Agriculture: Downsizing The Federal Government

[DubtownPong785]

This entire video is a bunch of bull shit. It's uninformed citizens like you that ruin this government. Fine, farmers will stop growing food. See how long you survive without the food American farmers produce.

[GreenGoSolar]

♥ #Liberty ☼ #Libertad ♫ #Freiheit ☺

[CornerTalker]

But isn't sugar from Haiti and Dominican Rep. worked by slave labor?

[heyzeusful]

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ Sallie James ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

[MsElizabethFernandez]

de -population programme , no food can't live farmers cant organically farm due to lack skills.

[TheZeolson]

CATO doesn't tell me how or what to think. I do my own research and Sallie James is just plain wrong. However, if you don't like your food choices here, please feel free to ship all your food in from another country--it's certainly a viable option with the global economy we have now.

[kev3d]

@TheZeolson Care to be specific? In any case, you miss the point because import tariffs prevent lower cost food items from entering the US in the first place. Have you ever wondered why American Coca Cola is sweetened with corn syrup and not sugar like in other countries? Foreign sugar has a tariff and corn is domestically subsidized. Therefore a market distortion is introduced counter to what consumers may choose for themselves.

[selfrealizedexile]

Sallie James is wifey material. lawl

[FRSFreeStateNow]

Agriculture subsidy's represent 40B$ a year out of the Federal Budget that comes out of General Revenue. They need to be either reformed and paid for or eliminated.

[snooch1975]

exactly no the subsities going to huge arga buisness the small farmer is pretty much extinct

[ready4youall]

Farm subsidies were created to incentivise farmers not to grow certain foods at certain times to avoid the foodstuffs price crashes like those that occurred during the great depression. Cato seems to conveniently forget that.

[bldgy]

@ready4youall And do you remember why we faced such troublesome over-production in the first place? My guess is no...

[ready4youall]

@bldgy Yes, because greedy (or desperate) farmers thought they could make a quicker buck by mass producing certain cash crops that were trendy at the time. Leaving basic necessity foodstuffs in the hands of the free market is disasterous and the events of the 20s and 30s are a reminder of what happens when short term individualistic gain is weighed more heavily over the general good for the society.

[bldgy]

@ready4youall Actually, no. WWI. The US government encouraged all who had farmable land to produce crops to help support the war effort. Once the war was over, all of these people who wouldn't have been farming otherwise already had everything necessary to farm, the land was ready for farming, so they continued to do so.

Government intervention caused it, and unless the government encourages people to start farming again, it likely won't happen...

[bldgy]

@ready4youall Unless you really think an overwhelming majority of people who have farmable land are going to spring for ridiculously expensive seeds, combines, pesticides, and all of the other necessities to be competitive in our agriculture market today. The fact is there are people getting these benefits who have neither the inclination to farm, nor suitable land to really make a difference.

[Wormtail81]

The difference in employment of industry vs. regulator is deeply interesting.

[Surhotchaperchlorome]

Also get rid of the insane practice of paying farmers to NOT grow food.

[djdnauk1977]

watch "food inc" the documentary film

[HeadTater]

Go read some books by Joel Salatin. He's a farmer against subsidies. He runs a small family farm. He's a libertarian. He supports natural, but not "organic" food and less regulation. Good stuff.

[nhojaulegion]

why can't I hear any sound from the video?

[ForTehNguyen]

go watch the documentary "King Corn" to see how screwed up the agricultural market is

[Surhotchaperchlorome]

"Agriculture is easily the most distorted sector"

They clearly have forgotten the financial markets (bailouts & inflation), and health care (medicare, medicaid, HMO's, etc).

[Surhotchaperchlorome]

And while we're at it, downsize all of government period.

ALL of it, from State, Federal to even Local is far too big.

[k1awdttt]

I love they got music from Kodo :)

Downsizing is a great idea, better, privatize the government :P Some corporations are treating their employees and consumers with RESPECT, unlike a certain ruling body that screws everyone.

[Surhotchaperchlorome]

The Agricultural market = epic fucking fail.

[tiger4484au]

I work in agriculture. They mention 95 billion going to agriculture. True, thats the budget of the USDA, but 75% of this goes for food stamps- something that has nothing to do with helping agriculture. If you break it down, only 4% of the USDA budget goes for subsidies to farmers.

[mxdc2000]

Regardless if the consumer is government subsidized (food stamps) or the farmer is subsidized it still boils down to government spending and lots more cost with behind the scenes bureaucracy.

[moooooo132]

The issue I have with farm subsidies isn't the subsidies themselves, its the people who don't know how farmers are actually using them. Coming from a farm background, and living on a farm that receives money from the government, I can GUARENTEE that that money is NOT going into the farmers' bank accounts. I strongly suggest that people who don't have any clue about the agriculture industry go to an actual educated farmer and find out just how things are run in the real life.

[schlaflosig]

Well, your business shouldn't rely on the money stolen from taxpayers pockets by government.

[moooooo132]

and you shouldn't rely on your mother to keep breast feeding you either.

[schlaflosig]

Taxpayers are not farmers' mother, and there's no reason to steal their money.

[ivyem23]

great video, this is a huge task though. education of the reality of our situation should be a priority... i'm trying to do my part!

[arkadyka]

*sigh* so true...

but we are light years away from implementing any of the suggestions put forth by the video. In fact we are going towards bigger gov't and more regulation.

[kevina047]

Good stuff to raise awareness, Kenro199x is right both Republicans and Democrats are to blame.

[Kenro199x]

Awesome 5/5

[BigTimeZissou]

Good stuff. Unfortunately, democrats (and some republicans) are addicted to big government.

[unodepoalli]

CATO RULES!!!