Many people living in this country today have not had the experience of growing up in a family that has an agricultural background. Though most of my family is from Southeast Michigan, my great grandfather grew up on a farm on the west side of the state and one of my grandmothers grew up on a farm in Michigan's Thumb. Farming is an all consuming kind of employment. It never ends which is why it's more a lifestyle than job. You never punch out, shut the computer down or ask your co-worker to cover for you. It's arduous work and it involves the whole family. People forget about that. FarmVille makes it seem so cutesy, television glamorizes it. I am the first to admit that I don't think I could hack it for a day. But I don't forget their sacrifices and I don't forget the important work they do, that is vital to mankind's survival. If it was my responsibility to grow or raise my own food, I'd starve plain and simple. As much as I love having a summer vegetable garden, by July I don't know whether to cry or just burn the mess I've made and salt the earth to ensure I don't repeat myself the following summer.
Farms have a place in our society and they always should have a place. And it shouldn't be on the outskirts. Radicals have demonized conventional farming as environmentalism, animal rights and the organic movement have become so trendy that they have spread like swine flu. While I do think organic farming has due merit, conventional farming remains a safe, affordable way for average people to have access to food. The vast majority of Americans cannot afford the harvests of organic farming. And the costs are too much for farmers, they aren't making money hand over fist.
That is why the concept of farm subsidies by our 'grab a little more' government has always been difficult for me to digest. I am the first person to advocate for farmers and how they need support not only from their communities but from the government. Tax breaks yes but subsidies no. Farmers are businessmen, they are business owners just like anyone who has a store on Main Street. To grow their business, to create more economic growth, they need tax breaks. What they don't need is the government paying them to leave their land undeveloped or the government to continue to feed a farm that simply isn't being managed properly. If a farm isn't profitable because its business model is terrible or there is no business model, then the farm shouldn't continue and the government should not throw good money after bad year after year. I think permanent tax breaks should be given to farmers and grants to farmers who have experienced temporary hardship, be it natural or unnatural. But I recognize that my idea is still problematic because it involves more government which clearly helps no one except the government by getting government embedded more in private citizens' lives and businesses. Because in order to evaluate a farm's need, the government would have to create some kind of criteria as to what qualifies a farm as one that has temporary hardship. And as Americans have bore witness to in the past few years, more recently with TARP and the inception of socialized medicine, the people running our country should not be creating any criteria for businessmen, corporations or private citizens. Their criteria is never objective, it's always subjective and they are never looking out for the best interest of taxpayers or people who value their freedom.
Obama plans to do away with farm subsidies, supposedly due to corruption and a high degree of fraud within what has been called the largest corporate welfare program. That's all well and good, I'm all for rooting out costly corruption wherever it may be and I think that calling it the largest corporate welfare program is fairly accurate but what about Wall Street? What about TARP? What about the all of the phony concern from Washington over making sure the financial industry is policed effectively. Obama is not a fan of conventional farming or animal husbandry and most of his supporters mimic his disdain for these agricultural lifestyles rooted in what liberals call 'fly over country' so I do take offense to him singling out this industry and going after it with a meat cleaver while he and the rest of Washington is in bed with the financial industry. Government needs to be concerned with the future success of farming but needs to go about it in a way that encourages the farmer (businessman) to expand his business so he can increase profits as well as yields. With food borne illnesses and crop contamination rampant in today's global agricultural society and no way for the United States to hold other countries to our levels of sanitation, we must grow more of our food internally (within this country) and locally so that the quality can be monitored and managed effectively.
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