I have to agree with Melvin on this one, American farmers are big
hypocrites. We should all be so lucky to have the taxpayers finance
our chosen professions. Sorry for contributing to the off topic
postings in the group but the farm welfare racket really sticks in my
craw. I guess because most of them profess to be conservative "we need
smaller government...got to cut welfare for those damn single
mothers...gotta do something about all those big city welfare
queens...blah blah blah..." Consumate hypocrites.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,52293,00.html

MCVILLE, N.D. — North Dakota's farming season is notoriously
unreliable, with this year's May snowstorms pushing back planting in
most of the state.

Luckily, farmers who know they can't count on the weather are sure
they can count on the federal government.

"I'd be losing money every year without the government," said Terry
Naas, a local farmer.

On Wednesday, the Senate approved 64-35 a 10-year farm bill that ups
subsidies by 80 percent, returning them to pre-1996 levels, when the
Freedom to Farm Act was passed by Congress in an effort to reduce
subsidies on a variety of crops over the next six years.

The flow of federal dollars was supposed to end this year, but the
effort to wean farmers off subsidies has instead given way to $83
billion more over the next 10 years, most of it dispersed as payouts
to farmers.

The House passed an identical version of the bill last week on a
280-141 vote. It now goes to the president's desk for his signature.

Three years ago, Fox News visited Naas when he was on the verge of
leaving his family farm. He said had it not been for $300,000 he
received from the federal government since then, he would have quit
the business.

It's the same story for most North Dakota farmers. Government payments
to grow crops — or not grow them — is the only thing that
keeps farmers on the farm.

"How do I say it?" asked Eric Aasmundstad of the North Dakota Farm
Bureau. "It's absolutely as critical as blood running through your
veins."

The new farm bill has been described as "a little something for
everyone." Almost the entire array of American agricultural products
are now covered with some form of subsidy, and political analysts say
that could be because of the tight election year in 2002.

"Both the Democrats and the Republicans are vying for votes, and one
of the ways to vie for votes is to bring more money back home," said
Andrew Swenson at North Dakota State University's extension service.

Swenson said that politically-motivated growth in federal subsidies
will not be all bad. For one thing, food prices will stay low for
consumers.

But already the new crop of subsidies has farmers doing their
arithmetic.

"They lowered the loan rate on the soybeans and that was what I was
going to plant the most of this year," Naas said.

Naas will then benefit from the late snow covering his farm. It bought
him the time needed for Congress to pass the bill so he can calculate
which crops will yield him the most government money come harvest
time.