This week a massive $300 Billion Farm Bill made its way through Congress and onto the Presidents desk for his inevitable veto.  On Tuesday Sen. John McCain wrote an op-ed describing his opposition to this bill.  To be honest I was a little surprised at this sensible position coming from the Senator from Arizona.  This bill amounted to massive farm subsidizes (paying farmers not to grow food) which causes artificial supply and demand pressures on the overall food market.  Among other things this causes higher food prices (i.e. corn thanks to ethanol subsides) and an inflexible market where farmers are more concerned with their government checks than the ever changing demands of the current food market.

Sen. McCain correctly point these problems out within this article:

   “When agricultural commodity prices and exports have reached record highs, we no longer need government-grown farms and mammoth government bureaucracies. As grocery bills soar, food banks go bare and food rationing occurs on a global scale, we must challenge the wisdom of this bill. We must question policies that divert more than 25 percent of corn out of the food supply and into subsidized ethanol production. We must question a supply-control sugar program that costs Americans $2 billion annually in higher sugar prices.”

However this golden ray of common sense quickly evaporates as the article continued.  McCain effortlessly pivots to his real problem with farm subsidies, those pesky rich people.

“The majority of subsidies in this proposal go to large commercial farms that average $200,000 in annual income and $2 million in net worth, and the bill allows a single farmer to earn more than $1 million before cutting subsidies. How can we credibly extend this largesse to this constituency? If I am elected president, I will seek an end to all farm subsidies and tariffs that are not based on clear need.”

“They should not have it because they can afford it,” is essentially his point.  Farm subsidies are bad because they are bad for the market, not because money goes to rich people.  Those “large commercial farmers” are the ones that are able to produce enough food to feed this country and most of the world.  It is “Big Agriculture” that provides millions of jobs in farming communities around the country.  Now these companies are short sighted and a bit lazy for accepting this money, but the greater burden of accountability are on those who are issuing the checks and controlling food production.

This smacks of the same “rich vs. not as rich” propaganda we see coming from our liberal and populist brethren both Republican and Democrat.  Subsides are bad for small farms, big farms, and my grandmother’s tomato garden.  The President, Congress, State Governments, and Local Governments should be more concerned about finding way to be less obtrusive and allow the market to generate additional oppotrutnies for wealth for everyone, rather than controlling the production of wealth to those whom they think should have it.

WE ALL NEED TO THINK ECONOMICALLY

Peace be with you,

Bishop Joe