Obscene Farm Subsidies in U.S.

The farm subsidy program, a "sacred cow" of American politics, has become a tool for the wealthy to loot the U.S Treasury even more than they already do.

Farms have become fewer in number, but much larger in size. Generally, you get a farm subsidy depending on the size of the farm. Agri-business interests that own huge farmlands are reaping millions of dollars in farm subsidies. AKA our tax dollars.

And the system has gotten so perverted that government payments are made to lands that are lying unplanted.

No one - Democrat or Republican - has the political power, or courage, to take on and reform the farm subsides and farm lobby. Our government is simply totally captive to special interests. Indeed, our elected officials have beCOME the special interests.

An image of a very old, creaky, rusted, bloated government/empire teetering on the edge of collapse comes to my mind, but so many are so busy praying to God or Greed they don't recognize reality.

Robert Reich talks about it.

Bill Moyers knows about it.

"[In 1996] the Republican controlled Congress -- critical of what it termed 'big government' -- wanted to wean farmers off subsidies and to encourage them to grow whatever the market demanded. But to get votes, the reformers had to make trade-offs with farm state congressional Democrats and Republicans bent on maintaining payments to their farmers. The result was a classic Washington compromise: one kind of subsidy was ended but, in exchange, a new subsidy was created, one that paid farmers not for the crops they grew but for the land they owned. That compromise now costs taxpayers billions."

Watch the Bill Moyers video on it. This issue is emblematic of the rot that permeates the government of the United States of America. The farm lobby, the pharmaceutical lobby, the oil lobby, the banking lobby, and more....it's just SOLD to the highest bidder.

And here's a nice headline...

Giant Food & Biotech Corporations Make Billions in Profit from Growing Global Food Crisis

Multinationals Make Billions In Profit Out of Growing Global Food Crisis
Speculators blamed for driving up price of basic foods as 100 million face severe hunger.

Check this one out, at the Organic Consumers Organization website.

You just knew that somewhere, some megacorps would be making a killing off of this crisis. Literally. And so agri-business reaps millions in farm subsidies while intentionally keeping many fields fallow, making food even more scarce and driving the prices up further.

I'm sure that our elected representatives are looking out for us.

Yawn. I think I'll take another nap.