Faster horses
Well-known member
From ecomii
Big agribusiness was shaken a little over the Obama administration’s proposed cuts to farm subsidies.
The plan was to end direct payments to farms with more than $500,000 in gross sales. The cuts would save over $9 billion over a decade, and therefore is part of the administration’s overall budget plan.
The potential problem with this cut is that the $500,000 in sales may not take into account the amount that farms may actually spend to grow their yields, nor how much they make in profits.
Nor does it consider how much the farm may have lost due to poor crops or weather conditions for the growing season.
This means that medium-sized family farms could be hurt by subsidy cuts, and in a time when the country is looking to smaller, local farms to supply their food, the cuts have the potential to be devastating to this food revolution.
But the proposed legislation has met stiff opposition from the senate. Big agribusiness hold a lot of political purse strings, and many farm state representatives don’t want to aggravate their constituents. Therefore the proposal was defeated in the Senate last week.
Another major concern by agribusiness is the far-reaching cap and trade policies President Obama is trying to pass. Big farms create a lot of greenhouse gases and they may find themselves facing stiff fines, as well as subsidy cuts, if they are found in violation of emission limits.
There are concerns from both sides of the aisle on these cuts and for now these cuts have been defeated. The administration may come back with better defined numbers for profits and income, as well as emission caps.
As for the greenhouse gas emissions created by big farms, maybe they should be using those biogas digesters or some other form of gas emission reduction practices.
We definitely need some sort of change to the current subsidies going to big agribusiness growing acres and acres of corn or soybeans that really go to the feedlots or to make fertilizers.
But, in conjunction, we also need more help going to the smaller farms that create crops for smaller communities and grow more diverse food stuffs.
And of course, by going organic big farms won’t use nitrogen fertilizers that emit greenhouse gases, not to mention, making our food a lot safer and better tasting.
Big agribusiness was shaken a little over the Obama administration’s proposed cuts to farm subsidies.
The plan was to end direct payments to farms with more than $500,000 in gross sales. The cuts would save over $9 billion over a decade, and therefore is part of the administration’s overall budget plan.
The potential problem with this cut is that the $500,000 in sales may not take into account the amount that farms may actually spend to grow their yields, nor how much they make in profits.
Nor does it consider how much the farm may have lost due to poor crops or weather conditions for the growing season.
This means that medium-sized family farms could be hurt by subsidy cuts, and in a time when the country is looking to smaller, local farms to supply their food, the cuts have the potential to be devastating to this food revolution.
But the proposed legislation has met stiff opposition from the senate. Big agribusiness hold a lot of political purse strings, and many farm state representatives don’t want to aggravate their constituents. Therefore the proposal was defeated in the Senate last week.
Another major concern by agribusiness is the far-reaching cap and trade policies President Obama is trying to pass. Big farms create a lot of greenhouse gases and they may find themselves facing stiff fines, as well as subsidy cuts, if they are found in violation of emission limits.
There are concerns from both sides of the aisle on these cuts and for now these cuts have been defeated. The administration may come back with better defined numbers for profits and income, as well as emission caps.
As for the greenhouse gas emissions created by big farms, maybe they should be using those biogas digesters or some other form of gas emission reduction practices.
We definitely need some sort of change to the current subsidies going to big agribusiness growing acres and acres of corn or soybeans that really go to the feedlots or to make fertilizers.
But, in conjunction, we also need more help going to the smaller farms that create crops for smaller communities and grow more diverse food stuffs.
And of course, by going organic big farms won’t use nitrogen fertilizers that emit greenhouse gases, not to mention, making our food a lot safer and better tasting.