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Edited on Fri Feb-11-05 05:17 PM by geniph
that poor folks are better off paying retail via food stamps than getting their benefits wholesale via the commodities distribution programs.
The farmers initially supported the program - they thought they'd be getting more money for their surplus produce. That, in fact, turned out to be true for the large firms you mention - Conagra, especially - but it most certainly was NOT the case for the small truck farmers. (My dad was one of those small farmers who did better when the government bought the excess.)
Everyone was sold a bill of goods on the food stamp idea, but adding for-profit middlemen in the cycle benefited only the middlemen.
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