Farm Bill Ain't for Ma and Pa

Ever since the remote possibility murmured on the lips of politicians in Washington, D.C., that the new farm bill might pass Congress and president with a cut in handouts to those who pass as farmers in this country, letters have shown up in papers around the country from persons saying they are small farmers who say they will perish and the nation will starve if Uncle Samuel fails to give them their annual checks from the Treasury.

Anyone who pays attention to farm bills knows that those slavering for the federal dough are mainly big international corporations--Big Ag--and that most of the crops for which subsidies get paid don’t put grub on the table here but in China and India or don’t put food in anybody’s mouths: Few sup on cotton and tobacco.

As for those who pay the subsidies, most of us live in towns and cities. And most of us, because American schools rarely educate anyone about who is filching pence from one’s pockets, think the “farmers” are ma, pa, Dick and Jane with Bossy the moo cow. It’s like thinking the village blacksmith is still pounding his anvil under the spreading chestnut tree.

Politicians, however, act as if the majority of their voters are ma and pa and Dick and Jane--or at least excuse their votes by acting so, when in fact it’s Cargill, General Foods and the like, many with names no urbanite has ever heard of, that will rake in the cash that allows them to out-compete and kill off the small farmers. Ma and Pa ain’t got swarms of lobbyists infesting the capital. Big Ag does, and it pays off, big time.