More than $5 billion in direct payments are made each year to growers of corn, wheat, rice, cotton and a few other crops based on past production, regardless of market conditions or even whether the crops are still grown. The payments are heavily weighted to the biggest producers, with the top 10 percent getting two-thirds of the subsidies…. The payments will continue to go out automatically under a new $300 billion farm bill Congress has in the works, despite an 80 percent rise in grain prices over the past three years. (San Francisco Chronicle, Wednesday)
The corporate state in action.
FEE Timely Classic
The Origin of American Farm Subsidies (pdf) by Burton Folsom, Jr.