When he owns land that at some point in time was actually farmed. Whether the land is farmed today or not, our beneficent federal government - you and me - the owner receives a federal farm subsidy. It could be small; an owner of an 18-acre lot in El Campo, Texas, is paid $1,300 annually in subsidies. It could be large; a Houston surgeon was paid $490,709 since 1996. Since 2000, we, through our wonderful leaders and employees, have paid out $1.3 billion in farm subsidies to people who do not farm.
Although someone receives a subsidy for a specific crop, he does not have to grow the crop. In fact, he does not have to grow anything; he'll still get his subsidy check. These subsidy checks in 2005 were $25 billion; that's half again as much as we paid to people on welfare.
Subsidies were designed to protect farmers when prices were abnormally low; we still pay them even when prices are high. Farmers planted 600,000 acres of rice in 1981. In 2005 they planted 202,000 acres. Yet, we're subsidizing 600,000 acres.
Subsidies to the non-farmers also hurt the other taxpayers of the county as farm land is appraised at a signifcantly lower amount than non-farmland; e.g., in El Campo, Tx, farm land is assessed at $55 an acre; other land is assessed at $3000 an acre.
Tenant farmers are also getting squeezed out. Owners of the land being farmed by the tenants relaize that they can get the subsidy whether or not the land is farmed. Instead of renting the land at $40 and acre, they can get a subsidy of $125.
Aren't you glad that our representatives in Congress are so generous with our money?
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