SPEAKOUT: Farm Bill a worthy investment

Most Americans know what their paycheck will be from month to month.

Imagine not knowing what your entire annual earnings will be until the end of the year. Imagine not knowing what price you will be able to sell your product for or if a summer hailstorm will wipe out your entire year's worth of work in the blink of an eye. That is the reality American farmers accept in order to provide consumers the safest, most wholesome and affordable food supply in the world.

The recent syndicated column by Deroy Murdock, "The fat of the land" (April 1), is a gross oversimplification of the markets and programs affecting the bottom line of the American farmer. Opponents like Murdock blame everything from the biofuels market and farm payments, to high commodity prices for the increased cost of food and fuel. This assessment lacks an honest representation of the facts. The truth is that many factors, including a weak dollar and historically high fossil-fuel energy costs are collectively contributing to increased uncertainty and volatility for the American farmer and the American consumer.

The U.S. agricultural programs implemented through the Farm Bill are one way to calm market volatility and uncertainty while ensuring a safe and stable food supply. The Farm Bill strives to provide assistance to farmers when prices fluctuate and drop. It's designed to act like insurance for farmers and consumers. Like any insurance policy, you don't simply drop it because you cannot predict and do not know when you might need it in the future.

Murdock decries a $286 billion entitlement to farmers. In truth, commodity assistance makes up only about 12 percent of the entire program with the balance, or nearly $252 billion, going to nutrition, food assistance and conservation programs. In fact, because many commodity prices are currently high, and expected to remain so, it is predicted that direct farm assistance will decrease an estimated $24.8 billion this year.

Aside from the Farm Bill, the ethanol and renewable energy market is criticized as the primary cause of high commodity and food prices at the checkout lines. Again, this is an oversimplification that shows a general ignorance of farm and food economics. Currently, speculative investors are moving money into commodity markets because of the stock market slowdown and the low value of the U.S. dollar. The result is artificially high commodity prices. In addition, record-high crude oil prices have driven up production, transportation and processing costs, which must be passed down to the consumers. Couple this with increased global demand for U.S. commodities and you have a recipe for a volatile commodity market and increased food costs.

Looking at the big picture, ethanol and other biofuels are actually providing some relief to consumers. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that because of biofuel output, gas prices are at least 15 percent lower than they would be otherwise. Looking forward, the overall gains to the economy from ethanol will more than offset any incremental food price increases associated with the production of biofuels.

Meanwhile, farmers have to contend with aggregate input costs rising as much as 50 percent. In the past five years fuel prices have jumped 105 percent and fertilizer has risen 89 percent. Since 2006 the price of herbicide has increased 79 percent. As an agricultural producer, the price you receive for the commodities you produce are based on demand for that product and not on the costs associated with producing those commodities. The American farmers and ranchers are left with no alternative but to absorb these substantially higher input costs.

To say that the Farm Bill is unnecessary and redundant is to say that markets are stable, the economy is on even ground and food security for the United States is not important. The Farm Bill is an investment in a safe and secure, high-quality and abundant food supply. That's a cause all Americans should support.

Alan Foutz is the president of the Colorado Farm Bureau. He is a resident of Akron.

So why don't the rest of us get price supports ? I've lived in Nebraska and here for a lot of my life, including Akron, and watch farmers drive to town in new 4 wheel drives to the bar that never seen the field, yet are write offs as farm equipment. I was recently in Nebraska, went to a members only bar restaurant to eat, and 15 new pickups out in the lot and farmers and ranchers in there complaining. I was tending bar and a rancher came in, complaining, I commented on his new pickup, trades every 2 years, what does wife drive? Chrysler new yorker, how old is house? built new one five years before. I told him I wasn't paid enough to listen to his crybaby antics, go somewhere else to complain. Millionaire farmers getting subsides, rice subsides being paid on land that hasn't seen the crop in ten years, Sam Donaldson, newscaster, paid subsides, rich pro basketball player, gets them. You cut the waste and maybe I will listen to your complaints, until then, you don't have a leg to stand on, as they say.

Not only do we know what our monthly paycheck will look like, we also know what our monthly and annual tax bills will look like. BIG AGRA has been on the welfare dole far too long, and this latest ethanol fandango that broke out into a food fight is a good example. We pay the taxes to support non-economic and inefficient efforts and we get to reap the benefits of your resulting higher prices. The farm crowd gets to screw America twice; coming and going.

Alan, the next time you write a letter, be careful not to be standing in a deep pile of bull hasunga. America is on to you...and the hasunga is stuck onto your boots.

Go to NPR and see where the big money from this traditionally bi-partisan bill is going this time, thanks to Democratic special interests. 70% of family farmers will get NOTHING. 19 districts, made up of huge family land trusts, like the King Ranch in Texas, will receive the lion's share of this bastardized subsidy program. Bush is threatening to veto, under pressure from strange bedfellows- advocates of the poor, conservationists, and fiscal conservatives have joined together to fight this. Some concessions are being made this week, allotting a little more to food stamps, but this is mainly a handout to the VERY RICH by their friends in Congress. I don't understand why a Farm Bureau rep. would back this- but from what he wrote, it seems he doesn't have the facts on this bill, and is assuming that it is more like what it has been in the past, not that I agreed with it, then, either, but I can see why he would have, being at the trough. But the trough isn't FOR him this time...Surprise!

Farm Bill a worthy investment

To say that the Farm Bill is unnecessary and redundant is to say that markets are stable, the economy is on even ground and food security for the United States is not important. The Farm Bill is an investment in a safe and secure, high-quality and abundant food supply. That's a cause all Americans should support.

All markets are, to some extent, unstable. The economy is always on shaky ground in one aspect or another. What is the proper government role in maintaining the nebulous goal of food security ?

Justification of taxpayer-supported agri-welfare is what I got out of this Speak Out. The main question is, what is the taxpayers' return on investment? Are there no private, non-governmental avenues to reduce farmers' risk? Futures markets and private crop insurance come to mind. Any business venture entails risk. Lobbying for and receiving government subsidies to reduce private business risk always increases the ultimate cost to consumers and taxpayers.

For the $286 billion of taxpayer money spent on this Farm Bill, what will taxpayers receive in return? $286 billion is roughly $1000 paid by every US citizen; will every US citizen get at least $1000 reduction in food prices? I suspect not.

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