Question:
The Agricultural industry has portrayed the image of the "poor farmer" for many years. Yet I personally know a few in the business who are quite wealthy. Could this be considered corporate welfare at its finest???

Should the Federal Government get out of the farming business and let the free markets run their course??? Or should the government continue the practice of subsidizing the "poor farmers"???

Choices:
The government should subsidize farming
Farmers should operate with the free market like any other industry
Don't know

 

The farmers in Kansas have worked their whole life to own what they have. Now they are losing it all. The crops the last few years have deemed many of them bankrupt.
This year alone the crops around my area brought in the lowest yeild in years. The corn crop that usually stands at the least six feet tall is barely three feet and crisp brown.
The governor is thinking of declaring a state disaster so the farmers themselves will be able to feed their families.
Yes, there are some wealthy farmers, but some of that money has been inherited and well, maybe they saved some when the crops were good.
So before you go getting on the farmers about 'Welfare' at it's finest, check out which states you speaking of because this state is in disaster from drought.

What did those farmers grow and did they have any specific contracts that would guarantee a certain amount of wealth? Did they supplement their income with livestock? How wealthy would your farmers be if they had five years of bad harvest?
There are not too many occupations that are utterly and completely at the mercy of mother nature.
How many insurance companies out there offer "crop insurance"? I'd be surprised if any of them did.

I don't want government subsidizing farmers, but I would like to see an element of protection for our sole source of nourishment. As long as we maintain a certain 'quota" of agricultural land per capita, we should be fine.

Farming, like software design, IS a choice. When it hits right, it's a good career. But there are going to be lean years as well. One can only hope the good years outweigh the bad ones.

Mr(hoe hoe hoe)Sensitive

The area I live, much of the wealth has been accumulated and passed along to the next generation of farmers. Some are involved with livestock . The farmers I know have learned to play the game quite well. Many know how to leverage their crop with the commodies & futures markets. Accumulate more land when it becomes available, buy modern equipment as they expand or replace old equipment. And modern farm equipment is not cheap either. And they drive fairly new cars and trucks as well. And then I see in a local newspaper how much farmers in my home county get from the government in subsidies.
And many of these farming operations are multi-million dollar corporations.

Puppy-I can see you are somewhat disturbed by my question. Obviously the farming scene where you are located is of a different nature from what I see in my home area. When I post my question, I judge from my observations & from what I know in my area and other places I travel.

MrSensitive-You do bring up some good points about the element of protection where Mother Nature is concerned. So the real question might very well be is just how much protection & help does the farming industry need and what kind of help should the farmers get??? It has often amazed me over the years to hear of low grain prices yet see farms continually expand, in acreage and expensive equipment.

Actually what I see is this. I don't see the small 50-100 acre farm in my area any more. That has become a thing of the past. The farmers I know have, over the years expanded to hundreds, even thousands of acres.

[This message was edited by Lighteningrodd on 08-08-02 at 04:13 AM.]

If I sounded somewhat defensive, it's because the crops here have been so bad the past few years and the farmers have suffered great loss.
I think that Mr. S has a point when he says that farming is controlled by Mother Nature. And she has not been kind to Kansas the past few years. I apologize if I was harsh, it's just that all my neighbors are farmers and I see everyday what they are going through.
During wheat harvest this year most of the farmers couldn't even afford to hire help. They did all the work themselves. And if you know anything about harvest season, it has to be done in a certain amount of time to receive a decent yield, which they didn't get anyway.
What is it that they farm where you are?

In my part of the country corn and soybeans are very common. Winter wheat is grown here quite a bit too. I have seen a few farmers experiment with milo and canola but these 2 crops really haven't had a big impact. And to help in the rotation, some years fields are planted in clover. They cut it to bale hay to feed the cattle in the winter months. Back in my high school days (many years ago!!!) I worked quite a bit helping farmers putting up their hay bales. Now days most farmers go with the big giant round bales.

Another factor that has helped some land owners in my home area is oil production. Some have their land leased for oil production and have received royalty payments. That is providing the landowner owns the mineral rights to his property.