time to dig out my own 'tin foil hat' and mutter one word ... BILDERBERGERS
Actually it is the OWNER of midwestern corn farm land that gets the subsidies. Yes in many cases this still means Midwest farm owner / operators. But in a growing number of cases it also means AgriBusinesses like Archer Daniels Midland, or 'uber-rich' property investors that live in Manhattan or So. California that are suckling at the public trough ...
http://www.everydaycitizen.com/2007/...e_rich_co.html
(snip)"The Farm Bill provides subsidies. These subsidy programs tax all of us, working Americans, to award millions to millionaires and provide profitable corporate farms with money that has been used to buy out family farms.
For decades, American taxpayers have provided tens of billions of dollars in federal farm subsidies to some of the largest and wealthiest farm businesses in the nation. But thousands of people who benefited from the subsidy flow were shielded from public view behind layers of partnerships, joint ventures, limited liability corporations, cooperatives, and other business structures that obscured their personal subsidy claims."(snip)
(snip)""While two-thirds of U.S. farmers receive no farm subsidy payments, American taxpayers have been writing farm subsidy checks to wealthy absentee land owners, state prison systems, universities, public corporations, and very large, well-heeled farm business operations without the government so much as asking the beneficiaries if they need our money," says Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group.
"Even if you live smack in the middle of a big city, type in a ZIP code and you'll find farm subsidy recipients. Surely we can come up with a smarter investment portfolio for agriculture and rural America than the list of 1.5 million subsidy beneficiaries we are publishing today," Cook said. "America's farm subsidy system is broken. It's time for change."
Most small farmers do not receive subsidies or payments.
Most farmers and ranchers do not benefit from federal farm programs, as they are written now. Only 30% of farmers and ranchers qualify for subsidies tied to commodities such as rice, corn, wheat and soybeans.
Of this group, 10% (of the 30%) receive nearly 70% of all subsidy payments. Fruit and vegetable growers and livestock producers do not receive any subsidies. 75% percent of farmers and ranchers who want to participate in conservation programs are turned away due to lack of funding.
In the U.S., a comparison between the 1930s and today tells a similar grim tale. Then, 25 percent of the population lived on the nation's 6 million farms; today, 2 million farms are home to 2 percent of the population. Small family farms have been overwhelmingly replaced by large commercial farms, with 8 percent of farms accounting for 72 percent of sales.
Subsidies to the rich have had everything to do with this sea change."(snip)
so the real bottom line here is that Midwest corn farmland is a hot tax-advantaged investment for multi-millionaires like David Letterman, Scotty Pippin and thousands of other uber-rich absentee landlords - with their resulting tax advantaged farm subsidy incomes being paid for by middle class taxpayers.
http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber...-farm-subsidy/
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