Farm Subsidies: Why Buy When You Can Rent?
For the $125 billion spent on commodity and disaster subsidies between 1995 and 2004, taxpayers could have bought 25 percent or more of all the farms in 341 counties—land, barns, farmhouses and all.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Ken Cook is president of Environmental Working Group, a public interest research and advocacy organization known for its Farm Subsidy Database. The author of dozens of articles, opinion pieces and reports on agricultural, public health and environmental topics, "[Cook's] fingerprints can be found on nearly two decades of U.S. farm law" (Omaha World Herald). Read more about Ken.
Craig Cox is EWG Midwest Vice President. He Mulches from EWG's office in Ames, IA. Prior to EWG, Craig served as Executive Director of the Soil and Water Conservation Society and was Acting USDA Deputy Under-Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment, and Special Assistant to the Chief of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Michelle Perez is EWG's Senior Agriculture Analyst. She has a BA in Biology from Occidental, a Masters from the University of Maryland (UMD) and is finishing up a PhD in agricultural-environmental policy at UMD.
Don Carr is EWG's Press Secretary for agriculture and public lands issues. Prior to EWG, Don worked as a Communications Director for the DNC in his home state of South Dakota and on former Senate Leader Tom Daschle's 2004 reelection campaign.
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Comments
Of course, if the government were to purchase the lands in those 341 counties, the price would be much higher than $125B. In either case, your statement implies that it may be financial wise for the federal government to do so. If that is the impression or direction you want to portray, you will lose respect and support for even the many good things EWG has accomplished. I could understand that you may want to use the statistic to imply that some agroecoregions of the US are not suited for the subsidized program crops and that maybe it would be suited for native biomass crops or some other solution. Governmental purchases of its citizens' land to solve a problem that is basically perpetuated by the federal governmental policies is not a productive debate. Thanks for your efforts.
Posted by: Tim Gieseke | January 18, 2007 5:53 PM
farms get alot of our tax dollars. they get it based on laws primarily passed in the l930's and we need to update to reflect a 2007 world. for example, cattle growers are destroying the environment totally and yet get subsidies right and left. they get to rent national taxpayer land at very very low prices. i dont think we should be supporting many of these industries anymore on our tax dollars.
Posted by: barb sachau | January 18, 2007 6:32 PM
We in no way support the federal government buying this land--so thanks for raising this issue. We're just making the point that taxpayers are paying so much year after year they might just as well have bought it.
Posted by: cook | January 18, 2007 9:38 PM
Barb Sachau: A correction--the farm programs currently operational are almost all products of legislation passed since 1985. If you want them changed, your chance is now since Congress has to do something in 2007. While ranchers who graze on public lands may not be paying enough rent and may damage the environment (I'm no expert), they commonly complain that the grain and cotton farmers get much more help under USDA's programs.
Posted by: Bill Harshaw | January 19, 2007 2:11 PM