Reforming the Farm Bill

Today in congress debate ensued over the Farm Bill. The Bill aimed to reduce the enormous amount of subsidies that the large farming corporations are currently receiving. They want to instead only give subsidies to the smaller farms in amounts of no more than $5,000.

By doing this they believe that the imbalance between large and small scale farmers will be remedied.

However, important issues regarding this bill were brought up in congress that really shook the ground, causing the Bill to fall short by only 6 votes.

Research says that 200 years ago 86% of Americans were farmers as compared to less than 4% today. With population growing like it has, one would think that there would be more, right? The answer to that question lies in how apparently non-profitable and uneconomical it is to actually be a farmer. Which is why the subsidies exist in the first place.
Part of the issue is that the large farms all produce the same stuff: corn, rice, soy, and grain and feed for cattle and pig. These farms then produce more, and compete with each other, driving the prices down. Seems like a good thing? These cheap prices mean that the farmers make little to nothing on their products, and then NEED the subsidy to make up for it. Smaller farms can't compete with that, they simply cannot offer at the same prices because the volume of production is so vastly different.

So now we have a market flooded with products made from these cheap, highly subsidized, crops. High fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated fats made from soybeans... these ingredients can make for very cheap, prepackaged, unhealthy snacks and foods. Farmers who produce healthy fruits and vegetables are not subsidized as heavily and so the gap between healthy and unhealthy foods continues to grow. Consumers of lower income are offered little choice but to stock up and buy the less nutritious foods.

If 2/3 of Americans are overweight or obese, is it not clear that we have plenty of food? Health problems ensue from over consuming the WRONG foods.

But will this Bill really fix that?

Ideally, the subsidy cuts will cause the large farms to produce less (because the only reason they over produce is to get the subsidy...). Less production means higher demand which means higher prices. These higher prices will then be competing with the higher prices that the smaller farms have to charge. Eventually a carton of beautifully ripe strawberries will be the same as a box of Twinkies and all of America will be fit and healthy. In an ideal World.

In actuality, companies that produce the artificially sweetened, fatty, preservative filled foods will simply begin to import their high fructose corn syrup and soybean made hydrogenated fat from other countries that will seize the opportunity. Perhaps nothing would change except for the extinction of all farms in America since the government would no longer be supporting them (after all, $5,000 is really such a small number). A carton of fresh, organic strawberries will still cost $6 dollars and those delicious Twinkies will still cost me only $3.

-Lauren Bowers, Political Analyst, The Bellringer