City Farmers

Farm aid


How many of you have seen or heard of Willie Nelson's concerts to raise money for the farmers.

Real farmers, that is, and his is a noble cause.

But,

Did you know our government is paying big bucks to wealthy individuals who happen to own rural land somewhere, as long as they agree to federal rules about how - and even whether- they cultivate their spread.

Years of pocketing lots of money ­- your money. Amazing as it sounds, your tax dollars have been going to rich guys like these in the form of farm subsidies.

And what about these farmers? Check out who receives aid and who gives aid and who actually farms:

Let's name a few you might recognize.

Ted Turner, Sam Donaldson, David Rockefeller, and the late Ken Lay.


From 1995 to 2005, Lay, the now­ deceased Enron CEO, got $23,326 for conservation land in Missouri.

Business-mogul Turner raked in $590,823 for farms in Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana and Florida.

Donaldson supplemented his earnings as a broadcast journalist with $88,308 for a livestock ranch in New Mex­ico.

Rockefeller, a financier and philanthropist, got $553,782 for two farms in New York.

Those are just a few. It's worse than you think. According to a study by The Washington Post, since 2000 the government has paid people around the country $1.3 billion a year not to farm.

That equates to 40 million acres annually-"the equivalent of making every farm in Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio idle," according to Brian Riedl, a senior budget analyst at the Heritage Foundation.

In 2005 alone, 75 percent of the $20 billion in farm subsidies was paid to farmers for cultivating select crops like corn and soybeans.

Among those soaking up the subsidies are well-to-do operators of large industrial farms.

Meanwhile, the small, struggling farmer who may actually need assistance is getting squeezed out of business by the big boys lined up at the public trough.

It all began during the Great Depression, when FDR got Congress to pass laws designed to help cash­strapped farmers.

The government introduced price supports for vari­ous crops, and in periods when the crop yield outpaced market demand, the feds agreed to buy the excess supply.

These and other subsidies continued to grow until, in the 1970s, the government also started paying farmers to leave some of their land fallow.

Today the full farm lobby does all it can to hang on to these subsidies, even though most of that assistance goes to large and profitable farm business.

To be sure, federal money is helping keep the owners of small farms afloat.

But when over 70 percent of the subsidies go to the top 10 percent of producers, you know politics is at play.

On the farm subsidy website of the Environmental Working Group, you'll see some baffling zip codes like 90210.

That's Beverly Hills, which has 136 subsidized farmers listed!

In Washington, D.C., the site identifies 62 farmers getting federal money and 80 on the Lower Side of Manhattan.

There were a lot of struggling farmers where I was raised. I guess they didn't understand the golden rule: Those who have the Gold, rule!!

I would love to see if any of these so called farmers could jump on a tractor with a plow in tow, actually know how to start it and be able to plow straight!!


Is that Ted Turner? I think not!!!

I guess the old saying "What's right is right" has been replaced by "If it's there, take it, it's yours!!"

Those are my rants and raves for today. Hope to see you on the flip flop!!