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URGENT Need To Close The Corporate Farm Subsidy Loophole
The deadline for sending to the USDA your comments on the farm payment limitation rule is the close of business today Monday, April 6, 2009.
Add huge multi-millionaire corporate farm businesses to the growing list of industries– banking institutions, auto manufacturing companies, drug makers and insurance companies, that are daily exploiting Americans.
Who among us regular folk does not want to stop corporate welfare? You can join the effort to close the loophole for millionaire corporate welfare to agri-businesses where more of our really big taxpayer bucks are given to the big time farm businesses that are putting small family owned farms out of business.
Time is of the essence. Sign the petition or send a message to Dan McGlynn, Acting Deputy Director in charge of this matter at dan.mcglynn@wdc.usda.gov
President Obama in his recent speech to both houses of the federal legislature called for ending “direct payments to large agribusinesses that don’t need them.” In the president’s 2010 budget he has proposed phasing out direct payments in an attempt to save about $1 billion over the next ten years; this is seen as an indication of presidential advocacy on behalf of farm families rights to have access to and fully participate in fair market conditions
The farm Bill of 2008 provides subsidies. The money, millions of dollars, is awarded to millionaires. The subsidies, our tax dollars provide profitable corporate farms with cash that has been used to buy out family farms.
For years billions of dollars have been paid to the largest and richest farm businesses in the country.
The identities of those who have benefited from the receipt of this federal money have been obscured by way of clever business structures to hide their personal claims to the federal money derived from taxpayers.
Writer Lola Wheeler, in a July 2007 article wrote about the then proposed Farm Bill stating:
“Eligibility for farm subsidies is determined not by income or poverty standards but by the crop that is grown.
Growers of corn, wheat, cotton, soybeans, and rice receive more than 90 percent of all farm subsidies, while growers of most of the 400 other domestic crops are completely shut out of farm subsidy programs. While the farm bill is a big bonanza for large producers of favored crops such as corn, soybeans, and cotton, small family farms are shortchanged. It is no exaggeration to say the new farm bill gives away the farm.
Further skewing these awards, the amounts of subsidies increase as a farmer plants more crops.
Thus, large farms and agribusinesses–which not only have the most acres of land, but also, because of their economies of scale, happen to be the nation’s most profitable farms–receive the largest subsidies.”
Wheeler went on to report family farmers receive little or nothing in subsidies. Instead of being a safety net for poor farmers, farm subsidies comprise America’s largest corporate welfare program.
Put an end to this loophole.
The deadline for sending to the USDA your comments on the farm payment limitation rule is the close of business today Monday, April 6, 2009.
Send a message to Acting Deputy Director Dan McGlynn
dan.mcglynn@wdc.usda.gov that you urge the USDA to close the “actively engaged in farming” management loophole in order to strengthen family farms, rural communities and help restore integrity to a program which is abundant with instances of abuse.
Tell the USDA to require those who qualify solely by providing active personal management and no personal labor to:
1. Provide at least half of the total management required to run the farm;
or
2. Provide at least half of the total management that would be necessary to conduct a farming operation commensurate in size with his/her requisite share of the operation.
Do it by the close of business today. Help the small farmers.
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