my letter in LEO on farm policy

LEO published my letter to the editor-- a reply to a nice article by Stephen George on the government's (negative) impact on small farms...

Special Interest Farming

Thanks for the article on the USDA and its impact on small farmers (LEO Weekly, May 20). The only surprise will come to those who believe that the USDA is supposed to help all farmers and the country as a whole. U.S. farm policy largely helps the USDA and corporate farming — two special interest groups — at the expense of consumers, taxpayers, small farmers, the economy and the environment.

The Environmental Working Group provides a phenomenal database on (direct) farm subsidies at farm.ewg.org/sites/farmbill2007. It’s particularly fun to search for distant relatives, members of the Mellencamp clan, Scottie Pippen and assorted Rockefellers.

One other factoid: Do you know the agency from which the federal Food Stamp program is administered? Health and Human Services? No, but that’s a good guess. It’s the USDA — something for its bureaucrats to do, as the need for their work was dropping along with the number of farmers.