Why does the government subsidize these specific crops?

Corn is left over subsidies when they were thinking they would make bio diesel in the 70’s. Mostly it was back scratches to get legislation passed quid pro quo in congress. You vote for my bill and I will vote for subsidies for a crop that grows well in your district.
The idea was to secure that farmers will grow crops and maintain food security but with the current dysfunction in congress, and the emergence of corporate farms killing smaller family farms it is really just a joke now.

Woo hoo! I want to plant a beer crop!

I think the supports had good intentions at their inception. Beer was probably to cut down on imports and insure a domestic supply duing times of war. Sunflower oil and peanuts were probably started to support desirable domestic crops that were unfashionable/fledgeling. The rest were supported to insure a reliable domestic supply of staple foods.

Once started, however, all have become government pork barrels.

Much of the history of farm subsidies comes from a desire for price stabilization. When prices fluctuated wildly from year to year, season to season, it made planning difficult for consumers like large baking and food processing companies. And people want their Cheerios and Corn Flakes to have stable prices. It was also part of WWI food protection needs and responses to the Dust Bowl.

On top of that, add in both pork barrel provisions and policy shifts such as Earl Butz wanting large farms to proliferate, and you have a mess of subsidies and corporate welfare.

First off I do not trust much of anything Dr. Mercola presents on his website. Most of his articles are designed to elicit a reaction and then focus on his “natural” health remedies and then sell you something.

The US Farm Bill is a hotly contested piece of legislation that is loaded with Pork to help states and regions deal with pricing issues and environmental issues that affect crop production and a farmers ability to make a decent living.

The aspect of subsidies that blogs and media like to spin as evil and Nefarious is simply that farmers get money because the prices for corn as an example needs to be low so companies like Exon can make their biofuels cheaply and the Government covers the cost difference with these subsidies. The true controversy is how much is enough as some farmers get near a million dollars and many getting $100,000 to keep prices artificially low all at the taxpayers expense.

Generally I dislike any subsidies but if you are going to rant against one, it is necessary to understand both the purpose and the effect. Most of these are to reduce the price fluctuations as has been stated above. A draught such as we have this year can drive prices way way up. A bad year can also affect what gets planted the next year driving shortages and surpluses in other crops.

Corn is a special case and the subsidies are not intended to drive everyone to a fast food joint. This year we will use about half the entire corn crop for the ethanol in our gas tank. A shortage of corn could easily turn into a shortage of gasoline since 10% is required to be ethanol. It is easy to say get rid of the subsidies but it would be wise to know what will happen if we do. I remember the gas lines of the 70’s and the disruptions they caused. It would be foolish create similar problems out of hasty actions.

@Cruiser I wondered if he was a crackpot or not. For one thing, there are no subsidies for beef, and beer isn’t even addressed by the USDA. The USDA has some promotional programs for beef, and runs the grading and inspection program for beef, but I have no idea where the beer comes from. Most of the subsidies are for crops and provide stability and security for the producers and the users. Take corn for example, it’s harvested in the Fall. If the farmers all had to sell at once to payoff their bills, it would raise havoc with the prices and supplies. So the loan program allows farmers to get so much a bushel for their corn, hold it in storage, and pay their bills. The farmer then has the option of letting the corn go to the government if the prices stay low, or they can pay the loan and sell the corn for market price if prices go up. That’s nice win win program. The farmer’s get cash, the user’s get steady supplies. If you want to see why HFCS is in demand look at the sugar tariffs, which keep the price of sugar up, mainly to punish Cuba. Talk about logic.

@Adirondackwannabe Standby… I read several articles on top government subsidized foods. Beef, although not a crop? Was #7 on many, many lists. Cattle ranchers most certainly get subsidies.

EDIT: Here is a breakdown. A certain percentage around ⅔, according to this of subsidies goes to farmer crops used for feeding livestock. Not people… That’s $50 billion extra for human sustenance crops. So clearly that directly supports beef, no?

My point remains this: there are no subsidies for fruit, vegetables, nuts. Why not?

@GloPro Depends on what they consider subsidies. Grazing on public land? Okay, but direct payments to farmers? Not beef.

Subsidizing livestock crops certainly keeps the livestock farmer’s costs down. A very, very nice secondary and intentional trickle down.

You can’t call that a subsidy of beef farmers.

@GloPro The demand for beef which then include the feed that feed the cattle (corn) and the demand for low cost gasoline which includes (corn) is what demands the most attention from the Government. Farmers would so much rather grow other foods that would be more profitable to them and if they were allowed to do so there would be no low cost corn to feed the beef or provide ethanol for gas blends. That would leave John Q Consumer with much higher priced gas and beef and these ‘voters’ would be kinda pissed off. So…the Government provides these subsidies to farmers to incentivize these farmers to grow grains at lower margins or even a loss to support these other needs is why we pay farmers these payouts to offset the losses they are otherwise enduring for growing the grains we/industry needs to provide the low cost foods/products our country and the world demands.

@Cruiser Yeah, when I was an ag lender I discouraged my farmers from growing corn. It’s fing expensive to grow and it’s hell on the soil. Plus it’s an environmental nightmare, the fertilizer is made with messy crap, it takes a lot of time to plant. But when the ethanol started taking off and corn prices went up and the food riots followed, guess what? The government caved.

@Adirondackwannabe And people complain their votes do not count…sure do when cheap beef and gasoline are involved.

@Cruiser In Mexico, it was tortillas. The price jumped big and the people got pissed.

Hmmm, that might be why they help fund beer… Can you imagine a bunch of pissed of sober people that can’t afford beer?