So, the Farm Bill........

[hedgehog]

as I understand it, Republicans from the South are fighting with Republicans from the Midwest over a Farm Bill which cuts payments to well off white farmers.........


SWEET!

[ag_dude]

1. Saying the farm bill goes to "well off white farmers" is about as ignorant as...

...the bigots that say that welfare goes to "drug addicted blacks."

Are there well off white farmers that get subsidies from the farm bill? Yes.

Claiming that's what the farm bill is for indicates a complete and total lack of understanding of what that money does.

[handmade34]

2. I expect the poster simplified it...

but it remains a truth that the farm bill does not do enough to support good sustainable agriculture and people who depend on it

An editorial today says:
"The latest edition of the federal farm bill, a 1,000-page tome that Congress produces every five years, continues an unbroken string of laws that would pour taxpayers’ money into a system that helps big farms get bigger, gluts the market with starches, sweeteners and fats — adding significantly to the girth of the average American — and does little to encourage cultivation or consumption of foods that are better for you, in ways that are better for the Earth..."

http://www.ewg.org/agmag/2012/06/policy-plate-new-farm-bill-version-not-much-improvement/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AgMag+%28Environmental+Working+Group+AgMag%29

http://documents.foodandwaterwatch.org/doc/FarmBill101Report.pdf

[ag_dude]

3. Agreed.

Not sure what that point has to do with what I said though.

I'm calling out the bigotry that seems to go unchecked.

[DCBob]

4. "pour taxpayers’ money into a system that helps big farms get bigger"

I have no proof but most likely those are "well-off white farmers".

[ag_dude]

5. Yeah, that's all it does.

Bigots will be bigots.

[pscot]

9. Calling people bigots because they disagree with you

on a matter of economics isn't going to win many arguments. It's more like you're trying to shut down the conversation because you don't want to hear it. THe general impression is that Ag programs are bloated, misguided and broadly abused. Feel free to tell why that's wrong, but name-calling won't get it..

[handmade34]

7. some info

http://colorlines.com/archives/2009/01/farm_subsidies_overwhelmingly_support_white_farmers.html

"Farm Subsidies Overwhelmingly Support White Farmers"

"...The U.S. government spends billions each year subsidizing farm operations. Yet Black farmers receive only one-third to one-sixth of the benefits that other farmers receive, according to the Environmental Working Group, a Washington D.C.-based research organization that has partnered with the National Black Farmers Association on several reports.

Looking at farmers of color more broadly, the Southern Rural Development Initiative found that less than 1 percent of agriculture subsidy payments between 2001 and 2003 went to Blacks, Native Americans and Asian Americans. (Because the available data comes from the Census Bureau, whose definition of “nonwhite” excludes many Latinos, the researchers were unable to include Latino farmers within its people of color analysis.) Even in counties where people of color are the majority, researchers estimate that at a minimum, almost 95 percent of agriculture subsidies “are going to farms with white operators...”

[handmade34]

6. the point...

is... while only a very minute amount of welfare money goes to "drug addicted blacks" (therefore much bigotry in statements of that ilk) large amounts of money in the farm bill goes to "well off white farmers"

...don't think the post was bigoted

[JNelson6563]

8. Wait...what about smaller government?

Republicans don't want government to help anyone but them, whatever it is they do.

Julie