government farming

[Scott Edward Dudek]

I am at a loss for words as to how many young farmers beleive govt. farm programs help.  Govt. meddling in our markets is what causes the roller coasters.  As we see these all time high commodities we also have many high inputs.  Yes many are far better off today then 8 or 10 years ago but will they be in 2 or 3 years?  As a youngster I grew up in agriculture and can not imagine any older farmer bragging about taking advantage of ldp or set aside payments.  In fact I specifically remember several who were bought out in the dairy buyout and were very somber as if they lost a family member.  I see many younger farmers online blogging about keeping or adding more govt. farm programs.  I as a beginning farmer myself am struggling with keeping the govt. out of my business.  The govt. takeover of crop insurance is a prime example as I could not imagine my dad going up to strangers on the street and robbing them.  The crop insurance currently is doing just that as they keep rates artificially low and subsidize payments with taxpayer dollars(or chineese loans).  We could be looking at some higher than normal claims this year as drought sets in and I encourage everyone to think about what we are doing.  If we as a group continue to pander congress for aid, what happens when we really need it.

[Peter Rothwell]

Its great to see thoughts like that. It seems that our government here in Australia is hell bent on making it harder for farmers. They have opened up nearly all trade barriers, dismantled the single desk, implemented the natural vegetation act (which means if you have native regrowth on your place you cant farm it, no compensation at all, they are basically stealing our land) and now put in place a carbon tax. While I support free trade it seems that our government has been going it alone on the world stage. We have to compete with the US and Europe in world markets with no government assistance. The one time we did get some government help was through a drought which lasted the better part of a decade and that help equated to around 1.5 billion dollars industry wide. The city folk over here complained like nothing else saying that we dont deserve handouts, yet our manufactoring industry receives aroung 11 billion dollars every year! Last year we received around US440c/bu for our wheat, no price protection. We cant get any type of insurance like you are able to over there. Everyone keeps talking about a level playing field, I dream about it, but thats all it will ever be, a dream. 

[Pete Kruse]

Being that I am one of the "younger" generations that you are speaking of (29). I am constantly amazed at the number of people who stand on their soapbox and complain about the goverment interferring in there life but are the same people who are first in line for handouts when something bad happens. As for your reference to crop insurance if it wasn't for the goverment subisidizing it the cost would be out of the range for most all of the people and the "family farms" would go bankrupt the first time a disaster hit their operation. I guess if you can survive with out the help that programs like crop insurace or first time farmer loans provides then more power to you.

[Shaun Hamlin]

Assuming that my generation(I am 21) is who you are referring to..and yeah most of my buddies do not quite understand that what seems like a freeby now typically never turns up to be a freeby in the future. The only government programs I am really supportive of is research programs for new products and equipment as innovation will be key in the next 30 years. For the most part though man I agree and it saddens me to see friends getting the gov't involved in their operations so early. I was always told the borrower is slave to the lender. That's just the way the cookie crumbles I guess. Good post man. Touchy things like that should be spoke of more often