes makes a very real possibility of the government having the right to take over farms nationwide.
When an economic emergency happens, they have enough investment in all of these farms to have the right to take them over and nationalize them..
Subsidies also exponentially ramp up the price of land and stall out average Patriots who want to move out of the Blue states and into the more friendly Red Rurals. The price of land is sky high and it is due primarily to CRP and Conservation checks.
The average Land Owner uses the check to blow on extra big pickups, F-350’s, the average person cannot affford, and vacations to the Bahamas in the winter. Why should the taxpayer support land owning aristocracy? This will really blowback on the average land owner when the commies point this out to the masses and use it as an excuse to take over farms.
Patriots do not practice communism. It’s why Republicans are losing in some districts, because the Democrats have bought the votes.
I own land and refuse to accept the checks, the average is 20,000 bucks a year, but goes up to 100,000’s for the bigger (so-called) farmers. You can easily imagine how that inflates the prices of land and keeps out average people from realizing their rural dreams. This is by design, by the way, for leftist agenda 21 people are the bureaucrats in charge of it. It isn’t farming anymore, it’s communism.
I agree. The federal government is getting more powerful as time goes on, and in ways people don’t imagine. Looking a pictures of children having sex is wrong, but if the government has the power to say you can’t look at one of those pictures, then they have the power to say you can’t look at the Bible. Power is power, and they sneak it into our lives.
Agree,,
If they cant make it on their own they should not be in the business.
Big ag is BS
Nail, agreed about Big Ag. Farmers need to make it on their own or hang it up.
Yep!
The Government’s Food Subsidies Are Making Americans Fat and Sick. Wrong!!!
Even with EBT, they can select fresh veggies and fruits and steak and real meat. It isn’t the government making people fat. Its the Idiots grocery shopping that put junk food in the card as every day staples. The EBT program needs to only include healthy food. The soda companies and chips and garbage food companies are those ripping off the system and the Government is helping them. The government selects which foods are eligible under the program. Personal choice is live healthy or die young, of junk food eating habits.
What ever..
TSB, agreed that the idiots are making themselves sick choosing the wrong kind of foods. I don’t touch any fast foods, period.
Rellik, same here. I don’t even touch fast food.And corn was intended for food, NOT to be used for any type of fuel. Ethanol waters down the gasoline and hurts engines. I’ll take my corn on the cob, LOL.
Rellik, same here and I avoid fast food as much as possible. I also think it’s plain stupid to pay farmers NOT to grow food. Ethanol is totally useless as it waters down gasoline. Corn was intended to be use as FOOD, NOT FUEL. I’ll take my corn on the cob, LOL.
Hygiene, fuel, refrigeration, and having food in quantity can be considered modern miracles, to keep us from dying, outrightly.
On the other hand, subsidized people are usually coarsened and feel impervious . Not mortified by the fact that you are useless eaters, it is always the subsidized people, who want to beat chests and get in pissing contests.
Subsidize fat and protein, and you still have takers and beggars, who will never know what to do with themselves, under any rule book.
Rule #1- More Government Cheese
Welfare cheese is an example of fat and protein, rather than simple carbohydrate, being subsidized.
I said, “Subsidize fat and protein, and you still have takers and beggars, who will never know what to do with themselves, under any rule book.”
The same can be said of clowns.
Uh… Just because the USDA made recommendations in the 90s (and before) doesn’t mean people followed them. Look at what people actually were eating and you’ll find their diets were already heavily skewed on the side of your beloved meat eggs and dairy. Don’t blame the carbs.
Government Cheese is a delicacy!
Rule #1- More Government Cheese
I dont eat subsudies.
hello we have a consumer economy. its smart to produce shit food void of nutrients. people will consume more. obesity is the side effect. i will say to any fat person nobody made you put that in your mouth and im not buying the excuse the meds your on make you fat. over consumption and sedentary lifestyle make you fat. its called gluttony.
i just finally fixed my chainsaw. it wouldnt put oil on the bar. its a earthwise 10 amp saw. they made it so you have to take the whole thing apart to get to the oil system. they couldve made an access panel to reach the pump. anyway the plastic hose on it was severed and the oil would go to the bottom of the case and leak everywhere. bought line at lowes for $5 and fixed it. bought the saw at aldis for $39 a few years back. cuts good for me. cleaned it with carb cleaner as best i could. took about an hour to do. thought i was buying a new saw but im a cheap ass and if it works im gonna go with it.
?
WTF
Don’t forget stupid. These fat stupid sick idiots can gobble it up. It culls the weak of mind and body. One way to get rid of a shitload of idiots!
Don’t forget stupid. These fat stupid sick idiots can gobble it up. It culls the weak of mind and body. One way to get rid of a shoatload of idiots!
Genius, agreed. They can gorge themselves to death, LOL. They’ll probably do that anyway.
If someone , group, or organization would start up a fast food chain that served ONLY healthy food,; ie steamed veggies, lean meats, etc. …they would make a fortune.
McDonald’s attempt to offer healthy choices are a joke unless you want a salad that looks like it was made in a salad factory and has set in a fridge for a week.
Subway was once thought of as a healthy alternative lol…Have you ever looked at those gmo tomatoes? They should be cored like an apple first…and their lettuce is almost always rancid.
Of course once the healthy restaurant startup became successful…the politically correct (I want reppa- rayshuns) upper management at McDonald’s would fall in line with the plan.
Its the growth hormones they feed to meat animals and poultry. Those hormones make the animals sedentary and mature faster and get fat. Those Hormones are passes to the humans who consume that meat. Little ten year olds have huge breast and a pot gut. Even the little boys need to wear a bra! and the adults are mostly tubs of guts.
What subsidies do is make farming into Communism. It makes makes a very real possibility of the government having the right to take over farms nationwide.
When an economic emergency happens, they have enough investment in all of these farms to have the right to take them over and nationalize them..
Subsidies also exponentially ramp up the price of land and stall out average Patriots who want to move out of the Blue states and into the more friendly Red Rurals. The price of land is sky high and it is due primarily to CRP and Conservation checks.
The average Land Owner uses the check to blow on extra big pickups, F-350’s, the average person cannot affford, and vacations to the Bahamas in the winter. Why should the taxpayer support land owning aristocracy? This will really blowback on the average land owner when the commies point this out to the masses and use it as an excuse to take over farms.
Patriots do not practice communism. It’s why Republicans are losing in some districts, because the Democrats have bought the votes.
I own land and refuse to accept the checks, the average is 20,000 bucks a year, but goes up to 100,000’s for the bigger (so-called) farmers. You can easily imagine how that inflates the prices of land and keeps out average people from realizing their rural dreams. This is by design, by the way, for leftist agenda 21 people are the bureaucrats in charge of it. It isn’t farming anymore, it’s communism.
Signing off after many years of posting. Site blows. No more prepping or survival tips,just politics.
Signing off. This site really blows. No prepping tips or anything else,just boring as heck leftie politics.
I hardly ever eat fast food, and am in better shape than 20 years ago. Rotten Ronnie’s ( McDonalds) is one fast food place I never eat at, haven’t in years. Some claim they’re putting nanobots and God only knows what else into the food.
Subsidizing Big Ag is called fascism.
Choosing what you eat is called liberty.