Welcome To The Not-So-Free Market
It hits you in the salad bowl, and the fruit bowl, too. Jack Hedin, a farmer, writes in The New York Times about government barriers on what he grows -- barriers that will soon be extended when the new farm bill goes into effect:
Last year, knowing that my own 100 acres wouldn’t be enough to meet demand, I rented 25 acres on two nearby corn farms. I plowed under the alfalfa hay that was established there, and planted watermelons, tomatoes and vegetables for natural-food stores and a community-supported agriculture program.All went well until early July. That’s when the two landowners discovered that there was a problem with the local office of the Farm Service Administration, the Agriculture Department branch that runs the commodity farm program, and it was going to be expensive to fix.
The commodity farm program effectively forbids farmers who usually grow corn or the other four federally subsidized commodity crops (soybeans, rice, wheat and cotton) from trying fruit and vegetables. Because my watermelons and tomatoes had been planted on “corn base” acres, the Farm Service said, my landlords were out of compliance with the commodity program.
I’ve discovered that typically, a farmer who grows the forbidden fruits and vegetables on corn acreage not only has to give up his subsidy for the year on that acreage, he is also penalized the market value of the illicit crop, and runs the risk that those acres will be permanently ineligible for any subsidies in the future. (The penalties apply only to fruits and vegetables — if the farmer decides to grow another commodity crop, or even nothing at all, there’s no problem.)
In my case, that meant I paid my landlords $8,771 — for one season alone! And this was in a year when the high price of grain meant that only one of the government’s three crop-support programs was in effect; the total bill might be much worse in the future.
In addition, the bureaucratic entanglements that these two farmers faced at the Farm Service office were substantial. The federal farm program is making it next to impossible for farmers to rent land to me to grow fresh organic vegetables.
Why? Because national fruit and vegetable growers based in California, Florida and Texas fear competition from regional producers like myself. Through their control of Congressional delegations from those states, they have been able to virtually monopolize the country’s fresh produce markets.
That’s unfortunate, because small producers will have to expand on a significant scale across the nation if local foods are to continue to enter the mainstream as the public demands. My problems are just the tip of the iceberg.
Note how he tosses off the bit about "subsidies," as if it's no big deal that the government is handing out welfare to farmers, including some of them who are quite rich, such as a Rockefeller living on lower Fifth Avenue (scroll down into the comments). Sorry, but if you can't make it as a farmer, don't suck taxpayer dough; get a job as a shoemaker or something. I mean, if you can't just live off your inheritance.
It's always informative when people demonstrate how happy they are to receive the benefits of rent-seeking, yet complain when they're the victims of someone else's rent-seeking. Hey, maybe the problem is rent-seeking. Those of us who are only on the losing economic side of someone's else win understand this. And some of us even realize the underlying principle of equal liberty.
I had this sort of discussion on ethanol over the weekend. I don't understand why it's difficult for people to accept that if it needs a subsidy, it's not economically viable. If it's economically viable, it doesn't need a subsidy. I think people believe business operates on a short-term mentality. If we don't force business to look ahead, they'll just consume themselves and drag us down with their greed.
Tony at March 4, 2008 5:47 AM
While the farm program is whacked, it is not as bad as laid out in the quoted piece. Each "farm" is assigned acres, not a particular piece of land. So, the landlords could have put the corn on acres elsewhere. It sounds like the landlords weren't quite hip to the scene, and realized after the fact they wouldn't have enough acres to cover their corn base, so they came back on the renter.
doombuggy at March 4, 2008 6:34 AM
This is why we have a backyard garden in the spring and summer. We plant peppers, tomatoes, squash, basil, whatever we want. We always have a bountiful harvest, and I can or freeze everything that's left, and it's a lot, even after sharing with the neighbors. There are 3 or 4 of us in our neighborhood that grow all kinds of stuff and we're always trading stuff. One of our neighbors grows rhubarb, so this year I'm planning on planting some strawberries, and I'll be making strawberry-rhubarb pies, yum! There's also a community garden in our town, and a farmers' market. I think every community should do stuff like this, my grocery bill goes way down during the summer. YMMV
Flynne at March 4, 2008 7:04 AM
I think Jack Hedin has a legitimate complaint. I've written to 3 members of the Minnesota delegation who serve on their respective Ag Committees, asked them to read this Op-Ed and asked them to tell me specifically what they intend to do to solve Jack's problem which is my/our problem as a producer/consumers of locally grown produce.
