Here in the northern part of the Sacramento Valley, agriculture sustains the entire economy. All of the small towns north of Sacramento rely on a multitude of crops and domestic animal products to fuel their local economies. Like all business ventures, of course, farming entails risk. In addition, farmers frequently depend on the vagaries of the weather to determine their success or failure.
However, 39 percent of the nation’s 2.1 million farms actually receive crop subsidies from the federal government. These programs are pure socialism that is ignored by conservatives who scream about the dangers of socialism in the form of Medicaid and food assistance. Farm program supporters claim that the economic benefit of farm subsidies is that they help consumers. But crop subsidies do not really reduce food prices much, if at all. Commodity costs make up just 10 percent of the retail prices of domestic food, on average. Some farm programs even raise consumer prices. Dairy and sugar market restrictions raise prices for those products. The federal ethanol mandate actually raises prices for corn.
Many wealthy farmers have received farm subsidies over the years. Looking at the period from 1995 to 2014, the Environmental Working Group found that 50 people on the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans received farm subsidies. I ask this question: Why is it that socialism in the form of Medicaid and food stamps is not OK but farm subsidies are? Get real: farm subsidies are socialism.
— Mike Herman, Chico
