Not sure what wild horses have to do with anything.
I was referring to these kinds of agricultural subsidies:
The farm bill is the unwieldy, recondite piece of legislation that defines how America grows and eats its food.... But $60 billion has also been paid out to farmers in the form of agricultural subsidies, subsidies which have helped hook the U.S. on fattening, processed food.
The problem with the farm bill isn't the disbursement of subsidies per se; it's that the bulk of payments are forked over to growers of a few huge commodity crops — mostly corn, wheat, soybeans — in a handful of Midwestern congressional districts. (You can guess the reasons for this, I'm sure — they involve the outsized political influence of the Big Agriculture lobby, venal congressmen trying to fill campaign coffers, and the indifference of the rest of the legislature.) Additionally, while most cattle ranching isn't highly subsidized itself, the beef industry is still among the primary beneficiaries of government largess, as low crop prices allow ranchers to feed their livestock cheap grain and so keep their own costs down. A subsidy for corn growers, therefore, serves as a de facto subsidy to the beef industry.
Another benefit to taxpayers for test-tube beef: free of taxpayer subsidy
Matt
I was referring to these kinds of agricultural subsidies:
The farm bill is the unwieldy, recondite piece of legislation that defines how America grows and eats its food.... But $60 billion has also been paid out to farmers in the form of agricultural subsidies, subsidies which have helped hook the U.S. on fattening, processed food.
The problem with the farm bill isn't the disbursement of subsidies per se; it's that the bulk of payments are forked over to growers of a few huge commodity crops — mostly corn, wheat, soybeans — in a handful of Midwestern congressional districts. (You can guess the reasons for this, I'm sure — they involve the outsized political influence of the Big Agriculture lobby, venal congressmen trying to fill campaign coffers, and the indifference of the rest of the legislature.) Additionally, while most cattle ranching isn't highly subsidized itself, the beef industry is still among the primary beneficiaries of government largess, as low crop prices allow ranchers to feed their livestock cheap grain and so keep their own costs down. A subsidy for corn growers, therefore, serves as a de facto subsidy to the beef industry.
Another benefit to taxpayers for test-tube beef: free of taxpayer subsidy
Matt
