There really aren't ANY family farms of any significance any more. It's a fake issue at worst. At best it's important to a tiny tiny slice of the populace.

...in the U S of A before class-war agitprop will be very effective. Too many Americans still think it's the zenith of the American Way to be rich and spit on those less fortunate...and they think that THEY, or their children, will be one of the rich, by and by, as soon as they buy that winning lottery ticket. This is the great con perpetrated by the rich, mostly through mass-media, that every American can be rich..enough Americans actually believe this hooey that class-war agitprop is a tricky business.

Now, if the shrinking middle class gets really squeezed in the next few years, who knows?

Hooray for Oxfam. I don't care much that the spiel is simplified -- the "honest, hard working farmer" image has been misused for a much longer period by dishonest _supporters_ of the farm bill (and of the estate tax repeal, for that matter). Current agricultural policy is a disaster on so many levels--if it takes some good old fashioned class war imagery to shake it up, bring it on.

If you want a full dose of this sort of propaganda, check out Dean Baker's "The Conservative Nanny State". You can download the book in PDF format from his website.

I don't see the Democrats doing a lot currently to satisfy the will of the people in other legislative areas (war spending, telco, wiretapping, etc.). And Democrats are just as willing to take lobbyist money as Republicans are, they just aren't as organized about it as the K Street Project was.

The electorate may not like subsidies to Big Farm, but politicians D and R know where the real money comes from and what it means when it arrives in their election campaign account(s).

When Archer Daniels Midland calls, Steny Hoyer answers the phone.

Let's burn it all down.

Interesting headline, but I am under the impression that the class war has been ongoing for quite some time now. Funny that people only seem to notice that a class war is being waged when the working classes choose to defend themselves...

You can't have a discussion about the Class War without discussing the Federal Reserve System and US monetary policy. When it comes to the Class War, the Fed is the heart of the beast. All of this money comes from somewhere, and it ain't from taxes.

I know of one sugar beet farmer in Minnesota - one of the top 5 recipients of Farm subsidies in the state- who hasn't worked 1 day in the fields in 20 years. Why? Because there are no fields. he leases some lands, signs a contract with the government to not grow sugarbeets on the land he rents and collects his paycheck. Then he sits around on his ass and complains about people on welfare and all the liberal whiners wanting handouts.

Makes me want to scream.

Funny you mentioned your story, RuthAlice. Growing up a neighbor (back then anyone within 5 miles was considered a neightbor) was paid to not milk his cows. So he moved his herd to his parent's land to continue to milk them while still receiving subsidies. As I remember, every election cycle this was the same man who lead the local charge of railing against unfair taxes and goverment telling everyone what to do.

I have always assumed that this famer was atypical of most farmers receiving subsidies. I am sure there are a few farmers that cheat the system. I am sure there are a lot more that game the system. But I believe that most are honest.

Just simply do away with the whole damned farm subsidy program.

However have you ever noticed how many of our unemployables, oops I mean senators and congressmen/girls receive farm subsidies? Have you ever noticed the lack of corn fields in the Sutton Place area in NY and yet there are farmers there receiving subsidies?

For the hot info on farm subsidies Google Farm Subsidy Database. It'll make you liberal urban folk so outraged that you'll forget how much you detest our president and how much you crave our failure in the middle east and how much you wish for the Gitmo detainees to be free to live in New York City.

I totally second biogirl's comments above. Even if the ad campaign shuns the other disastrous effects of the US Farm Bill, hopefully it'll get people to start thinking about these subsidies. Your article about it is a perfect example of that ; let's hope the momentum continues.

For further reading about the farm bill, Michael Pollan had a good piece about it in the NY Times a few months back. Search for "You Are What You Grow" in the search field of their homepage or copy/paste the following link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/magazine/22wwlnlede.t.html

Just another rip on the last Republican Farm Act by those who seek an intensification of the last Republican authored Freedom to Farm Act. This article, like others recently, parrot the same preposterous talking points, directing the reader to object to ANY farm program. This latest is especially cute, including a reference to an anti-farmer ad which presents a prissy male model type and claims that he is a farmer. I'm sure that he, like the author of this article, has never visited a farm.

Dryland hard winter wheat is a large part of the US grain crop. I know a number of large farm wheat farmers, around 4-5,000 acres each. All are family farms. Most of these "big farmers" are actively involved in the farm work, although other family and/or hired hands do a lot of it. A couple are in their 70's and no longer do the heavy work.

Rental costs for dryland winter wheat is about $35/acre in our area and yields are about 32 bu/acre. If one is purchasing land, his land costs would be higher than this. Aside from land costs, other production costs can run from $50-60/acre. If one harvests 32 bu at the target price of $4/bu that is $128/acre. The government "subsidy" (originating in the 1999 farm act) is $14/acre. This relatively meager and unnecessary "subsidy" has defaced the image of the american farmer, rendering him sort of the O. J. Simpson of Agriculture. Seriously, no one is going to get rich from these subsidies. Neither are they going to result in inflated land prices. Neither are they going to lead to overproduction. Neither are they going to deflate commodity values in Southern Angorastan.

To receive ANY wheat subsidy, one must sign up for the wheat program. One must certify the crops produced on the base acreage of your farm. This is done with your local Farm Service Agency, which makes spot-checks to confirm that what you have claimed is true. This is not to say that one cannot steal from the government, but there are risks involved in commiting fraud. It's similar to a physician claiming to have treated a bunch of non-existent Medicare patients. Might get by with it.........maybe not......

I just hate seeing stuff this bad and inacurate in Salon, or the WaPo or the NYTimes, and seeing comments such as "family farms no longer exist", or "we should just do away with the farm program". The overwhelming majority of our populace seems to no longer have an awareness of what a farm is or why it is or how it is, and the sources that they rely on for information are failing them.

Well, enough of this rant. If you have not guessed, I am a wheat farmer, pretty small sized, family farm type. The most I have farmed is short of 1,000 acres, currently less than half that. I support a return to the farm program policies of the pre Freedom to Farm Act.....where there were no "subsidies", but there were price supports that were linked to measures intended to regulate production. Participation was voluntary, but farmers could not have the security of the price support without pledging compliance with any prescribed production limitations. Incidentally, with this farm program, and with current commodity prices, the cost to the government would be approximately.....Zero........