BullishOnRhubarb at March 4, 2008 7:28 AM
I'm sorry but this issue was decided in 1942. Do a search on "Wickard v. Filburn" and you'll find a lot of articles about "the Court's greatest expansion of federal regulatory power under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution."
Two quick links:
http://law.jrank.org/pages/13433/Wickard-v-Filburn.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickard_v._Filburn
Curly Smith at March 4, 2008 8:04 AM
The Farm Program is also an example of how to get political power: there is a Farm Service Agency in most counties in the US. These are pretty good jobs. The employees and their farmer customers work to keep the programs going. Any hints to close these offices are met with howls of protest.
See capture theory.
doombuggy at March 4, 2008 8:50 AM
Farm subsidies always amuse me. You often hear Republicans and Big business people going on and on about the "free market."
Then you mention, well what about the US government's massive farm subsidy program that basically allows us to dump our product onto foriegn markets?
They always, say, "Well that's necessary."
Free markets are always great, unless you're recieving subsidies or corporate welfare. Then free markets are great for everyone else.
flighty at March 4, 2008 8:58 AM
"Well what about the US government's massive farm subsidy program that basically allows us to dump our product onto foriegn markets?"
Yes, which just ensures that those foreign markets never become self-sufficient. How can local farmers in those countries compete with food that is dumped on them for free? The whole thing is wrong in so many ways. There is another price to pay, aside from the taxes extorted from working Americans to go into the pockets of the already-rich.
Pirate Jo at March 4, 2008 10:26 AM
I am a farmer.
Competition for land is almost perfectly competitive. Someone will rent it if you don't.
Some farmers own all of their land, but most rent it.
This means that government subsidies are transferred almost totally to landowners.
The Farm Program was a collectivist boondoggle from the beginning. During the Depression, people were starving, so they bought livestock from people and killed it to drive the price of food up to "help" the farmers. Kids were severely malnourished so they bought milk and fruit and dumped them in the desert. Market forces were running amok, so they came up with stupid rules to say who could plant what where.
Make sense?
Farmers' markets are jokes. Most of the sellers are dealers who pick their stuff up at a wholesaler and then take it to the market.
Food would be even cheaper and of higher quality today if the Farm Progam was ended and subsidies were banned.
austin at March 4, 2008 10:37 AM
To Curly's point on Wickard v. Filburn:
I'm not an attorney, so I can't get into it too deeply. But people I respect qualify that case as one of the worst in the Supreme Court's history because it limits economic freedom and expanded the regulatory state.
But I'm not an attorney, so I'll argue something different. Let's assume it's a good ruling, that the government can regulate economic activity in such a way. The ability to do so and doing so are separate arguments. Even if the government can control the economy, it shouldn't control it. Central planning denies liberty to the entrepreneur who wishes to improve the economy. It's also horribly inefficient. Everywhere it spreads, socialism fails eventually. Capitalism keeps on improving the world.
Tony at March 4, 2008 1:35 PM
Farmers' markets are jokes. Most of the sellers are dealers who pick their stuff up at a wholesaler and then take it to the market.
hahahahahahaha. Buy local dude!
mishu at March 4, 2008 6:36 PM
The curse of 'free' money is that someone else will always tell you what you can and can't do. Look into the 'peace & justice committe ' at the UN. They want to tell you what to grow, who to hire, what to pay them, what you can sell you product for and also who and what they will pay for it. There is a huge movement in the local food industry that is communist inspired. Beware, they hold up chavez as a great leader.
You can't grow organic produce on land that has been using chemical fertilizers for corn. And with the price of corn the highest in record history thanks to the al gore greeners, there is no such thing as land that 'used to be ' used for corn. Just sayin'.....
Tomatoe Jake at March 4, 2008 6:59 PM
Farmers' markets are jokes. Most of the sellers are dealers who pick their stuff up at a wholesaler and then take it to the market.
Yeah, it always cracked me up to go to the "farmers'" market in Minnesota and see bananas and oranges for sale. On the other hand, I like pesto and in the summer they had basil for about 1/20th the ridiculous price in the grocery store.
Shawn at March 4, 2008 9:59 PM
Good site. Thanks:-)
http://www.nuc.edu.ng/forum/forum_posts.asp?tid=1740 buy cialis custom hrt
buy cialis custom hrt at March 27, 2008 5:39 AM
I like to make pesto using walnuts.
CookingToday.co.uk at April 13, 2011 1:51 PM
Leave a comment