Crop subsidies found to help largest farms most

[Liberal_in_LA]

Crop subsidies found to help largest farms most
Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau

Wednesday, May 5, 2010
(05-05) 04:00 PDT Washington - -- Farm program reforms touted by congressional Democrats in 2008 were supposed to help small farmers stay competitive by reducing payments to giant farms. But that has not happened, according to figures released Tuesday.

Millions of dollars in federal subsidies continued to flow to large California growers of select crops such as rice and cotton last year, according to the Environmental Working Group, a consumer safety group and an opponent of crop subsidies whose database of government payments shows how much farmers were paid.

SJR Farming of Los Banos (Merced County) received more than $2 million last year, making it the fourth most heavily subsidized farm in the nation.

California's second-largest recipient, at $1.27 million, was Bowles Farming Co., a family operation also in Los Banos established by cattle baron Henry Miller and managed by his great-great-grandson, Philip Bowles of San Francisco, who strongly opposes the subsidies.

Like most California cotton growers, Bowles grows the branded Supima and Acala cotton and contends the government payments give an unfair competitive advantage to inferior cotton and less-efficient competitors.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/05/MN811D99NN.DTL#ixzz0n5Iqgrvb

[petersjo02]

1. In Iowa, think Chuck Grassley.

Each year his huge farming operation, with his son, gets something like $900,000 of federal subsidies.

[DJ13]

2. Well

DUH!