Another Argument Against Ag Subsidies #
March 1st, 2008 | In Worth Knowing
America’s entrenched some severely perverse incentives into the Farm Bill, Jack Hedin, a Minnesota farmer, details one that I’d not known about.
I’ve discovered that typically, a farmer who grows the forbidden fruits and vegetables on corn acreage not only has to give up his subsidy for the year on that acreage, he is also penalized the market value of the illicit crop, and runs the risk that those acres will be permanently ineligible for any subsidies in the future. (The penalties apply only to fruits and vegetables — if the farmer decides to grow another commodity crop, or even nothing at all, there’s no problem.)